|
Let me just get this out right at the beginning. I don't like the New York Yankees. I just don't like them. You can make every argument you can think of and I still won't like them. Sorry. Yes, yes, I know that they are the most famous sports franchise in the world. Don't care. Yes, I know that they have 38 world championships. Blah. I just don't like them. I can't warm to them. There are a couple of reasons for this. One is that my parents moved to St. Louis in 1964 - the year the Cardinals beat the Yankees four games to three. That was all my mom needed to cement her anti-Yankee sentiment. As I grew up, I became a Cardinal fan, a National Leauge fan and an anti-Yankee convert myself. Incidently, the 3rd baseman for the Cardinals while I lived in St. Louis was Joe Torre. The second reason that I can point to is a function of the first reason. I'm a National Leauge guy. So when we moved to NJ in 1976 I natually gravitated to the Mets. In another interesting coincedence, the Cardinals had traded Joe Torre to the Mets the previous year. So anyway following the team that will always be the younger brother in the New York City area pretty much finalized my Yankee feelings.
I don't actively hate the Yankees. Begrudgingly, I have to admit that they ARE the most famous sports franchise and they HAVE won the most World Series. But that doesn't mean I have to like them. There a number of other, smaller reason to not like the Yankees. George Stinebrenner, the way they seem to like to corral former Met players, and that stupid kid that interferred in that playoff game. I root against them (like my mom taught me to) but I don't hate them. I hate some of their fans, but that's antoher story that I won't go into today.
All that Yankee blather was just an introduction to discuss what happened to Derek Jeter yesterday in the Yankee's first game of the year. In a nutshell, he tried for an extra base and the Toronto catcher made a play in which he jammed his shin guard into Jeter's shoulder. Thereby seperating Jeter's shoulder. It was a totally clean play (and others have said the same thing just so you don't think my anti-Yankee sentiment is trying to clear the Toronto catcher). In fact, it was Jeter's hustle that forced the Toronto player to come flying in to make the play in the first place. So here's Derek Jeter - arguably the most famous player on the most famous sports franchise in the world. He's lost or missed out on the last two World Series. and he's worked all spring training to get ready for the long haul of the 162 game season while being under the New York City media spotlight. What happens in his first game? Wham! Seperated shoulder - out for at least six to eight weeks. Sucks to be him right now. Of course, knowing the Yankee luck, the guy they bring in to replace him will outperform Jeter and they'll win 110 games.
In a weird coincidence, Michael Jeter died yesterday. How weird is that? Veeeery weird is what it is. Yesterday was a little more serious for Michael than it was for Derek. I didn't have much use for Michael Jeter. I didn't watch that dopey Evening Shade simply because it had Burt Reynolds in it. I couldn't sit through all of The Green Mile but what I saw of it, he was ok in. The only prolonged exposure that I had to the work of Michael Jeter was in his role of Mr. Noodle on Sesame Street. And he wasn't even the original Mr. Noodle - he was known as "The Other Mr. Noodle". Bobby was really, really into Sesame Street for awhile so I saw a lot of Mr. Noodle. Thankfully, Bobby has moved onto Spongebob under the influence of his older brother.
I was going to do a search for anything bad that happened to any other Jeters in the world, but I've decided against it.
|
