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

Jeter Apple of New York's Eye

New York Post, June 8, 2000

By George King

NEW York's baseball eyes will be riveted on Yankee Stadium this weekend. Six times a summer the rest of the major leagues can drop dead as far as Yankees and Mets fans are concerned. The players downplay the Subway Series, the managers, too. But the proof is in the stands, in the bars and in the television ratings: Mets-Yankees is a box office hit.

As always, big box office revolves around a star and right now there is no bigger New York star than Derek Jeter. No longer is Jeter's popularity limited to schoolgirls holding up signs asking the All-Star shortstop to marry them. Because Jeter has evolved into one of the game's best players, there are as many males who like to watch him play as females. Husbands and boyfriends don't envy Jeter when their women gush about his good looks because guys dig good players. Look in the stands Friday night to see how many males - young and old - are sporting a Jeter No. 2 jersey.

Jeter, who will be 26 on June 26, stands for everything people want in a sports hero. He is respectful, likes kids and takes nothing for granted. And he has carved out an impeccable reputation playing on the world's biggest sport stage and living in the world's largest fishbowl: Manhattan.

There was a time not so long ago when the Yankees or Mets would have cringed at their young star setting up house within walking distance of all the temptations The City has to offer. But Jeter has handled all of it much the same way he has handled ground balls and sliders on the black.

After a brief stay in Fort Lee when he was with the Yankees for 15 games in 1995, Jeter has called the Upper East Side home for the summer across the next five summers.

"You can dream of playing in New York and even winning championships," says Jeter, who grew up in Kalamazoo, Mich. a Yankee fan because Dave Winfield was his favorite player. "But not off the field, with the lifestyle and everything. It's not something that you sit down and think about. It's been more than I could have ever imagined. I don't think anybody could have expected what has happened. I don't think there is any way you can prepare for this."

Three World Series rings in four big league seasons with a chance to make it four in five. A $10 million paycheck with oodles of more green to follow. And yet in a city that devours its stars, Jeter has been bulletproof.

According to David Cone, Jeter isn't a wallflower. Yet, you never hear of him with a entourage at a club until 4 a.m. Those in his neighborhood see him walking the streets in the afternoon. Stardom and New York hasn't turned Jeter into a hermit.

"He goes out," Cone says of Jeter. "But it's almost like he has an alarm clock in his head that tells him when it's time to go home. He really has handled it all very well, incredible, really. Can you imagine being him and being able to handle it?"

Just like Jeter wanted to be a Yankee, just like he wants to be at the plate with the game on the line, just like he wants the crucial ground ball hit to him, Jeter wanted Manhattan. Summer trips into the city with his relatives from West Milford, N.J. when he was a youngster made an impression on Jeter and stayed with him when he returned home to Michigan.

And if ever there was a perfect match, it's Jeter's colossal appetite and the amount of restaurants in Manhattan.

"In 1995 I stayed in Fort Lee and there was just one restaurant, TGI Friday's that stayed open. It can be the best restaurant in the world but you can only go there so many times," Jeter recalled. "I was obviously familiar with Manhattan coming in and out in when I spent the summers in Jersey. I figured I would live in Manhattan. I am single and it's a great place. You can do anything at any time. So, that's basically why I did it."

There will be other great players in uniform at the Stadium Friday night but none will attract the attention Jeter does because New York is always attracted to the brightest star and when it comes to baseball in New York in 2000, that's Jeter.