Baseball Weekly, April 28, 1999
By Lisa Winston
DEREK JETER
AGE: 24 --
POSITION: Shortstop --
YEARS IN THE MAJOR LEAGUES: 3
BEST FRIENDS IN BASEBALL: Alex Rodriguez, Gerald Williams, Jorge Posada
PLAYERS I MOST ADMIRED GROWING UP: Dave Winfield, Don Mattingly, Willie Randolph, Barry Larkin, Cal Ripken, Ozzie Smith.
PITCHER I HATE TO FACE MOST: Jeff Nelson, now a Yankee. "I only faced him twice and I think I saw six pitches and was done."
THE THING I LOVE ABOUT THE GAME: "I just love the competition. It's a job, obviously, but I have a great time out there."
The Yankees have had heroes and goats, sinners and ... well, Derek Jeter might look like a choir boy but that smile gives it away: No saint here.
"I think I get the rap for everything that happens," says Jeter, the reputed chief instigator of the Yankee clubhouse. "But, of course, it's never my fault." Of course.
This comes from the man who was feinting karate kicks to the backside of his neighbor during stretching drills at the Stadium last weekend.
Jeter, just 24, already wwns two World Series rings. He was hitting .415 through Sunday, and was leading the American League in batting average, hits (27), runs (20) and slugging percentage (.862). More important, his Yankees were 12-5 and tied with Cleveland for the best record in baseball. The defending World Champions are a lot like Jeter -- aggressive on the field, lively off, working men looking for an edge. Jeter, coming off a .324, 19-home run, 84 RBI season in '98, has defined how he had to get better for '99.
"I'm swinging at better pitches. I'm more selective," says Jeter, who struck out more than 100 times in each of his first three full seasons. "I want to cut down on my strikeouts and walk more, and to do that you have to have patience. A lot of times, I get myself out by swinging at bad pitches."
Considering he grew up in Kalamazoo, Mich., it would have made sense if Jeter had cheered for the Detroit Tigers. But he rooted for the Yankees, spending his summers with his mom's family in New Jersey and idolizing Don Mattingly and Dave Winfield.
Now, the '96 Rookie of the Year arguably is the most popular Yankee. He has appeared on Seinfeld and MTV, was one of People magazine's 50 most beautiful people and he once dated singer Mariah Carey.
Strawberry compared the World Series parades of the '86 Mets and the '96 Yankees by noting there were a million additional people at the Yankee event, adding, "And they were all young girls screaming for Jeter." Jeter doesn't hide from his celebrity. He has lived on the Upper East Side of Manhattan since 1995. And he shops for his own groceries, though it isn't clear why.
"I can't cook at all," says Jeter, "so what I do is I get a bunch of stuff, put it on my counters and then, when it goes bad, I go shopping again. I can cook French toast; that's about it."
Luckily, he lives within walking distance of restaurants that stay open late, with staffs that manage to keep him and his friends from being bombarded with autograph requests while their burgers get cold.
Among his closest friends are Yankees catcher Jorge Posada, former teammate Gerald Williams (now with the Atlanta Braves) and Seattle Mariners shortstop Alex Rodriguez -- as well as former minor league teammates R.D. Long and Sean Twitty.
He stays in regular touch with Rodriguez and Williams via the telephone. Williams took Jeter under his wing when he first came up to the majors and still is a big brother and mentor to him.
Jeter first met Rodriguez, on the other hand, when the latter was still in high school and Jeter had just been drafted in the first round by the Yankees. "We were introduced by a mutual friend, because he had a lot of questions about the draft, so we got together at a Michigan-Miami baseball game," Jeter says. "Then we were both at the rookie development program put on by Major League Baseball, and that's when we started hanging out together."
It's still a long-distance relationship, though. "During the season, basically, you rely on the phone," he says, adding with a laugh, "but Alex only calls me when he's doing well. So now that he's on the DL, I haven't heard from him for a while."
He likes the friendly rivalry that has emerged with A-Rod and Boston shortstop Nomar Garciaparra.
"It's good for the sport, and it helps you as an individual," he says. "You're looking over your shoulder to see how they are doing and that inspires you to do better yourself. Alex is going to hit more home runs than the rest of us. The best you can really do is try to be the best all around.
"I'm not a home-run hitter. My job is to get on base and score runs. Defense always comes first. Offense is a bonus for me."
It's a bonus that he doesn't leave to chance. He disappears 15 minutes before game time to the indoor batting cage at Yankee Stadium for a regular session of soft-toss with coach Chris Chambliss.
"I wouldn't call it a superstition, but it's a routine I go through before every game," he says.
Jeter is a natural fit for the Yankees. Last year manager Joe Torre noted that, "He bounces back really well.
And he adds a mischievous twist to the team -- whether he is pouring champagne on the head of George Steinbrenner during the clubhouse World Series celebration or rubbing interim manager Don Zimmer's bald head prior to his first at-bat each game.
And while he still refers to Torre as "Mr. Torre," he calls Zimmer, simply, "Zim." It's not from lack of respect, though --quite the contrary.
"He's been around the game for 50 years and he really helps me a lot with his advice," Jeter says. "As far as their style of managing, they have the same philosophy, so that hasn't been a big adjustment for us."
So it's clear why Jeter is mentioned as the player most likely to be the first Yankee captain since Don Mattingly.
"I'm not afraid of failure," Jeter has said. "Once you're had some success, you can be happy, but you can't be satisfied."
Sounds a lot like the way the '99 Yankees play ball.
Contributing: John Delcos of The Journal News in Westchester, N.Y.