Jeter Sees Sunshine Amid Clouds
Jeter Sees Sunshine Amid Clouds
By TYLER KEPNER
Published: May 13, 2007
SEATTLE, May 12 — Most days, a few hours before the Yankees play, Derek Jeter will stroll into the clubhouse sipping a grande cappuccino from Starbucks. No endorsements, though; Starbucks does not need a pitchman, and he already hawks Gatorade and Propel fitness water.
Three hours before Friday night’s game, Jeter stood in the middle of the visiting locker room at Safeco Field with a different kind of treat: a soft-serve ice cream cone from the players’ lounge. As an accessory, it made him look carefree, which in many ways he is.
“You can tell he enjoys every aspect of the game,” said first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz, who is playing on a team with Jeter for the first time this season. “The good, the bad and the ugly, he thoroughly enjoys all of it.”
For the Yankees this season, there have been plenty of bad and ugly. But aside from a brief fielding slump in early April, not much of it has been caused by Jeter. He leads the American League in batting average (.376) and hits (53), maintaining a sunny outlook despite the Yankees’ erratic start.
That part comes easy to Jeter, the team captain, who said he always tried to take the long view, and the positive one.
“I’m optimistic by nature,” Jeter said. “Even when things are going poorly, you’ve got to find something positive. You have to. Because if you get caught up in being negative all the time, you’ll never get out of any kind of funk.”
Jeter is not immune to slumps, of course. He went 0 for 32 early in the 2004 season, and when Mientkiewicz struggled in April, Jeter often reminded him of his own slow starts.
But he has been remarkably consistent over the past two seasons. At one point, from Aug. 20, 2006, through May 3, he had at least one hit in 59 of 61 games. The stretch began with a 25-game hitting streak, followed by a hitless game. A 14-game hitting streak followed that. Then, after another hitless game, Jeter ripped off 20 in a row.
According to Trent McCotter of the Society for American Baseball Research, only one other player since 1900 had as many as 59 games out of 61 with a hit: Joe DiMaggio, who hit safely in 60 of 61 in 1941, when he had a record 56-game streak.
For superstitious reasons, Jeter does not like talking about hot streaks as they happen. But when he stays in one all season, it is sometimes hard to avoid.
“I don’t think about it, really,” he said. “All I try to do, pretty much, is to be consistent. I don’t try to overanalyze anything, I don’t try to sit back and say, You’re doing this or that. I just try to consistently help out every day.
“You look at it that way, especially when things are going bad, you’re able to get out of it, because you’re not concerning yourself with how you’re doing individually.”
In a short time around Jeter, Mientkiewicz already understands the essence of what makes him succeed. Mientkiewicz said it was obvious to him that Jeter kept everything simple and took each at-bat with a clear head, never letting one plate appearance affect the next.
As a hitter, Jeter reminds Mientkiewicz of the Hall of Famer Paul Molitor, his former teammate with the Minnesota Twins. Both are exceptional hitters who make their own luck.
“He’s got that Paul Molitor knack,” Mientkiewicz said. “Even in batting practice, Molly never hit a ball right to the shortstop or right to the second baseman. They always had that knack of always hitting the ball where somebody wasn’t.
“Tony Gwynn had it, too — they just find holes. When he rolls a ball over, it’s never right to somebody. Then he tops one off the plate, and it’s right in front of the plate and he beats it out. Then he barrels it up and hits it 440 in the gap, and it’s a homer.”
There is a tendency toward hyperbole when discussing any hot hitter, and Jeter is no exception. But history shows that he does not vary much from the way he starts a season. Only once has Jeter’s season-ending batting average been more than .013 below his average May 11. And that year (1999), he finished second in the league in hitting at .349.
Jeter is now batting third, behind the struggling Bobby Abreu, because Manager Joe Torre said he felt more comfortable with Jeter in a position to drive in runs.
“He’s gotten an awful lot of two-out hits,” Torre said. “That’s the bonus, as far as I’m concerned. Yeah, man on third base, less than two out, you’re supposed to knock in the run. But with two out, that’s what turns into a great at-bat. When you get two-out R.B.I.’s, that’s something that really deflates the opposition and perks up your team.”
With two outs and runners in scoring position, Jeter had a .600 average through Friday, with nine hits in 15 at-bats. It does not always work this way, but for now Jeter is living up to his reputation of giving the team what it needs. He said he was not thinking of anything else.
“When the season’s over, you get a chance to reflect on what happened during the season,” Jeter said. “Once you sit around and start talking about what you’ve done, that’s when you’re in trouble. You always strive to do something better.”
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
By TYLER KEPNER
Published: May 13, 2007
SEATTLE, May 12 — Most days, a few hours before the Yankees play, Derek Jeter will stroll into the clubhouse sipping a grande cappuccino from Starbucks. No endorsements, though; Starbucks does not need a pitchman, and he already hawks Gatorade and Propel fitness water.
Three hours before Friday night’s game, Jeter stood in the middle of the visiting locker room at Safeco Field with a different kind of treat: a soft-serve ice cream cone from the players’ lounge. As an accessory, it made him look carefree, which in many ways he is.
“You can tell he enjoys every aspect of the game,” said first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz, who is playing on a team with Jeter for the first time this season. “The good, the bad and the ugly, he thoroughly enjoys all of it.”
For the Yankees this season, there have been plenty of bad and ugly. But aside from a brief fielding slump in early April, not much of it has been caused by Jeter. He leads the American League in batting average (.376) and hits (53), maintaining a sunny outlook despite the Yankees’ erratic start.
That part comes easy to Jeter, the team captain, who said he always tried to take the long view, and the positive one.
“I’m optimistic by nature,” Jeter said. “Even when things are going poorly, you’ve got to find something positive. You have to. Because if you get caught up in being negative all the time, you’ll never get out of any kind of funk.”
Jeter is not immune to slumps, of course. He went 0 for 32 early in the 2004 season, and when Mientkiewicz struggled in April, Jeter often reminded him of his own slow starts.
But he has been remarkably consistent over the past two seasons. At one point, from Aug. 20, 2006, through May 3, he had at least one hit in 59 of 61 games. The stretch began with a 25-game hitting streak, followed by a hitless game. A 14-game hitting streak followed that. Then, after another hitless game, Jeter ripped off 20 in a row.
According to Trent McCotter of the Society for American Baseball Research, only one other player since 1900 had as many as 59 games out of 61 with a hit: Joe DiMaggio, who hit safely in 60 of 61 in 1941, when he had a record 56-game streak.
For superstitious reasons, Jeter does not like talking about hot streaks as they happen. But when he stays in one all season, it is sometimes hard to avoid.
“I don’t think about it, really,” he said. “All I try to do, pretty much, is to be consistent. I don’t try to overanalyze anything, I don’t try to sit back and say, You’re doing this or that. I just try to consistently help out every day.
“You look at it that way, especially when things are going bad, you’re able to get out of it, because you’re not concerning yourself with how you’re doing individually.”
In a short time around Jeter, Mientkiewicz already understands the essence of what makes him succeed. Mientkiewicz said it was obvious to him that Jeter kept everything simple and took each at-bat with a clear head, never letting one plate appearance affect the next.
As a hitter, Jeter reminds Mientkiewicz of the Hall of Famer Paul Molitor, his former teammate with the Minnesota Twins. Both are exceptional hitters who make their own luck.
“He’s got that Paul Molitor knack,” Mientkiewicz said. “Even in batting practice, Molly never hit a ball right to the shortstop or right to the second baseman. They always had that knack of always hitting the ball where somebody wasn’t.
“Tony Gwynn had it, too — they just find holes. When he rolls a ball over, it’s never right to somebody. Then he tops one off the plate, and it’s right in front of the plate and he beats it out. Then he barrels it up and hits it 440 in the gap, and it’s a homer.”
There is a tendency toward hyperbole when discussing any hot hitter, and Jeter is no exception. But history shows that he does not vary much from the way he starts a season. Only once has Jeter’s season-ending batting average been more than .013 below his average May 11. And that year (1999), he finished second in the league in hitting at .349.
Jeter is now batting third, behind the struggling Bobby Abreu, because Manager Joe Torre said he felt more comfortable with Jeter in a position to drive in runs.
“He’s gotten an awful lot of two-out hits,” Torre said. “That’s the bonus, as far as I’m concerned. Yeah, man on third base, less than two out, you’re supposed to knock in the run. But with two out, that’s what turns into a great at-bat. When you get two-out R.B.I.’s, that’s something that really deflates the opposition and perks up your team.”
With two outs and runners in scoring position, Jeter had a .600 average through Friday, with nine hits in 15 at-bats. It does not always work this way, but for now Jeter is living up to his reputation of giving the team what it needs. He said he was not thinking of anything else.
“When the season’s over, you get a chance to reflect on what happened during the season,” Jeter said. “Once you sit around and start talking about what you’ve done, that’s when you’re in trouble. You always strive to do something better.”
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
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