Yankees' Jeter Lacks Only One Singular Distinction: Team Captain
NJ Star-Ledger, October 26, 1999
By Brad Parks

As an exercise in digging into Derek Jeter's psyche a little bit, he is posed with a hypothetical question: If disaster struck and he was forced to choose just three things to keep from his house, what would they be?

This doesn't include people or pets inside the five-bedroom, Mediterranean-style villa in Tampa, Fla., he purchased after the 1997 season, just every last possession Jeter can call his own.

So what are they going to be, Derek?

"My World Series rings," he begins. Two rings. But count it as one item since he keeps them in the same place. Next?

Hem. Haw. Hem. "My briefcase, I guess," Jeter says. "It's got all my phone numbers."

And the third thing? Jeter stares into space. If this were a cartoon, you would be able to see a bubble full of grinding gears floating over his head. It's not that there are too many things and he's trying to decide among myriad precious possessions or self-indulgent memorabilia.

The truth is, there really isn't a third thing. Two of the five bedrooms are empty anyway. He's not worried. Because the focus of Derek Jeter's life is baseball. It's not that he does nothing else -- he golfs, goes out to eat, parties every now and again -- but there's no question where his priorities lie.

Baseball is the No. 1 thing in Jeter's life. And it's not like this is some recent development now that the World Series is here. Baseball has been No. 1 for a long time now.

As Jeter, who is originally from Michigan, put it: "I didn't move to Tampa for the night life. I moved so I could be close to our training complex."

So now the question remains: Will Derek Jeter be named the No. 1 Yankee?

There have been 10 captains in Yankees history, fewer than there have been World Series titles (24) for baseball's most successful franchise. They have been men like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Thurman Munson and Don Mattingly, all of whom have their numbers retired and their plaques in monument park.

So this is not something the franchise takes lightly, which is why the Yankees have spent more years of their history without a captain (65) than with one (31). Some would say this particular team doesn't need one either.

Still, of all the Yankees who have been integral parts of the Yankees' late-1990s dynasty, Jeter gets the most mention when the talk turns to naming the next captain, even more than nine-year veteran Bernie Williams.

So is Jeter next?

The question warrants asking now for two reasons. First, Jeter's future with the Yankees is a question of central importance during this off-season. He is not eligible for free agency until the end of the 2001 season, but the Yankees might be able to save some money by signing him to a long-term deal now, and have hinted they could do that.

The Yankees could lock Jeter in pinstripes for the next 10 years and name him captain in one shot, and it would make for a pretty happy winter for their fans. Second, and more immediately, Yankees captains have often been defined by their performance in the postseason -- and Jeter is in the midst of another great one. He is hitting .400 and leading the team in hits (16), runs (nine) and on-base percentage (.467), just as he did in the regular season.

For his career, his postseason average in 173 at-bats is .329, 11 points higher than his career regular-season average.

"I don't approach the World Series any differently than I do the regular season," Jeter said. "Obviously everything is scrutinized a lot more. But as far as how I go about my business on the field, I don't change a thing."

This is the side of Jeter that just about everyone likes for captain. He turned 25 in the middle of this season, but he seems every bit as mature as the veterans who populate this Yankees team.

"The guy pretty much owns New York," David Cone said. "He could stick around during the off-season, make a ton of money doing endorsement stuff and have a pretty good time going out all the time. But he doesn't. He goes down to Tampa to work out. You're looking at a guy who has hit .349 this season and could really dig himself, but he hasn't. I know I didn't have that much maturity at his age."

It's something that has been noticed around the clubhouse.

"He's become someone people watch, even at his age," Jim Leyritz said. "They watch him because of his talent, but also because of the way he works. He's like Donnie in that respect. Donnie had all the talent in the world, yet he never stopped working. Jeter has picked up on that."

And it's something Jeter takes no small amount of pride in.

"It always makes me a little mad when people say it's come easily to me," Jeter said. "In no way shape or form has this come easily to me. Those people who say its come easily didn't see me struggle in the minor leagues. They don't see all the work that went into it. It came quickly -- that's a better word for it -- but it didn't come easily."

Joe Torre and others credit Jeter's parents for their son's unusual maturity. Dr. Charles Jeter, a substance-abuse therapist who now runs Jeter's Turn 2 Foundation, and Dorothy Jeter always taught their son to be humble, be thankful for his gifts and above all to act responsibly.

He seemed to arrive with the Yankees that way -- "Hatched out of an egg ready to go in '96" is how general manager Brian Cashman likes to put it -- and skipped the kind of growing pains most rookies experience.

"The first game of the postseason in '96, he made an error, leading to the winning run for Texas," Torre said. "The question from most of the media was, 'Are you going to talk to him?' I didn't know the answer at that time. That night on the way out of the ballpark, he peeked in and said, 'Mr. Torre, get some sleep, tomorrow's an important game.' I realized right then I didn't have to talk to him. Everything was OK."

There is also a loose side to Jeter, of course, the side that delights in entering the dugout, swiping 68-year-old bench coach Don Zimmer's cap and rubbing his bald head, or the side that always needles Chili Davis and Darryl Strawberry about their advanced age. Yet Jeter's playfulness, however well intended, is taken by some as a sign that he is not yet ready for the captain's job -- as the most visible reminder that he's still only 25.

Never did it get him in more trouble than in August, when Jeter was seen jokingly sparring with buddy Alex Rodriguez during a particularly vicious brawl between the Yankees and the Mariners. As Jeter and Rodriguez fooled around, Joe Girardi took a couple of punches and Zimmer was knocked over and nearly trampled. Afterward, Chad Curtis approached Jeter in a clubhouse full of reporters and exchanged some loud and heated words

"I like Derek," Curtis said. "I think he's a terrific player. I just want him to reach his full potential. He's one of the top 10 players in the league right now, so should we leave him alone? No, we should try to help him become the best player in the league. That was my intent there. It was not 'Derek, I don't like you.' It was 'Derek, what I saw showed some inconsistencies with the player and the person I know, and I think you're capable of better.' People say I wanted Derek to get in a fight. That's absurd. I wouldn't want him to get hurt."

It was widely spun as first significant hit on the Jeter-for-captain campaign. Jeter just said the entire event was overblown.

"With that whole situation -- people assumed they knew what was going on, but they really didn't know," Jeter said. "You can watch the film and see it didn't happen the way some people thought it happened. Curtis thought things happened a certain way, but you go ask him now and he'll tell you he misunderstood what happened."

Ask Curtis if Jeter is ready to be named the Yankees' captain and Curtis says, "It would be inappropriate to jump Jeter over some of the other people in here, in my opinion, because you have someone like Bernie who has been here longer and goes about his job in a very professional way."

Asked the same question on a warm October day not too long ago, Jeter brushed it aside. "It's not my decision," he said. "It's up to somebody else to decide if I'm ready or not."

Just then Jeter noticed Chuck Knoblauch was standing out at second base, waiting for a coach to hit infield practice for him. Jeter bent down, picked up a nearby fungo bat and started hitting him ground balls. All the while Jeter teased Knoblauch, but he didn't stop until a coach came to his aid. Then he want out to second base and took grounders by his teammate's side.

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