Jeter Approaches 3,000….. So What!

Hey Jeter, Brett Favre called and said you should retire because you’re embarrassing yourself. Much ado about nothing is going on in the media lately and it is driving me nuts. It’s quite obvious looking at Derek Jeter’s stats that his career is heading south rapidly. But the beloved darling of the sports media must turn garbage into roses. Enter the “Derek Jeter is going to be the only Yankee to hit 3,000 career hits” saga. Prepare yourselves as this will be the lead story for the next few months. But the real story should be more like how much longer should we have to witness this aging player embarrass himself and his team for the sake of his ego…. AKA the Brett Favre Syndrome.

While media hypes up Jeter, let’s take a look at the real story of Jeter, 2011. Currently he is batting .259, with an OBP of .324 and a SLG of .324. He ranks 13^th, 10^th and 15^th respectively in these categories amongst AL shortstops. He leads in no offensive or defensive category among AL shortstops but despite this he is currently leading in All Star voting for shortstops. This is a guy with a career batting average of .312, OBP of .383 and SLG of .449. Wow! In these three categories, Jeter’s production is down by 22%, 20%, and 30% respectively since 2009. But yet we are all supposed to be in awe because he’s hanging around long enough to hit 3,000 when he should have retired.

Before anyone starts with the “hater” talk, I recognize that 3,000 hits is a great accomplishment for a career. Admittedly, I have great disdain for the Yankees and anyone who plays for them and thus maybe this is why this story really gets under my skin. I am simply tired of older players not knowing when to bow out gracefully in an attempt to hit some arbitrary number and Jeter being the recent player well that’s it! Did it ever occur to Jeter that it would be more honorable to be paid commensurate with his level of production rather than “I Hit 3,000”? Who does that help? Certainly not the Yankees if he had to strike out 400 times to reach it. Show me a superstar that says I will reduce my pay commensurate with my production because I love to play, now that’s a milestone. But unless you are truly paying attention to his stats you could also be duped into thinking what a great star he is and how valuable he is to the Yankees. Make no mistake; Derek Jeter will be in the Hall of Fame whether or not he gets 3,000 hits. But I cannot stand listening to this celebration of 3,000 when the real story should be his below average performance.

So Red Sox Nation let’s prepare for this overblown hype (LeBron is winding down—although amusingly we did get to hear A Rod’s advice to LeBron). We are about to embark upon celebrating Derek Jeter’s 3,000 hit for the next few months. Well actually he is now on the DL so throughout this duration it will be speculation and “when will it happen.” This superstar hype should also in turn convince those fools not paying attention to continue voting for him in the AL All Star game. You know he is currently leading despite his declining statistics. Argh, it’s enough to make anyone cringe. But, take heart; even though I will tough out the hype on this 3,000 hits saga, at least he is making some great decisions on behalf of the Red Sox. Keep holding that Yankees team hostage to your playing, continue tying up 14.7 million in salary, continue popping in and out all season with injuries and watch us win the AL East.