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Jeter? A Star In Stripes Forever!

Daily News, February 24, 1999

by Lisa Olson

TAMPA

Sometimes the Yankee braintrust is slapped upside its collective head with a no-brainer. Trading for Roger Clemens was one of those times. Now is another. Because long after the rest of the players had showered and left for lunch yesterday, here was the club's true present and future, signing autographs and causing children to smile and women to swoon and men to nod with admiration. Here was Derek Jeter, pride of the Yankees.

If the Yanks make only one off-the-field move this season, let it be this: They should lock Jeter up for life. For it would be sacrilege to see him in another uniform, hustling his way on the basepaths and into another city's heart. No Yankee player ever has been declared untradeable, not even Joe DiMaggio. An exception needs to be made, fast, because guys like Jeter are as rare as snow in June.

Derek Jeter would love to stretch out his tenure with the Yankees.

"I'd consider it an honor," Jeter said when someone brought up the notion of him wearing pinstripes forever, not just for three more seasons. "But I don't sit around and say they owe me because it's not true."

Allow us to say it for him then. It is not just his stats, which happen to be as gaudy as any shortstop's, or the two World Series rings he's earned in his three years with the Yankees. It's the way he does everything with dignity and class, not because he's a phony but because that's how he was raised. He's the first to sign up for charity events, the last to say no to almost any request. We'd bet our second-born that for as long as Jeter plays, he will never think it cool to flip one-fingered salutes or use obscenities while the cameras are rolling. His parents taught him better.

"Growing up, they always told me to treat people the way you want to be treated," Jeter said with a shrug, as if this was every athlete's golden rule. "Why would I want to do anything different?"

Last week Jeter and the only professional team he has ever known went to arbitration, the Yankees "losing" when they were ordered to pay the 24-year-old $5 million, up from his $750,000 salary of last season. Forget the zeros. There's no way a team can lose if it still gets to see Jeter pulling on the pinstripes every day, as happy as a puppy with a new bone.

"He's so fun to watch," center fielder Bernie Williams said from one locker down. "Even if they had ruled against him, Derek would still be thrilled to be a Yankee. It means so much to him."

Early last season the Yankees offered Jeter $31 million for five years, which in this market is akin to mulch. Signing him to a long-term deal is not currently a pressing matter. And while general manager Brian Cashman didn't seem keen to address the idea of declaring any player untradeable — which is much different than the no-trade clauses David Cone and Paul O'Neill have — he did admit other suitors would be loopy to even pick up the phone.

"They rightfully assume we're not going to talk about Derek Jeter," Cashman said.

In a world of entitlement, where athletes are insulted by outrageous amounts of money and demand perks like private planes, Jeter is a gem of an exception. He still addresses his manager as "Mr. Torre," still drives the red Mitsubishi he bought with his first Yankee paycheck when he was 18. True, Armani supplies his threads — "I do have some taste," he joked — and he recently splurged on a Mercedes, not that you would know it.

"He says it's too pretty to drive," said catcher Jorge Posada. Yesterday morning the two met for breakfast at a diner, Jeter pulling up in his dirty old car with 70,000 miles on it. They had scrambled eggs, French toast and orange juice, and when the check came Jeter pushed it across the table.

"Arbitration didn't change him a bit. He still makes me pay," Posada said.

Jeter won't change, no matter what happens in the future. As a kid he remembers admiring the way Dave Winfield cared for people, through his foundation and his actions. That image stuck, as much as any baseball move.

"You know, if this is a dream I don't want to wake up. This is everything I wanted to do," Jeter said. "The way we're treated, we're treated like kings. If all I have to do is be nice to someone in return, well, that's an honor. If you're looking for someone with complaints about this job, I have none."

And then he said this: "If I leave New York, it's because they get rid of me."

A no-brainer, across the board.

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