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| Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter image from whatisthetrend.net |
Derek Jeter has never played for a MLB team other than the New York Yankees, and he intends to keep it that way. When the franchise didn't immediately renew his contract at the end of last season, allowing him to become a free agent, there was worry that the Yankees did not feel as strongly about keeping Jeter in pinstripes. But through the coverage of the negotiations, much negativity somehow wound up on Jeter himself.
With so many players not caring about their teams, it's easy to forget that sometimes teams don't care about their players. My friend Blake's blog Clutch talks about exactly that this week.
The Yankees did finally sign Jeter to a three-year guaranteed contract. In this USA Today article from December, just after the announcement of the deal, Jeter talks about how he was most annoyed by the way the media portrayed him in the negotiations. He makes it clear that he was always loyal to the Yankees and did not play hardball to get the franchise to meet his demands. "I basically said this is where I wanted to be. So, what could I demand?" he said.
The assumptions that Jeter was greedy and demanding undoubtedly are reflections of the trend of professional athletes becoming more and more focused on nothing but their salaries. The greedy ones are having a poor reflection on the entire industry, and loyal players like Jeter are suffering the consequences in the public eye.
With Jeter's batting average dropping to a .270 for the season there might have been a few less "Yankees suck, Jeter blows" shirts selling outside Fenway Park, but he is still the quintessential Yankee, and the team captain. Even Yankees Manager Joe Girardi said that Jeter "embodies what the Yankees are all about," after Jeter signed his new contract according to the USA Today article. Hopefully this is what people remember, not Jeter's "huge ego" and "greed" that was implied by all the media speculation.
Just to be clear, as a Red Sox fan, writing this post putting Jeter in a positive light was very difficult for me.
Interesting point of view. I always thought that the loyalty issue rested mostly with the player. Reconsidering that view, the team also has to be loyal. But you brought out the interesting interplay of the media and their spin in the eyes of the public. In this money hungry world, it's interesting to realize that the player may just be a pawn in a game played by the team, the media, and the agent. Public passion for a certain player, especially when that player becomes associated with a team, should be priceless to the team.
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