Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!

Derek Provides Some Timely Pop

Daily News, April 27, 2000

The Yankees are still not in the business of delivering fireworks. They managed to win one yesterday, Millionaires 2, Minnesota 0, but too much of the game was like an afternoon in the library.

For five inings, almost everything they hit was muffled inside a glove. They had two singles but collecting singles — 18 straight singles — was all they'd done since Sunday. They had lost four of their last five and every bit of ballpark noise in the city was coming out of Queens.

The second inning, after the first six batters couldn't get the ball out of the infield, Shane Spencer lifted a no-problem fly ball to center field. The crowd exploded. Who could blame them? It was their first whiff of salami after too many days of nothing but applesauce.

Jeter's 6th-inning homer snapped Yankee string of 18 straight singles. Those people who worship at the shrine of all-sports radio, as do I and every right-thinking person I know, were becoming increasingly impatient. Where was the power? These are supposed to be the Bombers, not the zombies. Baseballs are flying out of stadiums everywhere. Why not River Avenue?

When the Yankees came to bat in the sixth inning, there wasn't a run on the scoreboard. The home team was making it possible for pitcher Joe Mays, who began the day with a size 9 earned run average, to think he might win a game this season.

Luckily, Derek Jeter was at the plate. Does anybody keep statistics on who does the best thing when that thing is very much needed? Probably not, but it doesn't matter. We know it's the smiling Yankee on the cereal box. You need a run, a big play in the field, an item for the gossip page, just wait for the shortstop.

"Even his rookie year," said Joe Torre, "everything started and finished with him."

This time, Jeter was sharing the same hole with every one of the Yankees. Twenty games into the season he had 10 RBI, two homers, was batting a quiet .312. His first time up, his swing had produced a grounder that traveled a very few feet from the plate. The catcher threw him out. Jeter ended the third inning with a double play.

In the sixth, the count to him was 2-2, and Mays tried a changeup. "Two strikes, I'm just trying to keep the ball in play," Jeter said. He's been hitting too many grounders to the left side. He's better off, he said, when he starts punching stuff into the opposite field. Like that high 2-2 changeup.

Jeter sent the ball into the right-field seats. Not too far back, but far enough. There it is, in the box score, a home run. A lead.

The same inning, two out, Tino Martinez slammed a huge home run into the bleachers. His first in almost three weeks. That was it for the offense. Andy Pettitte and the bullpen kept the Twins in zeros and Torre was able to say later, "We weren't swinging from our butts, weren't over-swinging. We were making contact and we had the right approach. We need that to be successful. We're not a home run-hitting team."

They weren't any kind of hitting team until Jeter showed the way. Yeah, it's April, it's just the beginning, but May is next, and before you know it the Jets will have lost five straight and people will be begging for more Tuna.

The Yanks need to get production from the first two hitters, Chuck Knoblauch and Jeter. Last year, they were major producers. This year, Knoblauch, hurting, may get back into the lineup tomorrow. It's taking a little while but not to worry: Jeter will be Jeter.

"When the one-two hitters get on, it helps," Torre says. When they don't, the rest of the batting order starts to think they have to use their strongest muscles. "We fall behind, three, four runs," and the middle of the lineup "tries to do more than they normally do," the manager points out. "Everybody's trying to hit three-run homers. We're not that kind of club."

Let the rest of the world pound the baseball into the parking lots and beyond, Torre likes to think "small ball" is what wins for his team. "Thinking small has been good for us. Patience is one of our assets," he says.

But the microphone-waving population can't help themselves. They see nothing but singles, and the frightening possibility that the mighty Yanks will be swept by a small-market team. More than once, Torre was asked if he felt there was a sense of urgency about this game?

The manager kept a straight face. "It's a long season," he reminded them. "It's important to win. But urgent is reaching a little." He gives them this much: "We haven't been playing as well as we're capable of playing."

That's why Jeter hit the homer.