In a move that I have called for since mid-August, the New York Yankees announced yesterday that they were shutting down Derek Jeter for the season. For Jeter it was the right move as it was apparent that he had not fully recovered from the ankle injury that he suffered last October. Because of his competitive nature, Jeter came back to soon and it resulted in various other ailments to his leg which diminished his ability to play up to the standard that we have come to expect.
The icing on the cake for me was last Saturday’s game against the Red Sox. In a play that Jeter has made routinely, he could not plant on his left leg which resulted in a badly high thrown ball giving the Red Sox a base runner. It was about all I could take seeing this Yankee legend playing so poorly.
Many people have compared Jeter to Joe DiMaggio and have questioned whether Jeter will call it quits, like DiMaggio did, when he realizes that he can’t play up to his own expectations. I wasn’t around to see Joltin’ Joe play, but I have memories of Mickey Mantle and the ending for The Mick was not pretty.
Mantle was the Yankee superstar in the mid 50’s and early to mid-60’s. He had speed, could hit for power and was an excellent outfielder. But towards the end of his career, the many leg injuries caused the Yankees to move him to play first base. Mantle did not embarass himself at first but it was at the plate where he wasn’t the same. His biggest disappointment was retiring with a career batting average of .299.
Jeter’s wild high throw and a batting average hovering at .200 made me think back to the last years of The Mick. Jeter is saying that with a full year of training he will be ready to go for the 2014 season. The Yankee brass seem to agree. With Mariano Rivera retiring at the end of this season and Andy Pettitte possibly retiring, Jeter will be the last vestige of the glory years from 1996 through 2001. In Mantle’s later years, the team was terrible and he was the Yankees only star. It’s possible that the same thing can happen to the guy we know as “The Captain”. Here’s hoping that he can come back in 2014 ready to play like Derek Jeter. I would hate to see his career end the same as Mantle: a shadow of himself.
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