And speaking of Jeter…
From the Montreal Gazette of April 27:
Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez are teammates, but that’s not to assume they’re friends.
The Captain, an unauthorized biography by sportswriter Ian O’Connor, chronicles the soap operatype relationship between the two New York Yankees superstars.
In the new book, which is supposed to hit the shelves in May, O’Connor tells stories of Jeter’s dislike of A-Rod during the third baseman’s early years in New York. Apparently, Jeter’s iciness toward his former pal was so noticeable that one team official said he was too afraid to talk to Jeter about making amends with A-Rod.
“It would’ve been the last conversation I ever had with Derek,” the official said. “I would’ve been dead to him. It would’ve been like approaching Joe DiMaggio to talk to him about Marilyn Monroe.”
Los Angeles Dodgers manager Don Mattingly, then the Yankees’ hitting coach and the team’s former captain, tried to intervene. He spoke to Jeter about his dislike of former teammate Wade Boggs.
“I faked it with Boggs,” Mattingly told Jeter. “And you have to fake it with Alex.”
Even Yankees general manager Brian Cashman pleaded with Jeter to “fake it” with A-Rod.
According to the book, things didn’t begin to warm in the Yankees clubhouse until A-Rod hit rock bottom in 2009. He was outed as a steroid user and an unfaithful husband.
That’s when Jeter started talking to A-Rod again. He and girlfriend Minka Kelly shared in a dinner with A-Rod and his then-flame, Kate Hudson.
That was also the season the Yankees won the World Series – Jeter’s fifth title, and A-Rod’s first.
This book has the makings of a doozie for any baseball fan.
Oy.
What’s the deal? Why do we feel we have to knock our (ostensible) heroes off their pedestals? Is it jealousy? Or a true sense of correcting an incorrect perception? We’ve been led to believe, all these years, that Jeter was one of the good guys in sports: respectful, conscientious, hard-working. For as good a player is he is, A-Rod never had that same reputation and respect. I guess there’s a lot of grumbling behind closed doors.
Does the fact that The Captain: The Journey of Derek Jeter
More on The Captain:
- From Rob Neyer at SB Nation.
- Here’s an excerpt via ESPN New York.
- From NESN (New England Sports Network).
is available on Amazon.com,
{ 1 comment }
What’s the big deal? Everyone experiences things like this from high school to work to the retirement home. If this is the juiciest stuff, then Mr. O’Connor isn’t much of a reporter. At the very least, he’s a latecomer.
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