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Soon to be Captain Jeter; Young Star Taking More Leadership

Cincinnati Enquirer, March 12, 2000

TAMPA, Fla. - It was an iceberg gesture, seemingly insignificant at the top, not costing Derek Jeter anything more than 10 minutes, but having greater impact beneath the surface.

The 10 minutes were part cliche and revelation, part accountability and leadership.

It was a brief, yet subtle demonstration as to why Jeter will someday be captain of the New York Yankees, carrying a title once held by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, Thurman Munson and Graig Nettles, Willie Randolph and Don Mattingly.

It was a Chamber of Commerce day in Florida last Monday, sunny and bright, but with storm clouds in Winter Haven.

The Yankees had lost their fifth straight game to open the exhibition schedule, 15-1 to Cleveland, and owner George Steinbrenner's stomach was churning.

The beat reporters covering the Yankees needed a statement from a player, not so much a Steinbrenner rebuttal, but an assessment as to why the back-to-back champions were playing poorly and sluggishly.

They needed the statement to come from Jeter.

Jeter was on the team bus, cool and comfortable.

A bottle of cold water followed by a nap during the hour ride to Tampa were in his immediate future.

Jeter didn't need to get off the bus to answer questions, and in doing so, hear the screeching pleas for his autograph.

But, at the request through a member of the club's media relations staff, he did.

"It's the least you can do . . . answer questions," Jeter said. "I don't have any problems with that. . . . leader has to be there all the time. He can't be there just when things go well."

"It wasn't so much the words, that it was early and October attitudes are developed in March, but that they came from Jeter," Mattingly said.

It shows Jeter acknowledges his growing role as team spokesman, as a lightning rod for comment.

"If you're a leader, there are times when you need to step up and say something," Mattingly said.  "You're not concerned about wins and losses down here and he knew that. It's something, that as a leader, he felt he should say."

Munson wouldn't have, as his was a different personality and there were other voices in that clubhouse, Randolph said.

However, in today's game - 20-plus years later - there's greater media scrutiny and winning teams must perform under a microscope.

Entering his fifth season, Jeter understands his words carryweight.

"Derek gets it more than a lot of players do," Randolph said. "He understands he needs to carry himself in a certain way and he falls into it."

Dealing with the press, especially in New York, is a part of the job description for a superstar, especially one considered to be a captain. But, there's more to it than looking at the scoreboard and yelling the number of outs. It is having an awareness of when to prod a teammate as not to embarrass him, when to speak for the team, when to defend a teammate, when to pull a struggling teammate aside to give him a pat on the back or kick in the pants.

"It's not a rah-rah, 'Let the whole world see me lead this team,' type of thing," said designated hitter Jim Leyritz, who played with the

Yankees during Mattingly's captaincy from 1991-95, and was with Jeter the rookie in 1996, and is with him today as he blossoms into a superstar.

"A captain isn't a cheerleader; he's a guy who leads by example," Leyrtiz said. "When he was injured, when he wasn't playing, when he was taken out of a game, (Mattingly) was always around the bench, around the young guys trying to help. Whether it would be a little thing in his swing, or a little thing defensively, a certain way to pitch a hitter, Cap was there to help.

"If you weren't on the team, you wouldn't see that. To me, that's a quiet leadership . . . a guy who leads by example.

"Derek has a lot of those qualities. As the years go by, he'll develop into a guy that will be looked at even more. But, it's going to be one-on-one with another player.

"It's the type of leadership people outside this team won't see as much as those who are inside do."

Mattingly never sought to be a captain, it was just something that because of his stature, then-manager Stump Merrill felt he deserved and the Yankees needed at the time.

Mattingly said Jeter can handle the responsibility.

"He's had a lot of success on the field, and he's been able to deal with a lot of different situations," Mattingly said. "He's shown leadership in a lot of different ways. To me, everything I've seen, he has it. And, it starts with being yourself."

"In some ways, Derek is already our captain," pitcher David Cone said. "He's our energy. Everybody feeds off Derek's enthusiasm and energy."