I can understand why the media
is obsessing with the Yankee Captain’s every move on the field. With ARod down
for at least half a season, Nick Swisher playing the outfield for the Cleveland
Indians and Russell Martin catching his old pal AJ Burnett in Pittsburgh, the
Yankees are going to have to squeeze offense out of every position. The Yankees
will desperately need Jeter to have a season like he had last year before
getting hurt, the kind of season in which he carries the team with his clutch
hitting and defense while his teammates struggle mightily, which will no doubt
happen again this year. Jeter has to be healthy and he has to be Derek Jeter or
the Yankees don’t have a chance in 2013.
But I really worry about his
health. I hope Derek learned a valuable lesson about not pushing himself too hard. He admitted he played the last two months of the 2012 regular season and
into the playoffs on an injured ankle even though he probably shouldn’t have.
Jeter is, in a sense, a hostage to his own toughness because he firmly believes
that if a baseball player can walk, he should be out on the field. I’ve long
admired his ability to ignore pain and man the shortstop position every day,
but I think it leads to too many situations where he plays baseball when he shouldn’t.
It finally cost him last October.
Jeter’s rehabilitation has
gotten even more attention than Mariano Rivera’s comeback, perhaps because Mo’s
injury happened way back in May of last year while the image of Jeter writhing on the ground in unbearable pain is fresh in our minds. Whatever the reason, no
one on the Yankees is being watched more closely than Derek Jeter.
No comments:
Post a Comment