Derek Dinger
Real Stinger After Tino ties in 9th,Jeter wins it in 10th
By ANTHONY McCARRON
November 1,2001
Call him Mr. November.
Four minutes after midnight, when last night turned into this morning and thecalendar changed to November and baseball was played beyond October for the first time, Derek Jeter homered into the right-field seats in the
bottom of the 10th inning, lifting the Yankees to a 4-3 victory over
Arizona in Game 4 of the World Series.
Jeter hadn't done anything in the Series and was mostly a dud in the ALCS after tumbling into the stands to catch a foul ball in the division series. Joe Torre has said for a week that he doesn't believe his shortstop is 100%.
But Jeter fought Diamondbacks closer Byung-Hyun Kim through a nine-pitch at-bat to homer on a 3-2 pitch and even the best-of-seven World Series at two games apiece and guarantee a return trip to Phoenix for Game 6.
When the ball reached the stands, the 55,863 at the Stadium erupted. Jeter rounded third and slowed in front of the plate, leaping into a crowd of teammates, who pounded him on the head. Later, Jeter joked that he broke his foot on the jump.
Probably just the Diamondbacks' hearts. Not long before Jeter's thump, they had a two-run lead in the ninth inning and were on their way to a 3-1 Series lead. But Tino Martinez hit a two-out, two-run homer off Kim to tie the score and wake a sleepy Stadium, which had been relatively subdued for the first two Series games.
"This," Paul O'Neill said, "is a game that the 25 guys in this locker room will remember for a long time."
Jeter entered last night 1-for-11 (.091) in the Series and was hitting .239 in the postseason. He batted leadoff in Game 4 when Torre shuffled the lineup, hoping someone could spark the struggling offense.
"I've been scuffling," Jeter said. "I haven't gotten any hits, but I've had good swings. That's the beauty of the postseason. Regardless of how you've done, every time you come up you have a chance to do something special.
"We've been spoiled over the years, but this is huge. ... When I first hit it, I had no idea whether it was going to go out, but once it goes, it's a pretty special feeling."
It was the first time in World Series history that a team had hit a ninth-inning homer to tie the score and then an extra-inning homer to win. It was also the 12th time a Series game has ended on a homer.
The heart-wrenching finish robbed the Diamondbacks of any advantage they had in pitching their ace, Curt Schilling, on three days' rest. Schilling was terrific, but Arizona manager Bob Brenly took him out of the game after seven innings of three-hit ball. Kim blew away the Yankees in the eighth inning, but blew it in the ninth and 10th.
Schilling allowed only one run and struck out nine. The last pitch he threw was 97 mph. The second-to-last pitch was 98 mph. The Yankees had as much success against him as they had in their Game 1 loss.
Before Kim's collapse, Brenly looked like a genius, especially since Schilling had thrown just 88 pitches and would probably be fresh for a possible Game 7 start. Now the Diamondbacks have wasted a turn by one of the guys they had to get a win from, shifting the Series' momentum to the Yankees.
"It was an easy decision to take him out, considering he was starting on three days' rest," Brenly said. "We had a lead and we insisted all along that we would go to BK (Kim) for two innings to try to close the game out. Just didn't work out that way."
Did Game 7 considerations seep into Brenly's mind, too?
"Certainly, that entered into it somewhat," Brenly admitted.
The D-Backs took a 3-1 lead in the top of the eighth, scoring two runs off Mike Stanton, one of the top postseason pitchers of all time, and Ramiro Mendoza. Stanton entered the game in the seventh inning with a streak of 20 straight batters retired in Series play.
He got a double play to end a threat in the seventh and retired the leadoff hitter in the eighth but then ran into a snag. Luis Gonzalez singled and Erubiel Durazo doubled him home, taking third on the throw.
Mendoza came on, and Matt Williams then hit a grounder to Jeter. The Yankees were playing the infield in to cut off the insurance run. Jeter threw home to Jorge Posada, but pinch-runner Midre Cummings was safe after Posada dropped the ball.
The Yankees wasted a solid effort by Orlando Hernandez, who was an emotional wreck but pitched 6 1/3 strong innings. Hernandez, who was seemingly snapping at everybody from Posada to umpires to Durazo on a key fifth-inning play, allowed four hits and one run.
Hernandez exploded at home plate ump Ed Rapuano over balls and strikes in the third inning. After he was taken out in favor of Stanton in the seventh, Hernandez went to Rapuano and they spoke briefly.
The Yankees entered the game batting just .144 in the Series. Martinez didn't even have a hit until his homer.
Now two guys who weren't hitting have changed the whole Series.
"This is obviously a huge boost," Jeter said. "I mean, 3-1, that's a pretty deep hole for us. But this win means absolutely nothing unless we come out ready (tonight) and play well. They're a tough team. Schilling might pitch (tonight), too."
Jeter's spectacular play one for the ages.
By Spencer Fordin
October 16, 2001
������ NEW YORK -- The superlatives flow freely. Everybody around Derek Jeter keeps gushing about his tremendous level of play, both on the field and at the plate. Monday night, Jeter earned the admiration the hard way.
In a game his team needed to win, the superstar shortstop came up with two hits and an amazing catch. Actually, amazing might not even do that play justice.
In the eighth inning, with one man on and one man out, a galloping Jeter tracked down a twisting foul ball. After gloving it, he tumbled over the wall and landed flat on his back. It was a painful way to get a putout, but his teammates definitely appreciated his effort.
"You don't expect anything else; he does it all the time," Mike Stanton said. "People that don't get the chance to watch him everyday, they're missing something."
"A tremendous play by a tremendous player," said Chuck Knoblauch, who had an excellent view of that catch. "He never ceases to amaze. That's just a combination of talent, concentration and the desire to make a play."
Incredibly, the defensive gem obscured a more significant fact. With his second hit of the night, a sixth-inning double to right-center field, Jeter passed Pete Rose as the all-time postseason hit king.
At the tender age of 27, he already has more playoff hits (87) than anyone who ever played the game. Barring a major injury, he probably has at least half of his career left, which means that he could put that mark way out of reach for anyone who comes after him.
"I don't think I really want to reflect on that until it's over with," Jeter said. "You don't know if you're going to come back. Every chance you get, you should enjoy it. Hopefully, I have a few more hits in me."
Of course, Jeter has played on one of the best teams in baseball history, meaning that he has had an abnormal amount of chances to hit in the second season.
Not only that, but he is playing in a statistically skewed era -- Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle, among others, never had to play in an ALDS, against a wild card team. All of their postseason hits came in the World Series.
Even given that fact, there's nothing that can take away from Jeter's astounding feat.
"He's just a great hitter. It doesn't surprise anybody," Luis Sojo said. "He's still got another seven games against Seattle. If we beat them, he's got another seven games in the World Series. He'll probably get over 100, this year. I don't think anybody's going to touch that."
And that's only half of his game. Jeter's catch on Monday night may have been huge, but it couldn't compare to the play he made on Saturday.
In Game 3, Jeter made an uncanny instinctual play that may have saved the game. And the series, for that matter. In the eighth inning of a 1-0 ballgame, Jeter swooped in from nowhere, scooped up an overthrow and pitched it to the plate in time to tag out a sprinting Jeremy Giambi.
Put that play alongside tonight's, along with his hitting, and you get a glowing assessment -- from George Steinbrenner, no less.
"I have never seen a single athlete dominate a series, in football, basketball or baseball, like Derek Jeter did," said Steinbrenner, the owner of the Yankees. "He's got to be one of the greatest competitors to ever play the game, let alone for me."
If you listened to Jeter, though, he would tell you it's no big deal.
"Good catch, but that's about it," he said. "We were trying to score some more runs. We really couldn't sit around and focus on that too much."
That's fine if he didn't really want to talk about it. Almost all of his teammates weighed in, one way or the other, on his tremendous play.
"It was amazing. You guys can write whatever you can," Jorge Posada said. "You see it over and over again. He makes plays in different situations. That's why he gets paid big money. I was just hoping that he didn't get hurt."
"It was incredible. Not only that play, but also the play he made in Oakland," Alfonso Soriano said. "I think that people are going to remember those two plays for a very long time."
Scott Brosius, who had his sights on the ball before Jeter called him off, had the best angle on the foul-pop play. As a matter of fact, he may have been too close for comfort.
"My perspective was I almost got a cleat in the face," Brosius said. "He came over, and there's just so little ground over there. With the downhill like it is, it's really hard to gather yourself. Once he caught it, there was no was just no way for him to stop. Once he caught it, the wall was so short it just dumped him."
Jeter admitted that it hurt, but he also said it wasn't anything disastrous. Although he landed on his back, he came out of the incident with nothing worse than a scraped elbow.
As a matter of fact, the indignity may have been worse than the actual pain, especially since the Yankee fans in the front row made absolutely no effort to break his fall.
"I had beer fall on me," Jeter said. "They were probably trying to catch the drink."
On a more serious note, Jeter explained exactly what went through his mind when he saw the ball go up in the air.
"When you see it, your first reaction is to catch it," he said. "I called Brosius off -- I knew when I called it I had to catch it."
So where does this leave Jeter, who is perennially ranked among the best shortstops in the game? He may not have the offensive statistics that guys like Nomar Garciaparra and Alex Rodriguez put up, but he does have four World Series rings.
Ask any of his teammates, and they'll tell you it's not a coincidence.
"I don't care about numbers," Sojo said. "I'll always pick Derek Jeter. This guy's a winner."
M.V.P. Jeter Says This Title Is Most Gratifying.
The New York Times
By DAVE ANDERSON
October 26th, 2000
������ With a home run in each of the last two games and a .409 batting average,Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter was named the most valuable player of the Subway Series last night, but he deferred the honor.
"You could've picked a name out of the hat; we have 25 M.V.P.'s," he said. "First game, Vizcaino. What O'Neill's done, our pitching staff, our bullpen, Luis Sojo. You don't rely on one guy."
His cap on backward, Jeter, 26, was wearing a gray World Series champions sweatshirt that was wet with Champagne spray, but he entered the interview area carrying a bottle of water.
"This is by far the best team we've played," he said, meaning the Mets as a World Series opponent. "All the games could've gone either way. Every year is a different story, but I'd be lying if I said this wasn't more gratifying. Oakland was the hottest team when we played 'em, Seattle was tough, and the Mets were the best team I've seen in five years."
In his five seasons, Jeter has earned four World Series rings, including one in each of the last three years.
For the Subway Series, he had 9 hits in 22 at-bats, including two doubles, a triple and two homers. His first-pitch homer off Bobby J. Jones set the tone for the Yankees' 3-2 victory in Game 4 and his one-out homer off Al Leiter created a 2-2 tie in the sixth inning of last night's 4-2 victory.
The homers supplied his two runs batted in for the Series and sparked his .864 slugging average. He also walked three times. Jeter's 19 total bases set a five-game Series record. He tied five-game records with his nine hits and six runs scored.
Asked if this Series victory was a last hurrah for this Yankee team's core group, he said: "No one is focused on next year. We're going to enjoy this before we start thinking about next year." And when he was asked what his reaction would be if Joe Torre were to retire as manager, he smiled.
"If he retires, I'm going to retire," Jeter said. "He continues to push the right buttons. He's got a magic wand. You can't say enough about him as a manager. He's a player's manager. He lets you play. He doesn't get on you unless you make mental mistakes. He has a lot of confidence in everybody."
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