...
But one question has been bugging me about this jersey. How did they give Jeter such a low number? Such a prestigious number? What happened? Here's this punk kid trying out for the team in 1995, what number should you give him for the back of his shirt, 55, 38? No, they come up with #2! Remember this: #1 is the retired number for Billy Martin; #3 is the retired number of Babe Ruth; #4 is the retired number of Lou Gehrig; #5 is the retired number of Joe DiMaggio. It gets worse: #7 is Mickey Mantle, #8 is Yogi Berra, #9 is Roger Maris and #10 is Phil Rizutto. And they have the effrontery to give some error prone ss #2?
...
After a bit of digging I found out how this happened in a post by Tim Kurkjian about Buck Showalter...Here's the story:
In Jeter's first spring training game, the equipment manager asked Showalter, then the manager of the New York Yankees, what number he should assign Jeter. Something in the 60s for the kid? "No," Showalter said, "give him No. 2." The equipment man was nonplussed. After all, only the greatest Yankees get a single-digit number. "Don't worry. He is going to be special," Showalter assured him.
So it was that Texan John the Baptist, Buck Showalter, who done it, or so he claims...
...
And here's a nice story from Yahoo Sports about where Jeter rates compares to the Yankee greats of old. Spoiler Alert Babe Ruth is still number one.
24 comments:
In my childhood, with my dad being the big Texas Ranger fan it was Odabe McDowell we talked about. My dad loved watching him at bat and would laugh himself into a fit every time. Something about his stance just made my dad crack up. I'm not sure if he knows much about Derek Jeter, being that he's so Ranger focused, but I'm sure he's at least heard of him.
Glenna
In an article on the BBC website at the moment they've got a piece about barbarous Americanisms ruining the language (the BBC does something like this every six months or so) and in it the author talks about how British people say that an "idea came out of left field" without having any concept of what it means, because they dont know baseball. The presumably British picture editor on the story grabbed a Getty Image of shortstop Derek Jeter to illustrate the point, who in the normal course of things wont be anywhere near left field during a game.
We also say "you just threw me a curveball" and "He'ul have a field trip with that one"
Americanisms are changing the language. I wouldnt go as far as to say ruining it. Its down to high quality American police dramas. Awesome is another word we never used to say. Now everything is awesome, even an average tasting sandwich is totally awesome, when really its tasty or even delicious but awesome is overstating. You wont agree im sure. You say sneakers instead of trainers. Gone native.
Nomar is better!
Frankie
Here's the article:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/14130942
At the end he talks about British English making a comeback.
Comeback...eh? Yes its another one of those evil Americanisms. Poor chap.
Sneakers? Trainers? I SHOULD be saying gutties!
Lew
Nomar's missus for the win.
Especially this week.
Yeah, remember when the question was who was better, Nomar or Jeter?
Been listening to the Dan Patrick show a bit this week and the question has been who goes on the Yankees' Mt. Rushmore. I say you gotta build a second Mt. Rushmore for Jeter, Pettite, Posada, and Rivera. Four players who stayed together for five championships (minus the couple of years Pettite went down to Texas to run a Dairy Queen, according to Letterman), won't happen again anytime soon.
Berra was probably better than Jeter and Mantle arguably better than DiMaggio, but it's a good list.
======================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Matt
I like the way reports at NESN, the Boston Herald, the Globe etc. having been trying to say that Jeter snubbed fans by skipping the All Star Game. I thought Peter Gammons for one was above all that, I guess not.
Peter
David Beckham just named his daughter Seven.
Its her middle name. Her first name is the more literary Harper.
Still it reminded me of this.
"I like the way reports at NESN, the Boston Herald, the Globe etc. having been trying to say that Jeter snubbed fans by skipping the All Star Game. I thought Peter Gammons for one was above all that, I guess not."
Sports "journalist'" are even more desperate to create controversy than they are to be be seen as socially relevant.
In the meantime, I think it was the great Bill James who said years ago that he did not think interleague play would detract from the World Series. Rather, he said, it would diminish the All-Star Game's importance. We saw this year, when 15(!) players skipped the game, that he was absolutely right.
Peter
Have you heard about James's new book on crime statistics?
I read a review of it somewhere which made it sound fascinating reading.
Although its a bit confusing having TWO Bill Jameses in the crime world now.
Jeter's a class act and one of the greats, but seriously, what's up with him skipping the All-Star game?
Brian
Mental and physical exhaustion.
The baseball Bill James has written a book on crime statistics? For him, Iceland is probably like 1968 in the major leagues. Each killing, or run, is far more valuable because killings, or runs, are so rare.
Peter
Here's the link.
James in good form as always:
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/6739353/bill-james-crime
I wonder what got the baseball James on the subject. He's right about the long-term decline in violence, though he's behind the crime-fiction curve in making the case against Sherlock Holmes' methods.
I don't care if I disappoint every child in America, or the world for that matter, if I could take three days off to spend with Minka Kelly I would do it, and every man who says otherwise is lying.
Klosterman did an interview with James about the book on the Grantland blog.
The Boston sportswriters are pandering to the Sox fans. We don't want to hear anything good about Jeter. Even though he is a great player.
Adrian, don't know if you caught this, but Arite Lange did a long set on Nick DiPaolo's sports talk show the other day. Good long set.
http://www.nickdip.com/site/news/nick-artie/
Matt
He looks good.
I liked that line
"I'm thirty sit ups away from the body of a young Mark Hammill"
I have nothing to contribute to this discussion but I wanted to say I saw 'The Ol Number 2" at the SkyDo-- er, Rogers Center last night and enjoyed it quite a bit.
Quite a bit.
JOhn
Great Yankees pitching. V encouraging for the second half of the season.
JOhn
Great Yankees pitching. V encouraging for the second half of the season.
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