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Deep, Deep, Deep

Jeter's Retort To Fens Fans: 2 HRs, 2 Ws

Newsday, June 21, 2000

by David Lennon

Boston-It would be difficult to find a more fan-friendly player than Derek Jeter. The Yankees shortstop often chats with people in the front row, even during games, and is just as popular in places such as Cleveland and Baltimore as he is in the Bronx.

Not at Fenway Park, however. Jeter adopts more of a bunker mentality in Boston, a city that has room in its heart for only one shortstop, and that of course is Nomar Garciaparra. But the anti-Jeter campaign goes beyond the fact that he plays for the Yankees.

It became a full-fledged crusade last season when Jeter and Garciaparra were locked in a tight race for the starter's job on the All-Star team, which was at Fenway. Garciaparra edged Jeter during the final days of the election, despite Yankees allegations of ballot-box stuffing, and Jeter took the loss in stride, playfully imitating Garciaparra's signature toe-tapping in the batter's box during the game.

But Jeter's mood toward the city has darkened since that night because of some offensive behavior. A few combative fans yelled expletives at Jeter as he played catch with Ricky Ledee yesterday afternoon, and there was even a more vulgar variation of "Jeter Stinks" scrawled onto the overhang of the visitors' dugout that could easily be seen from the bench. "They hate me here," Jeter said before last night's game.

If so, they despise him even more now. Jeter tormented his Boston pals again last night, drilling his second home run in as many games as the Yankees beat Pedro Martinez and the Red Sox, 3-0. The fact that his seventh homer this season came off Martinez made it a stunning blow, even to Jeter himself. His .269 batting average against Martinez was decent, but he had struck out 12 times in those 26 at-bats and never homered.

Jeter ended that streak in the fourth inning when he launched a fastball into the leftfield screen to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. Martinez, who had allowed only three home runs this season in 91 1/3 innings, was so miffed that he buzzed Jeter with his first pitch to him in the sixth, but the shortstop shook it off and didn't attach any special significance to the brushback.

"He always pitches me inside," Jeter said. "If he wanted to hit me, he would have hit me." There isn't much that Jeter isn't hitting lately. He was batting .266 when he was put on the disabled list May 19 with an abdominal strain. Since his May 27 return, Jeter is hitting .417 (40-for-96) and has boosted his average to .332 from that 21-game surge.

"When things don't go good for him, I know it won't last long because he has an immense amount of confidence in himself," manager Joe Torre said.

For comparison's sake, Garciaparra, hitting .391, didn't have such a bad night, either.

He went 3-for-4 with a double, and his only shot at driving in a run was erased when Jose Offerman failed in a clumsy attempt to knock the ball loose from catcher Jorge Posada in the third. Garciaparra also made his seventh error-Jeter has eight-when he couldn't handle Jim Leyritz' routine grounder in the seventh.