Jeter wins SI honor

Monday November 30, 2009 1:44 PM By Erik Boland

Derek Jeter may have finished third in AL MVP voting but was tops in 2009 as far as Sports Illustrated was concerned as the magazine named him as its Sportsman of the Year.

Tom Verducci's cover story will be in the Dec. 7 issue.

Jeter is the first Yankee to win the award and first solo baseball player to win since Cal Ripken Jr. in 1995 (Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were co-winners in 1998, as were Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling in 2001).

"Looking at the guys who have won it in the past, it's quite an honor," Jeter told Dan Patrick this morning.

Said Sports Illustrated Group Editor Terry McDonell, "Derek Jeter has always presented himself with class; he does numerous good works for the community with his Turn 2 Foundation, which is one of the most efficient, effective foundations of its kind; and he's extremely generous with not just his money but with his time, which in many cases is more valuable. He also had another signature year on the field."

Si.com ran some of Verducci's Q&A with Jeter for the cover story and there were some interesting quotes.

On his future: “I would like to own a team. I would like to be able to call the shots, be able to make some decisions. You're still a part of a team. You're still competing. I like to compete. I'm competitive by nature. I think it would be fun. Once again, I'm not going to do anything unless it's fun. I think it would be fun. [But] that's down the road.

Asked if managing or coaching would be appealing, Jeter said, “Nooo. Because I'd like to have a family one day. And I'd like to be around [them]. Coaching, you're right back to the same travel [as a player].”

I also liked this answer regarding his strong relationship with Yogi Berra.

“I always appreciated the ex-players,” Jeter said. “Being a Yankee, you get spoiled. Old-Timers Day, all these guys coming back, spring training, being around them, you get a chance to get to know them. So I always think you learn a lot by listening. A lot of times young guys come up and know everything and they want to talk all the time, but you can learn a lot by watching and listening. So I like to listen to the old players talk to each other and tell stories.

Yogi started teasing me maybe after we won our third one [in 1999]. We won back-to-back and he said, 'You've got three more to go to catch me: five in a row.'

You can't catch Yogi now. They went straight to the World Series then. I get on him all the time. 'Yogi, it doesn't count. You went straight to the World Series.' He says, 'Oh, get out of here.' Yogi's fun. A lot of guys don't think they can't learn from these guys. You can learn a lot. Even if you learn one thing it's going to benefit you.”

Mauer cleans up in MVP voting

Monday November 23, 2009 2:15 PM By Erik Boland

It was, as expected, a no-doubter.

Joe Mauer was awarded the AL MVP this afternoon, collecting 27 of 28 first-place votes. The other first-place vote went to the Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera. Presumably, that ballot is where Mauer’s one second-place vote came from.

Mauer finished with 387 points. Mark Teixeira had 15 second-place votes and finished with 225 points. Derek Jeter was third with 193 points and Cabrera placed fourth with 171 points.

More on Mauer's win from the BBWAA announcement:

“Joe Mauer, who won an unprecedented third batting championship for a catcher and helped propel the Minnesota Twins to the American League Central title, was elected the AL Most Valuable Player for 2009 in balloting by the BBWAA.

Mauer, the first catcher to lead his league in batting average (.365), on-base percentage (.444) and slugging (.587) in the same season, was listed first on all but one of the 28 ballots cast by two writers in each league city. He was second on that other ballot to score a total of 387 points, based on a tabulation system rewarding 14 points for first place, nine for second, eight for third on down to one for 10th.

The other first-place vote was cast for Detroit Tigers first baseman Miguel Cabrera (.324, 34 HR, 103 RBI), who finished fourth in the overall balloting with 171 points, behind a pair of New York Yankees teammates, first baseman Mark Teixeira (.292, 39 HR, 122 RBI, 103 R) and shortstop Derek Jeter (.334, 18 HR, 107 R, 30 SB).”

Red carpet treatment

Saturday November 14, 2009 1:58 PM By Erik Boland

I had never done the red carpet “thing” as a reporter until Friday night before the Joe Torre Safe at Home Gala at Cheslea Piers, and it has its merits.

As much as standing around mostly talking with other media members can have merit.

There is a cross-section of media at these things and the sports media generally got the celebs – from the sports world and beyond – after the entertainment press had gotten their questions in [they have jobs to do as well so it’s not really a big deal]. But there was some overlap, creating sometimes uncomfortable exchanges. Take this one with Derek Jeter, who received two baseball questions before staring down, and quickly dismissing, this one:

Reporter: “How have you been celebrating with Minka?”

Jeter: “C’mon, now.”

Mike Puma from the Post tried to bring things back to baseball, but a random guy holding a video camera interrupted, it seeming he might explode if he didn’t share with Jeter the fact he had once made some kind of cameo on “30 Rock.”

In other words: "I'm a celebrity too!"

It was a moment that might have made even the Most Interesting Man in the World feel awkward, but here’s how good Jeter is at this kind of thing. He smiled at the guy and says, “[then] you should be on this side [of the ropes].”

Smooth.

But not as smooth as when another guy thrust a digital camera at Jeter and asked for a picture. Jeter took the camera, pointed it at the buffoon and snapped said buffoon's picture.

Haven’t seen so many hangers-on since, well, the Yankees’ clubhouse before just about any regular-season home game.

Anyway, nothing huge in the way of news coming out of the red carpet scene but here are some highlights:

*** Not surprisingly, Jeter said he would like to see the Yankees bring back their three most prominent free agents – Hideki Matsui, Johnny Damon and Andy Pettitte.

“I would love it,” Jeter said. “We won so I would love to bring everybody back but you understand that it’s a business. Unfortunately there’s a business side to things but you’d love to see everybody back. They had a pretty good year.”

Matsui, stopping on his way into the dinner, said to his knowledge there have been no talks as yet between his agent, Arn Tellem, and the Yankees.

“My feelings are still with the Yankees but as far progress is concerned, I don’t think anything has happened yet and we’ll just wait and see,” Matsui said through his translator, Roger Kahlon.

If things don’t work out with the Yankees, still his first choice for next year, Matsui said he’ll be ready to move on.

“If that that happens, yeah, I think that would be disappointing,” Matsui said. “On the other hand it’s something to look forward to. It means that it’s going to be a new change, something different for me, a new challenge for me. So in that sense, I’ll definitely take it in a positive way. The Yankees have their own plans, too, and you have to respect that.”

Matsui, who will have options if the Yankees pass, said returning to Japan was currently not an option.

“As of right now, no, I’m not thinking about going to Japan,” Matsui said.

*** Don Zimmer attended the dinner and was thrilled that Joe Girardi, who came up as a rookie with the Cubs when Zimmer was their manager, won the World Series.

“I was pulling so hard for him,” Zimmer said.

Zim’s nostrils flared a bit when discussing some of the second-guessing of Girardi that went on during the postseason.

“I waited for about three days and I called him [and] just told him that I was so happy for him,” Zimmer said. “He took a lot of heat from the media during the series. I remember all that, second-guessing every move he made and if they would have lost, I’m sure he would have heard more. Now that he won, he’s on top of the world. That’s how baseball works.”

Asked if he would be back with the Rays as a senior advisor, Zimmer smiled, saying, “I just signed my 62nd contract [in professional baseball].”

*** Another big topic of the night was reaction to the getting-stranger-by-the-moment John Westteland story, which I wrote about for Saturday's paper. 

David Cone, an ex-teammate of Wetteland’s, probably had the best synopsis of the story to this point.

“John’s always been a complicated guy,'' Cone said.

“I'm still confused about what actually happened, to tell you the truth,'' Cone said later. "I'm glad to see that he's out of the hospital and doing better. I've heard conflicting reports on exactly what happened so I'm not sure how to respond one way or the other, but I certainly care about him a lot. He's a great guy. He's been through a lot in his life, on and off the field.''

***

Interesting story from the AP the other day on Cuban pitching phenom Aroldis Chapman, a lefty the Yankees and several other teams, including the Red Sox, remain interested in.

Just one of the many storylines to follow as free agency begins next week.

And with that, enjoy another college football Saturday and NFL Sunday.
 

Jeter and friends on Letterman

Thursday November 5, 2009 6:03 PM By Erik Boland

Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada and Hideki Matsui will all appear on tonight’s Late Show with David Letterman.

According to a release from MLB, “the appearance will mark a historic first for Letterman, as he has never before hosted more than two sports figures together as sitting guests.”

Um, ok.

Regardless, all four can be pretty funny at times so it should be a good spot.

Also, if you missed it, Joe Girardi said on the Mike Francesa Show this afternoon that he was giving strong consideration, and had talked to Brian Cashman about it, to changing his uniform number to No. 28 for next season.

Although the number is currently taken.

“I’ll have to talk to Shelley Duncan,” Girardi said.

I’m sure they’ll be able to work something out. 
 

Some clubhouse reaction

Tuesday November 3, 2009 1:25 AM By Erik Boland

Joe Girardi hit the obvious note afterward.

“Well, if we would have pitched today, we probably would have won. That's the bottom line. A.J. struggled today. He felt good, he just struggled today. That's something that happens in the game of baseball.”

It would have been a storybook ending of sorts for Burnett to beat his good friend, and the best pitcher of this postseason, Cliff Lee in the clinching game but Burnett's night started poor and ended shortly after that.

“I had a chance to do something special tonight and I failed,” Burnett said. “I let a lot of guys in here down and I let a city down. The positive thing you take from tonight is these guys, they don’t stop. They played their heart out tonight for nine innings. Unfortunately I didn’t give us a chance to win from the first inning.”

But there wasn’t a lot of head-hanging in the clubhouse, either. Many repeated a version of what Mariano Rivera said.

“We won two of three here,” Rivera said. “Now we’re going home and we have to finish it there.”

Said Johnny Damon: “We came into this game wanting to win, expecting to win and we didn’t. We didn’t do our jobs as well as we would have liked but it’s good to go back home. Obviously we wish we could have a trophy going back with us but it wasn’t meant to be tonight.”

Damon said the belief in the dugout in the ninth was that the Yankees would complete the comeback as they’ve done so many times this season. Derek Jeter, whose fifth-inning single gave him a hit in 14 of his last 15 postseason games, severely damaged the chances of a comeback by grounding into a double play.

“He made a good pitch, that’s the bottom line,” Jeter said. “I’d love to get a hit there, but it’s over. You can’t beat yourself up over it now.”

Instead, it’s back to the Bronx where the Yankees are 6-1 this postseason.

“Obviously we wanted to get greedy and get all three but we did what we had to do – we won two out of three,” Alex Rodriguez said. “And now we go back home.”
 

The Yankees will work out at the Stadium at 4 p.m. Tuesday.

Minka should call J-Roll

Tuesday October 27, 2009 5:46 PM By David Lennon

If Minka Kelly starts to get a little antsy about her relationship with Derek Jeter, she might want to dial up Jimmy Rollins, who may have some inside info for the Friday Night  Lights star. When Rollins was asked today about the time he spent with Jeter at the WBC, the former MVP went beyond baseball.

"It was a treat to watch Derek Jeter go about it," Rollins said. "He’s all business. The man is serious. But actually a lot of things we talked about were when he was going to get married. That’s what most of the questions were -- things of that nature, the good stuff."

So what he say?

"Ask DJ," Rollins said.

Does Derek Jeter wish at all he was facing Torre instead of Phillies?

Monday October 26, 2009 11:11 AM By Jim Baumbach

The champagne soaked Jeter smirked at the question.

"I don't care," he said, and his tone made you believe him.

They could be playing the Toledo Mud Hens in the World Series and it wouldn't matter.

What matters is they're back in the dance for the first time since 2003, and gunning for their first ring since 2000.

Who’s the MVP?

Friday October 23, 2009 1:02 PM By Cody Derespina

It’s been pretty widely assumed that A-Rod has got the MVP locked up if the Yankees win the ALCS. And he certainly has a heck of a case. He’s already hit .368 with three homers and five RBI. One of his homers tied the game in the bottom of the 11^th inning against Angels closer Brian Fuentes.

Jeter's cold/flu/virus hasn't spread to other players, Girardi says

Thursday October 22, 2009 6:16 PM By Jim Baumbach

Joe Girardi, when asked about Derek Jeter's health, said:

"It has not spread. And if you ask him how feels he gives you the same answer every time. 'Great.' In that tone. So I think he is better. I think the day off probably physically helped him and kind of let him rejuvenate a little bit. But as being concerned about him playing, no concerns."

The Yankees are just now lingering on the field for stretch and batting practice. Haven't seen Jeter yet.

*** Check that, Jeter just walked onto the field, and he's still wearing a hooded sweatshirt in this mid-70-degree weather.