The Sports Media Gets It Wrong Again

Ever since the sign stealing "scandal" broke, I have seen a number of articles or comments about MLB needing Derek Jeter to wash away the game's sins. What baseball needs now is to focus on the crowning of a man of integrity into its Hall Of Fame. Make people remember how great and honorable the sport can be by letting Derek step back into the spotlight.

I can only hope that this is the last time I have to listen to the sports media wrongfully pushing Derek Jeter on the world, because I reached my limit of Jeter simonizing ten years ago.

There are two mistakes the media is making with their handling of Jeter's induction and how it relates to the current bad publicity the game finds itself in. Both mistakes stem from the fact that the media loves Derek Jeter more than any entity in the history of the world has loved a human being. It is beyond fathomable why this has happened, but love is never logical, is it?

Mistake #1: The media's insistence that Jeter is a man of integrity.
I'm not necessarily saying he isn't, but what proof do we have? The media has turned quiet into integrity. The man says nothing about anything. If you believe that Fiers is a villain for speaking up then I guess Jeter is a hero because I don't remember him talking a stand on any issue in baseball. The man has made a career out of avoiding controversy, which isn't a bad trait, I guess, but doesn't fit with my idea of integrity either.

I do think, however, someone could make a case that his silence is hiding the fact that he isn't as upstanding as his PR guy has convinced us of. Have we already forgotten about this? And this? Yes, getting fired or let go is part of baseball, but Mr. Class Act, Derek Jeter, told the president of the team to do it because he "didn't want to" and then fired that president after he did Jeter's dirty work. If Jeter truly had any respect for the game outside his own ego, why would he handle this situation in such a callus manner. This isn't the actions of a guy who should be admired or held up as a paragon. This is the actions of a guy who thinks he is better than those who work for him. He didn't treat Andre Dawson or Jeff Conine or Jack McKeon like members of his fraternal order, he treated them like under the line employees.

The argument for Jeter's character almost always includes the fact that he is a great leader and team player, but is he? One of the biggest bell weather moments in his career came in 2004 when the Yankees traded for the best shortstop in the game. At the time of the trade Alex Rodriguez had four All Star Game starts to Jeter's two, he had two Gold Gloves to Jeter's none, he had one MVP to Jeter's none. So, obviously Jeter did what was right for the team and moved to third base, right? Nope. When asked what was going to happen on the right side of the field owner George Stienbrenner said, "Jeter is the captain. He is the leader." The ball was in Jeter's court. If he said play me at third, the Yankees would have because he was the leader. But Jeter clearly had his own interests and ego in mind and refused to change positions. There is nobody in baseball who would have played Jeter at shortstop in 2004 over Alex Rodriguez if it would not have been a PR nightmare, yet that is exactly what happened. Funny, Cal Ripken had no problem moving to third. Which brings us to...

Mistake #2: The media forcing a hero down our throats.
One of the greatest moments in baseball history came when Cal Ripken Jr. finally surpassed Lou Gehrig for most consecutive games played.

Ripken is now widely lauded for bringing fans back to baseball after the disgrace of the 1994 strike that caused the first baseball season without a World Series since 1904. But the important thing to note here, like many events that mend and heal, nobody was looking for Ripken to fix things, it just happened. The right guy at the right time saved the game. Baseball is now in the midst of another black mark on its reputation (one, in my opinion that isn't even in the same breath as the strike or steroids, but people seem to be unreasonably upset all the same.), so what does the media do? Crown Jeter as the guy to fix things before they allow it to happen naturally. Our culture has reached a point where getting to the story first is the most important thing. This mentality prevents sometimes prevents events from occurring on their own. The baseball media wants Derek Jeter to save the day so bad that they are going to make it happen, but it's not working. Derek Jeter is no Cal Ripken, and I say that as a fan of neither of them. Cal Ripken has proven time and time again that he feels the game is more important than him. He moves to third base when it is best for his team. He creates and promotes youth baseball all over the country. I know this is speculation, but I bet he sits down with Andre Dawson and Jack McKeon and explains why he is going to have to let them go.

Derek Jeter is the most overrated baseball player in the history of the game. That isn't so much a comment on him as a ballplayer as it is a comment about how in love with Derek Jeter the media is. The guy put up HOF numbers and has a resume of winning and accomplishment that 99% of athletes can only dream of. And still, the media has blown him up as a figure of heroism so far beyond what that resume means, that I will stand by the opening sentence of this paragraph until the day I die. We are taking about a guy that had a game stopped for five minutes because he got his 2,722 hit. ESPN cut away from normal broadcasting to show the event, like they did when Barry Bonds broke the all time home run record, or Ripken did what he did, for a hit that has no meaning to anyone who isn't a Yankee fan. Jeter getting the most hits for a Yankee is not national news! Nobody is going to break into live broadcasts to show Mike Trout get the most hits for a Angel, but because its Derek Jeter, its national news.
And how about this play

Everyone has this in their list of Top 5 Derek Jeter plays. Look at how willing he is to risk is body to make the catch! This is what makes Jeter a leader! Nobody seems to remember that this happened a few innings earlier

Notice how Reese tumbles into the camera well instead of diving into the stands. Notice how he got to the ball quicker and took a better route. Notice how it is the exact same play in the exact game with the exact same stakes but nobody remembers how great Reese's play was. When Derek Jeter does it, and breaks his face to get it done because he's not a good shortstop, its proof of his greatness.

Now the media thinks that they can make Derek Jeter the savior of baseball. They are going to tell us that we should pay attention to Jeter and not all that sign stealing that has been going on. They are going to give us the next generation's Cal Ripken. But that isn't how this works. The fans chose Ripken, its the media that is choosing Jeter.

Should Derek Jeter have been unanimously voted into the HOF?
It's not an easy question for me to answer. My initial reaction is, yes, he should have. As much as I hate him as a player and can't stand the attention he gets, there is no question that he belongs in the Hall of Fame. And I don't buy that "Ruth didn't get all the votes so nobody should" logic. If we all know that someone is a HOFer then give them the vote... unless you are making a point, like Jeter is overrated and I'm not going to give him the satisfaction of getting all the votes. In that case, maybe one member of the media got it right.