Well, today’s game was truly the end of a great career. And Jeter did it in style with an RBI hit, a lot of hugs for his teammates, a few words for Clay Bulhholz before coming off the field, a tip of the cap to the Red Sox players and a wave to the fans. I thought the Red Sox, both as an organization and as a fan base, did a beautiful job with their farewell. Not only did they trot out their most esteemed sports captains for the pre-game ceremony but the Fenway Faithful cheered and stood at the end as if Jeter were their own. I was very moved.
It seems strangely OK that it was the end of the 2014 season too. It’s time for the Yankees to regroup and figure out where to go from here. There’s been a lot written about the return of A-Rod in recent days so his presence and its attendant baggage will be inevitable, but Michael Pineda gives me a lot of hope that the starting pitching will be in very good shape. (Tanaka is still a question mark for me. I don’t trust the health of that arm. I hope I’m wrong. Ditto: CC for a bunch of reasons.) I enjoyed watching Jose Pirela, both at the plate and at second base. I don’t quite get why he wasn’t called up sooner, despite roster issues, since he led the International League in hitting (or something like that), but I hope he sticks around. Maybe they could move him to shortstop because Drew won’t contribute anything to the offense and if I’m Cashman I don’t re-sign him.
Speaking of Cashman, he’ll have a full plate this off-season as usual but maybe with more urgency than ever. Two years without a postseason? The horror if you’re the Steinbrenners. George must be fuming. Do they even keep Cashman? Is it conceivable that there’s another GM out there who looks more enticing? Or will they stick with the status quo? Girardi’s alleged tirade in the clubhouse on Thursday could have been a manifestation not just of his own anger but of that of his bosses.
Getting back to Jeter, it’ll be interesting to see where his life takes him. He’s already dipped into the book publishing world with his own imprint at Simon & Schuster. He’s expressed interest in owning a team but in the shorter term it’s more likely he’ll invest his time and money in media-driven enterprises. I have to admit I envy Jeter right now. Most people retire with modest goals – taking up a hobby, traveling, figuring how to live on Social Security and cope with health problems. He’s young and fit and fabulously wealthy, and the world is his oyster; he can do whatever the hell he wants. Nice. As I said, I look forward to seeing what direction his life takes.
No, the Yankees won’t be the same without him, but iconic players have long come and gone in this franchise and someday, hopefully soon, another will come our way. I look forward to that too.
In the meantime, unless there’s something newsworthy in Yankeeville, I guess the Confessions blog will go on its usual hiatus for the off-season. Or not…….
Its hard to say good-bye, but the close out this last couple of weeks has been beautiful. The commercials, the games, everything. Now he can spend time with his family and start one of his own eventually. It will be interesting to see how he progresses now. As for The 2015 Yankees, hopefully the rebuilding process will be fairly quick…but I’m not looking forward to A-Rod’s return. Like I’ve said before, I’m glad Jeter got to leave without A-Rod behind him. Finally, it was sweet to see Bernie Williams playing “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” – the first time they did “root root root” it sounding like the fans said, “for The Yankees” but the second time it was clearly “for The Red Sox”. I saw Bernie live a couple of years ago – the crowd was about 3,000 people – and he said, “Wow, I’ve never PLAYED in front of a crowd this big!” — Pretty funny.
I was lucky enough to be in the stands (bleachers to be precise) yesterday for the game. It was incredible. The Red Sox did an amazing job and the feeling in the stadium was this really bizarre and amazing mix of shared excitement and love for baseball and its history. It should be pointed out, however, that I’m fairly confident that at least 60-70% of the people there were Yankees fans. This was never more clear than when the Red Sox showed a great video recounting the history of the rivalry and both the clips of Bucky Dent and Aaron Boone were met with overwhelming cheers – at Fenway Park! Let’s go Yankees cheers were also really prevalent all day long, often answered with some Let’s Go Red Sox cheers, but they never quite seemed to match the Yankees cheers. At least not from where I was sitting.
I love Bernie, Diane, but I thought his rendition of the song fell kind of flat. People really wanted to cheer, have something more upbeat, while his was jazz lite. Not my cup of tea. But the day overall was wonderful.
It did look like there were a ton of Yankee fans there, Tamar. Very cool that you were among them for the historic event. Usually being in the bleachers there can be a bit dicey for someone wearing pinstripes, so I’m glad it was a good, friendly crowd.
There was a wonderful little homemade sign there yesterday. It said:
“Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened…”
And so, goodbye.
It has been so overwhelmingly glorious to watch the end of Jeter’s career. Many of my friends who have never watched a complete baseball game watched every minute yesterday and Thursday and came away understanding at least partially why there is so much admiration and love for him.
I sure do look forward to next season not being quite as emotional as the last two! I won’t go into all of my worries, but I look forward to returning to October baseball next year.