Jeter and Jordan's celebrity getaway
Jeter and Jordan's celebrity getaway
Barbara Barker
February 28, 2007
TAMPA, Fla. -- There are still places in the world where people don't care whether Derek Jeter is still tight with Alex Rodriguez. In fact, there are still places where people don't know who Derek Jeter is, or at least don't recognize his face.
For six glorious days this offseason, Jeter experienced the anonymity of being a regular guy. For the first time in his adult life, he could cross a street without someone yelling out his name. He could smile at a girl without someone taking his picture. If he wanted, he could go for an entire afternoon without talking about baseball.
"There's this great area in Berlin where I walked through thousands of people," Jeter recalled wistfully this week at the Yankees' spring training facility. "I don't think anyone knew who I was."
Of course, it helped that Jeter's traveling companion deflected a lot of attention by being one of the few athletes in this world more recognizable than Jeter.
Several days after the Yankees lost to the Tigers in the first round of the playoffs, Michael Jordan called Jeter and told him what he needed to do was get out of New York - way out of New York. He invited Jeter to join him on a whirlwind European tour, visiting Paris, London, Milan, Berlin, Hamburg and Barcelona in six days.
The two first met when Jordan was in the midst of his brief baseball experiment in 1994 and 1995 and Jeter was in the minor leagues. Jeter said they have been friends since.
On the town with Michael Jordan in Europe: OK, so it wasn't your standard regular-guy experience. But you get the picture. Instead of holing up in his apartment and watching the Tigers take what should have been the Yankees' place in the American League Championship Series, Jeter was drinking lattes, or something stronger, and watching the sun set over a beautiful piazza. Thanks to Jordan, who was on a tour promoting his line of merchandise, the Yankees' captain got the change of scenery he needed, a breather from being the walking personification of everything that is right and not quite right with the Yankees.
Jordan is one of the few people in the world who could have understood what Jeter was thinking after the Yankees collapsed in the first round. Few athletes have gotten more out of their career than Jordan - six championship rings and more fame and fortune than any player in his sport. Yet Jordan, too, has had his very public disappointments, such as failing to win an NBA title until his seventh season. And he always found the best thing one could do is move on to the next game.
What Jeter, 32, needs most is to pull a midcareer Jordan and put his recent disappointments behind him. He has to forget that the Yankees haven't won a ring since 2000, and concentrate on how good it felt when he won four in his first five years.
One gets the feeling that Jordan, 44, would trade a portion of his vast fortune for one more chance to be Jeter's age, to be in the prime of his career with a chance to win another championship. Or two. Jeter knows he has to make the most of his chances now.
"I realize that there's going to be an end to all of this some day," Jeter said, looking around the clubhouse.
So Jeter is back and talking as optimistically as ever. His detractors say he is an ice prince, a nearly perfect baseball player who frustrates some because he is unwilling to share or reveal any of his personal life. That, more than anything, seemed to fuel the three-day back-page minidrama concerning the state of his friendship with A-Rod.
Yet it's easy to see why Jeter is reticent to talk about his personal life: He has to fight to have one. While the rest of the world fights for its 10 minutes of fame, the highlight of Jeter's vacation is a 10-minute walk through a plaza where no one stops him. Jeter had never been to Europe, and it seemed almost a personal revelation that there was a place out there where he could go and be just another person.
"I loved it," he said. "I can't wait to go back ... But I've got some other things to take care of first."
The Extraordinary Tourists
Derek Jeter's six-day vacation with Michael Jordan to some of Europe's greatest cities sure beat the Yankees' Oakland-Anaheim-Seattle West Coast road trip.
London
Paris
Barcelona, Spain
Milan
Berlin
Hamburg, Germany
Copyright 2007 Newsday Inc.
Barbara Barker
February 28, 2007
TAMPA, Fla. -- There are still places in the world where people don't care whether Derek Jeter is still tight with Alex Rodriguez. In fact, there are still places where people don't know who Derek Jeter is, or at least don't recognize his face.
For six glorious days this offseason, Jeter experienced the anonymity of being a regular guy. For the first time in his adult life, he could cross a street without someone yelling out his name. He could smile at a girl without someone taking his picture. If he wanted, he could go for an entire afternoon without talking about baseball.
"There's this great area in Berlin where I walked through thousands of people," Jeter recalled wistfully this week at the Yankees' spring training facility. "I don't think anyone knew who I was."
Of course, it helped that Jeter's traveling companion deflected a lot of attention by being one of the few athletes in this world more recognizable than Jeter.
Several days after the Yankees lost to the Tigers in the first round of the playoffs, Michael Jordan called Jeter and told him what he needed to do was get out of New York - way out of New York. He invited Jeter to join him on a whirlwind European tour, visiting Paris, London, Milan, Berlin, Hamburg and Barcelona in six days.
The two first met when Jordan was in the midst of his brief baseball experiment in 1994 and 1995 and Jeter was in the minor leagues. Jeter said they have been friends since.
On the town with Michael Jordan in Europe: OK, so it wasn't your standard regular-guy experience. But you get the picture. Instead of holing up in his apartment and watching the Tigers take what should have been the Yankees' place in the American League Championship Series, Jeter was drinking lattes, or something stronger, and watching the sun set over a beautiful piazza. Thanks to Jordan, who was on a tour promoting his line of merchandise, the Yankees' captain got the change of scenery he needed, a breather from being the walking personification of everything that is right and not quite right with the Yankees.
Jordan is one of the few people in the world who could have understood what Jeter was thinking after the Yankees collapsed in the first round. Few athletes have gotten more out of their career than Jordan - six championship rings and more fame and fortune than any player in his sport. Yet Jordan, too, has had his very public disappointments, such as failing to win an NBA title until his seventh season. And he always found the best thing one could do is move on to the next game.
What Jeter, 32, needs most is to pull a midcareer Jordan and put his recent disappointments behind him. He has to forget that the Yankees haven't won a ring since 2000, and concentrate on how good it felt when he won four in his first five years.
One gets the feeling that Jordan, 44, would trade a portion of his vast fortune for one more chance to be Jeter's age, to be in the prime of his career with a chance to win another championship. Or two. Jeter knows he has to make the most of his chances now.
"I realize that there's going to be an end to all of this some day," Jeter said, looking around the clubhouse.
So Jeter is back and talking as optimistically as ever. His detractors say he is an ice prince, a nearly perfect baseball player who frustrates some because he is unwilling to share or reveal any of his personal life. That, more than anything, seemed to fuel the three-day back-page minidrama concerning the state of his friendship with A-Rod.
Yet it's easy to see why Jeter is reticent to talk about his personal life: He has to fight to have one. While the rest of the world fights for its 10 minutes of fame, the highlight of Jeter's vacation is a 10-minute walk through a plaza where no one stops him. Jeter had never been to Europe, and it seemed almost a personal revelation that there was a place out there where he could go and be just another person.
"I loved it," he said. "I can't wait to go back ... But I've got some other things to take care of first."
The Extraordinary Tourists
Derek Jeter's six-day vacation with Michael Jordan to some of Europe's greatest cities sure beat the Yankees' Oakland-Anaheim-Seattle West Coast road trip.
London
Paris
Barcelona, Spain
Milan
Berlin
Hamburg, Germany
Copyright 2007 Newsday Inc.
posted by Walking Contradiction at 9:19 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home