'Enough with Jetes already!'

[HanSenSE]

Someone went to a lot of trouble to be that unfunny.

I've never understood why people straight-out hate the guy so much.

It's like with Coach K/Duke basketball. Not so much the guy, it's more a case of his cannonization by media fanbois.

 

[Jake_Taylor]

It's like with Coach K/Duke basketball. Not so much the guy, it's more a case of his cannonization by media fanbois.

Except K is a world class prick and hypocrite. Jeter just happened to be the most prominent player on a team people either love or hate.

J.J. Redick might be Duke's Jeter.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Anybody who covered Jeter knows that his biggest flaw is that while really good at baseball, he's about the dullest person on the planet. That's what makes the hate so silly. Who can get mad at a cipher?

 

[Guy_Incognito]

Posnanski made a reasonable case that he could/should have won 3 mvps.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Posnanski made a reasonable case that he could/should have won 3 mvps.

Do you have a link? Could be a I difference between "could have" and "should have."

 

[outofplace]

Do you have a link? Could be a I difference between "could have" and "should have."

I know plenty of Yankees fans who still whine about 2006. I can't say I've ever heard one of them make the argument without resorting to comparing Jeter's entire career to Morneau's.

Though I think there are some tiny kernels of truth in it, the fake dedication was ridiculous without being funny. Jeter does get credit for more than he did, but to suggest he was anything less than a great player and easy Hall of Famer is silly.

 

[Big Circus]

Except K is a world class prick and hypocrite. Jeter just happened to be the most prominent player on a team people either love or hate.

J.J. Redick might be Duke's Jeter.

Redick WAS a prick at the time he was most hated. He just grew out of it and had an outlet at the time. Good for him, sincerely.

Duke's Jeter is clearly Chase Jeter. Duh.

 

[CD Boogie]

It's like with Coach K/Duke basketball. Not so much the guy, it's more a case of his cannonization by media fanbois.

Jeter and Coach K were both shot out of cannons? I can get behind that

 

[Dick Whitman]

Chicago Tribune writer says stop retiring numbers, period.

Retiring jersey numbers has become ridiculous

If I recall, Notre Dame does not retire football numbers, which is fairly admirable, as compared to the Yankees. I'm sure when the tradition started, no one was contemplating that professional sports would go on for centuries as an American institution.

 

[justgladtobehere]

Football teams in general don't retire numbers. There aren't enough of them. Nobody is going to wear 12 again for New England, but it probably won't be retired.

 

[playthrough]

Chicago Tribune writer says stop retiring numbers, period.

Retiring jersey numbers has become ridiculous

If I recall, Notre Dame does not retire football numbers, which is fairly admirable, as compared to the Yankees. I'm sure when the tradition started, no one was contemplating that professional sports would go on for centuries as an American institution.

I didn't know until last weekend that the Yankees had retired Billy Martin's No. 1. There's all those other iconic single-digit Yankees and ... Billy Martin? And retiring Posada, Pettitte and Bernie Williams' numbers is a stretch, too.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Football teams in general don't retire numbers. There aren't enough of them. Nobody is going to wear 12 again for New England, but it probably won't be retired.

139 NFL players have had their numbers retired and just over 150 MLB players have.

 

[Dick Whitman]

The White Sox have retired 10, and I think they'll retire Buerhle's 56 to get to 11. That's more players than the freaking Cardinals.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

I didn't know until last weekend that the Yankees had retired Billy Martin's No. 1. There's all those other iconic single-digit Yankees and ... Billy Martin? And retiring Posada, Pettitte and Bernie Williams' numbers is a stretch, too.

Hell, the Celtics can top that and have. When they wanted to retire Jim Luscotoff's number, they couldn't, because it was 18, and they'd already put Dave Cowens' 18 in the rafters. So among the many retired numbers on the banners, there's a little square that says Lusky, Very dignified.

 

[Huggy]

The Canadiens have retired 18 numbers covering 21 players, 6 and 8 are the only single digit ones that are active

 

[Guy_Incognito]

I know plenty of Yankees fans who still whine about 2006. I can't say I've ever heard one of them make the argument without resorting to comparing Jeter's entire career to Morneau's.

Really?



Derek Jeter never won an MVP award. It’s really kind of a crazy thing because Jeter has been so celebrated, so absurdly canonized (It was the over-the-top Jeter love that, almost a decade ago, motivated me to coin the word “Jeterate.”). And yet, the guy was jobbed out of THREE MVP awards by my count.

In 1998, he lost to the MVP vote to Juan Gonzalez and I have to say that I still don’t understand it. Back then — and this continues somewhat now — voters chose players not only based on their own success but also based on how good their team was. Well, Derek Jeter was the best player on a Yankees team that won 114 games.

Not only that: Gonzalez had already won a dubious MVP award two years earlier — the voters have always spread things around.

Not only that: Jeter was a WAY MORE VALUABLE PLAYER than Gonzalez, whose entire case was home runs and RBIs. Jeter got on base more, was a much better base runner, was a dramatically better fielder at a more important position and so on and so on. That should not have been close. And it wasn’t close. Gonzalez won the award going away. Heck Jeter finished third in the voting, behind Nomar Garciaparra.

The very next year, Jeter has the highest WAR among everyday players in the American League. He was crazy good — .349/.438/.552 splits with a league leading 219 hits, 134 runs scored, 102 RBIs, it was a ridiculously awesome season for a team that, yet again, ran away with the division. Jeter finished SIXTH in the MVP voting. Now, really, that MVP should have gone to Pedro Martinez. But it did not. It went to Pudge Rodriguez. There is no way Pudge — great as he was defensively and with 35 homers added on — was as valuable as Jeter in 1999.

And then, the most famous snub, 2006, he lost the MVP to Justin Morneau. Again: Kind of inexplicable. Jeter had 40 points of on-base percentage on Morneau, scored 20 more runs, was way better on the bases and, though he had a rough year defensively, he was still a shortstop to Morneau’s first base.

Three times Jeter was demonstrably better than the guy who won the MVP award. Could it be that the guy who was basically given the number 2 by the world at last last week was actually UNDERRATED in his career?

 

[Guy_Incognito]

Do you have a link? Could be a I difference between "could have" and "should have."

Read it above. I wrote could / should deliberately.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Really?



Derek Jeter never won an MVP award. It’s really kind of a crazy thing because Jeter has been so celebrated, so absurdly canonized (It was the over-the-top Jeter love that, almost a decade ago, motivated me to coin the word “Jeterate.”). And yet, the guy was jobbed out of THREE MVP awards by my count.

In 1998, he lost to the MVP vote to Juan Gonzalez and I have to say that I still don’t understand it. Back then — and this continues somewhat now — voters chose players not only based on their own success but also based on how good their team was. Well, Derek Jeter was the best player on a Yankees team that won 114 games.

Not only that: Gonzalez had already won a dubious MVP award two years earlier — the voters have always spread things around.

Not only that: Jeter was a WAY MORE VALUABLE PLAYER than Gonzalez, whose entire case was home runs and RBIs. Jeter got on base more, was a much better base runner, was a dramatically better fielder at a more important position and so on and so on. That should not have been close. And it wasn’t close. Gonzalez won the award going away. Heck Jeter finished third in the voting, behind Nomar Garciaparra.

The very next year, Jeter has the highest WAR among everyday players in the American League. He was crazy good — .349/.438/.552 splits with a league leading 219 hits, 134 runs scored, 102 RBIs, it was a ridiculously awesome season for a team that, yet again, ran away with the division. Jeter finished SIXTH in the MVP voting. Now, really, that MVP should have gone to Pedro Martinez. But it did not. It went to Pudge Rodriguez. There is no way Pudge — great as he was defensively and with 35 homers added on — was as valuable as Jeter in 1999.

And then, the most famous snub, 2006, he lost the MVP to Justin Morneau. Again: Kind of inexplicable. Jeter had 40 points of on-base percentage on Morneau, scored 20 more runs, was way better on the bases and, though he had a rough year defensively, he was still a shortstop to Morneau’s first base.

Three times Jeter was demonstrably better than the guy who won the MVP award. Could it be that the guy who was basically given the number 2 by the world at last last week was actually UNDERRATED in his career?

1999 was a year I was glad I didn't have an MVP vote. About six guys who would've won it in a walk if they'd that year in a different season. Manny finished up the track too and had like 160 RBI.

 

[Dick Whitman]

1999 was a year I was glad I didn't have an MVP vote. About six guys who would've won it in a walk if they'd that year in a different season. Manny finished up the track too and had like 160 RBI.

That's because everyone was juiced to the gills.

 

[JC]

That's because everyone was juiced to the gills.

Which makes what Pedro did all the more impressive.