The Captain is not happy
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Feb 20, 2007 
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Derek Jeter sat in the dugout in the same place Alex Rodriguez did yesterday. But he wasn’t nearly as happy about it.
Derek draws a thick line between what he does on the field and what he does off. In his mind, once you open the door to your private life, it never closes.
So while he didn’t say he was annoyed at Rodriguez airing their dirty laundry, the tone of his words spoke volumes. You can listen to the audio yourself shortly.
“It doesn’t matter what our relationship was or how often we hang out now,” Jeter said. “I understand this out there for discussion but it’s not relevant.”
Jeter made several points clear: He does not have a rift with A-Rod; he supports A-Rod as the captain of the team and A-Rod doesn’t believe there is a lack of support. They have talked that over.
But there was no doubt Jeter wanted nothing to do with this issue.
“Am I annoyed that he chose to talk about it? He can talk about whatever he wants to talk about, Jeter said. “Me personally, this is the last time I’m going to address it.”
I cannot listen to the audio yet since I am at work, but for now I will take your word. Jeter is not going to do anything to make this go away if he spoke in the tone you suggested. He should have just said yeah we aren’t as close as we used to be and ended it right there. But by speaking in a annoyed tone he is only going to add fuel to the fire. Now everyone will run back to Alex to ask him his reaction to Jeters reaction. The Bronx Zoo is back, but than again that may not be a bad thing, since they did win the WS.
Hey pete…maybe there is more to it when you’re sitting there, but Jeter didn’t seem to “unhappy” to me…seemed like the same milk toast Jeter interview.
The Bronx Zoo isn’t back and even Derek Jeter has to sometimes face tough questions.
Its not just about playing and dating Maxim models.
Its not a big deal, will not affect the team one iota and it gives the writers some columns for the early part of spring training.
That’s all it is.
Jeter will have to kick A-Rod’s butt in the schoolyard after class.
I really don’t hear him being overly annoyed. I think they both said what needed to said now it’s done over with.
I especially like the comment he made about the pop up and the dirty look. They both laughed at what the media was saying.
Wow, so maybe they are human….
Jeter’s face must have told some story today.
Understanding A-Rod and Jeter is no harder than this: Derek jumped into the stands and broke his face catching that foul ball against Boston. The famous picture just shows A-Rod standing there seemingly unable to process what he saw.
Jeter is Lou Gehrig/Gary Cooper/Denzel Washington, dignified, full of grit, talent and unwavering determination. He is the strong, silent type. A-Rod is the Bambino, from an unsettled, poor childhood, made rich by his enormous physical talent. Enormous physical talent is not, however, emotional intelligence. It would have been fascinating to see A-Rod as captain in Texas – it would not have been pretty.
Yikes. I hope you don’t practice psychology for a living.
Sounds like typical Jeter.
My take, and that’s all it is, from the audio, is that Derek is not annoyed with Alex; he is annoyed with the situation — of having to come into training camp and answer questions he deems irrelevant to what he does on the playing field. In truth, Derek had answered all these questions last year, but when those answers don’t match up with what certain folks want the answers to be, they just keep asking. Also it is not fair to characterize Rodriguez as having brought this up this issue. It was a question put to him, which he figured he might as well answer to try and put it to bed.
I hope it’s done.
In something actually related to baseball… SI.com has a cool article about Phil Hughes
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.c.....index.html
Perhaps a cry from the wilderness here,,,
But I know I speak for a lot of fans when I say that we could NOT CARE LESS about the precise nature of the friendship between ARod and Jetes.
We are fans because we love baseball, not media-provoked soap operas. Give it a rest already.
murphydog and Doreen are 100% correct on all counts. Also read A-rod came in leaner hoping for extra agility, seems to be as focused as ever and now that he’s not trying to pretend things are better than they are, while at the same time both of them reinforcing that it’s not nearly as bad as the media makes it out to be, maybe this issue finally goes away and we get back to baseball and the five-hundred other soap operas that will replace this one…….
All things considered, say hello to #27.
great article, sunny. and those hats are terrible. anyone know if they’re permanent or just for spring training?
i heard just spring training for the hats and jerseys. though i’m not sure if they’ll be used during BP of the regular season.
What Tano said.
Also, as for DJ seeming annoyed, how would any of us like it if reporters with cameras and microphones came into our places of work and were peppering us with questions about how we never invite the guy in the next cubicle over for dinner, or why we’re no longer friendly with the guy in accounting? I understand the cameras and microphones are a part of the job, but when the subject is interpersonal relationships among teammates, it’s still got to be awkward and embarrassing.
This is the stupidest, most juvenile waste of time ever. Why can’t we just focus on baseball instead of who is best friends with whom? If I wanted soap opera drama, I would watch Days of Our Lives or Desperate Housewives. I honestly don’t give a tiny rat’s you-know-what about whether Jeter and A-Rod are as close as they were 13 years ago. Who cares? Just play ball, for crying out loud.
I would ignore the whole Jeter and A-Rod “friendship” episode, but for three things: 1) The Yankees have not won the World Series since 2000, 2) The Yankees have not won the World Series since 2000 and, 3) The Yankees have not… you get the point.
A-Rod is a trouble maker. This “friendship” issue is one example. Rod lied for three years about this situation instead of saying nothing or telling the truth three years ago and moving on. Saying he and Jetes were great friends when it was clearly not true only kept the story alive. It has created rumors and discomfort in and out of the clubhouse. By lying A-Rod generated more of that “weird” vibe that puts his teammates off and keeps the media on hand and focused on him as a running story (A-Rod feels alienated and/or he is hated). As long as A-Rod is around he will be a lightening rod for trouble. Now, thanks to Rod’s weirdness, Jeter and the team will start ’07 dealing with this unnecessary garbage and A-Rod still hasn’t hit in the clutch.
Some of you are just as cupable in keeping this soap opera alive be being unable to think for yourselves and believing every single word that is spoonfed to you.
Honestly, as long as this whole reality show mentality is going on can we start voting people off the blog island?
If Jeter is annoyed.. too bad who died and made him God. As far as I am concern he has to be the worst Captin ever. I think it time for Torre or Cashman to step in. A lot of people has voice the concern that Jeter is selfish. This just proves them right. Is Torre going to let the bad chemstry spoil the Team? Where is Cashman on all this.