Aww... Wittle Derek's Feelings Got Hurt

Now before I get bombarded with Yankee fan e mails calling me a gutless, hating Red Sox fan, let me get a few things out of the way.

1) Derek Jeter is a great Yankee.

2) Derek Jeter has been a wonderful superstar.

3) Derek Jeter belongs in the Hall of Fame.

4) I would have loved to have seen Derek Jeter in a Red Sox uniform.

5) I have praised Jeter on this blog with this post, this post and this post. And I defended Jeter FROM Yankee fans on this post. So I've been as positive and fair minded as a lifelong Red Sox fan can be about #2.

Did you catch all of that?

Good.

Now let's get to the heart of this.
He went from winner to WHINER with that press conference.

Ooooo... free agency was so tough.

Listening to him complain through that press conference was a little startling because he's always played the media game so well. But this should have been the easiest press conference in history.

"All the business stuff aside, I am proud to be a Yankee and hammer this contract out. I know they wanted me back and I wanted to come back. It took a little bit of time but we're here and let's win number 28."

Boom. Easy. Simple. Totally forgettable.

Instead we have tripe like "I was more angry at the process and how I was being portrayed."

Really?
You mean being portrayed as someone asking WAY more than the open market would ever get you?

Because that's what happened.

"I heard greed."

It's funny. So did we. We heard a guy who had already been paid incredibly well for his services and clearly well into the last half of his career essentially being asked to be paid AGAIN for what he did in the past.

But the worst thing was when he said "When the organization says, ’go shop’ when I said I wasn’t going to, yeah, I wasn’t happy about it."

Sorry, but I have to call B.S. on this.

You weren't happy about being asked to find what your actual worth on the open market was? You weren't happy being told "Hey, before we keep shoveling more money to you, how's about seeing what OTHER PEOPLE think your price tag is"?

I wrote that that was the only fair thing to do. To truly find the REAL market value of Derek Jeter and see if the Yankees would match it.

Guess what Derek? The Yankees wanted to make a decision on whether or not to keep you based on reality, not on Yankee prices.

And do you know what? When other teams do that, Derek Jeter has benefitted.

Other teams make decisions of whether or not to keep a player based on the actual open market price. And many times those decisions lead to teams saying "We're not going to match the market price."

And lookee here!
Jeter, did you like playing with John Wetteland?
Jimmy Key?
David Cone?
David Wells?
Roger Clemens?
Chuck Knoblauch?
David Justice?
Mike Mussina?
Jason Giambi?
CC Sabathia?

The Yankees got all of them either through free agency or salary dumps because their original teams didn't ante up.

So you had no problem when OTHER teams made decisions based on costs.

But not when it came to you.
You had to be paid like an elite player, even though you are not anymore, for your intangibles, for which you've been made a millionaire nearly 200 times over.

And he STILL got paid at least twice what any other team would pay him. The Yankees raised the offer even though no other team was bidding on him.

If you ask me it sounds like an awesome process.

Hank... you are no George

I never want to hear Hank Steinbrenner try to talk tough about the players ever again.
It's like hearing Julian Lennon. You kind of look like your dad and sound like him... but you aren't the real thing.

He tried to talk tough about Jeter and his contract and how they don't owe him anything.
And guess what? The Yankees caved.

Was ANYONE ELSE offering Jeter a contract remotely close to what he signed? Of course not.
Does the contract make sense in terms of his market value? Not a chance.
Was he already generously paid over a 10 year contract as an elite player? You bet.

But the Yankees, bidding against nobody and holding all sorts of contract leverage folded like a tent.

You think George in his hey day would have stood for this?

Hank is all bark.
Jeter knew this from the start and knew that he was going to get a sweetheart deal even if nobody else in baseball would offer him HALF of that contract.

Now the love fest will begin and Jeter is indeed a great Yankee... and like any great Yankee, he squeezed every last dime out of the franchise while people praised his loyalty.

Would someone else PLEASE bid on Derek Jeter?

Derek Jeter will be a New York Yankee in 2011.
Everyone on the planet Earth knows that.

I am sure there is a bushman in the Kalahari desert bewildered by a Coke bottle who when asked about Jeter's contract status would reply "Jeter? *Click* He's not going anywhere! *Click*"

And yet both Jeter and management are playing out a bizarre charade as if he could play elsewhere.

One Yankee executive (whose name probably rhymes with "Pank Peinbrenner") asked "Where is he going to go? Cincinnati?"

As if the idea of a player ending his career in a place other than the Bronx is so insane.

And Jeter's agent is "baffled" by the fact that the Yankees are offering a shortstop closer to 40 than to 35 ONLY a three year deal that would keep paying him as one of the elite players in the game.

And all the Jeter defenders are waxing poetic about Jeter's place among legends like DiMaggio and Mantle and shouldn't the Yankees pay him for his leadership qualities and what he has done in the past for the Yankees?

As if he took less money to play for the Yankees when he signed that 10 year, $189 million contract.

As if HE went to third to make room when a superior shortstop came to town.

Wasn't he already well compensated for past services rendered?

So I have a crazy way to settle this nonsense... have Jeter go out on the open market!
See what he is worth! And then have the Yankees match the best offer.

Isn't that the fair thing?

That way we get to see how fair the Yankee offer is... and we get to see what Jeter's loyalty to the Yankees truly is.

I suggested in a tongue and cheek manner that the Pirates should make a bid for him.

But Vince Caramela at the Hardball Times broke down Jeter's possible destinations.
And Peter Abraham at the Boston Globe speculated about Jeter collecting his 3,000 hit in a Red Sox uniform.

So go out there and find a number.

And Yankees, see what he is worth and consider if you want to ante up.
Even iconic franchise players can part ways with their teams.

The 49ers parted ways with Joe Montana.
The Bruins said toodleloo to Bobby Orr.

In baseball even the likes of Ty Cobb, Hank Greenberg and Christy Mathewson wrapped up their careers elsewhere.

And oh yeah, Babe Ruth finished his career as a Boston Brave.

Perhaps the Yankees might say "Do you know what? We're not going to match the Padres offer."
And in a way, can you blame them?

They signed Jorge Posada to a "let's be loyal to our boys" contract after the 2007 off season. Not one team could possibly have offered him 3 years... the Yankees gave him 4. And he was worthless after 2 seasons.

Maybe they don't want to get in the habit of over compensating for players they have already paid a fortune for.

And if Jeter signed elsewhere, I NEVER want to hear a Yankee fans complain. The Yankees and their fans treat each off season like a Brewster's Millions spending spree with the automatic assumption that each and every star will eventually wear pinstripes.

It wouldn't kill the fan base to see a Yankee legend wear someone else's uniform.

All of this insanity can be solved the good old fashioned American way.
Find out Jeter's worth and decide to pay it or not.

That way there is no question.
Is the Yankee offer an insult? If it beats the market, then obviously it isn't.
Is being a Yankee the most important thing to Jeter? If he resigns for less money, then no doubt.

Of course because I am a Red Sox fan, I will get accused of slighting Derek Jeter. I practically wrote a love letter to Jeter last year. He's obviously a Hall of Famer and a great Yankee.

He is clearly the last Yankee to ever wear #2.

But he HAS been paid for the intangibles. Now? He should play what he is WORTH.

SO come on, other teams... let's set the price and see if the Yankees will blink.

I guess I have to address the Derek Cheater incident

Derek Jeter did the whole Caddyshack "Ow my arm" routine a few days ago and frankly I didn't give a damn.

Yeah, I thought it was kind of silly but all I cared about was the Yankees lost the game.

Of course if the Yankees WON the game (and they took the lead after Granderson's homer) I would probably be a little P.O.ed, but I saw it as karma.

But man, if you read my e mail box, you would have thought I was Walter Cronkite not giving his opinions about the moon landing.

I only have 3 thoughts on the subject:

1 - JETER SHOWS THE ADVANTAGE OF HAVING GOOD WILL IN THE BANK.

Take note, Colby Rasmus, who thinks he is already good enough to be making waves in St. Louis. If you act like a pro for 16 years and do everything right, you can get a pass when you do something kind of Bush League.

The great Lisa Swan pointed out the double standard between how Jeter has been treated in this situation and how A-Rod was treated on things like yelling "HA!" or slapping Arroyo's glove in the 2004 ALCS.

Imagine if Manny Ramirez, Milton Bradley, Miguel Cabrera or A. J. Pierzynski tried to pull this off.

2 - INSTANT REPLAY ANYONE?

We ALL saw almost instantly (and while Joe Maddon was still arguing) that the ball hit the bat. It wasn't a matter of opinion... it was a matter of fact. EVERYONE on the planet Earth could see what the correct call was, except the people who actually make the calls.

Folks, this could have been all taken care of in one minute with zero controversy.

But of course that would make too much sense. We CAN'T have that!
(Insanity).

3 - THIS IS A REFRESHING CONTROVERSY

It wasn't that long ago that when people called out cheaters, it was because they were injecting hormones designed for horses into their buttocks.

This is more fun. It's silly and in the end harmless. There will be no Senate panels and parents of dead kids saying "My son pretending to be hit like a pitch like Derek Jeter... AND NOW HE'S DEAD!"

And it goes to something I wrote before... cheating will ALWAYS be tolerated in baseball. People will just have trouble with things that are against the law.

It's subtle.

That's all I got.
Back to baseball.

The Pirates should TRY to sign Derek Jeter

Derek Jeter is going to be a free agent at the end of this year and it is a foregone conclusion that he will resign with the Yankees.

He's given the Yankees 16 seasons and is only 102 hits away from being the first Yankee to reach 3,000.

And of course he is the most beloved New York sports star in the last quarter century. (Seriously, who has come close?)

All of that being said... this should not be a free agency where he gets no other bids.

The Pirates need to throw in a bid.

Yup. I am dead serious.

So all of you Pirate fans who think I am picking on you guys... I am not. There is some logic to my insanity.

The Pirates have been bad for so long that there are Pirate fans who can legally buy a drink and have no memory of their team winning 82 games in a season... and not because they are drunk.

And guess what? That is now the identity of the team. In Buster Olney's great book The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty, he wrote about Luis Sojo's brief time in Pittsburgh. Sojo was stunned how there was complacency in the clubhouse that they are simply not going to contend.

That was 10 seasons ago. They haven't come close to relevance since and are currently the worst team in baseball.

But as I wrote before, there is some hope for the 2011 team. They are cobbling together some nice talent, including Pedro Alvarez at third and an outfield of Jose Tabata, Andrew McCutchen and the grizzled 25 year old veteran Lastings Milledge. Plus there are some decent arms that are going through some growing pains.

I was thinking about teams that made and unexpected turn arounds over the years.
I can think of teams like the 1986 Red Sox... 1988 Dodgers... the 1991 Twins and Braves... the 2006 Tigers... the 2008 Rays.

Each of those teams had a new comer who had post season experience and simply wouldn't tolerate losing. And it rubbed off.

Don Baylor came into the Red Sox clubhouse and helped turn a fractured team into almost a World Series winner.

Kirk Gibson stormed out of the Dodgers spring training when he felt there was too much joking. He led by example and even homered when he couldn't walk.

The 1991 World Series was between teams that were in last place the year before. Charlie Liebrandt helped anchor Atlanta's rotation and Terry Pendleton had an MVP season sparking the line up. Meanwhile the Twins imported Jack Morris to the rotation and 10 innings in Game 7 later, the Twins were champs.

Jim Leyland turned the 2006 Tigers around with some help from Pudge Rodriguez, who started the change in the culture a few years prior.

And importing some veterans like Cliff Floyd transformed Tampa from the laughing stock of baseball to a pennant winner.

Now of course each of these teams won because their talent clicked... but you can point to those veterans who helped turn the proverbial rag tag bunch of also rans into contenders.

Which brings us to the Pirates.
They desperately need someone to help change the culture and stop the "They haven't been above .500 since 1992" clock.

They need someone to tell Milledge and Alvarez how to play the game and not let the Pirates be content with losing.

And we're not even pining for a World Series winner. An 82-80 record will get the monkey off their back.

Who commands more respect than Jeter?
Who do you think would be LESS tolerant of a clubhouse that has all the peppiness of a Droopy cartoon?

The players would play UP to his level... or at least try to the same way any of us try to do a good job when someone we respect is watching us.

The Pirates NEED to go into this free agency period and put in an offer for him and do it publicly.

Now do the Pirates have a shot?
Of course not. Jeter is a Yankee for life. We all know it. And the Yankees will out bid the Pirates in a matter of nanoseconds.

And in the end the Pirates won't have to spend the money they bid.
But at least it would be a positive gesture.

And telling their fans "We see what part of the problem is" is a start.

(But man, wouldn't it be cool to see him in Gold and black?)