Jeter Beats A-Rod & Nomar

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Scott Cordischi, GoLocalProv Sports Editor

It was a great debate for almost a decade in Major League Baseball. Who was the better shortstop? Was it Boston’s Nomar Garciaparra. How about Seattle and then Texas star Alex Rodriguez? Or what about the Yankees’ Derek Jeter?

That trio defined the position in the late 90’s and early last decade and if you liked the sport of baseball, chances are that you had an opinion as to who the better player was.

Because of the gaudy offensive numbers he produced during that time, A-Rod was the choice of most impartial observers. From 1997-2003, he AVERAGED more than 43 homeruns per season while consistently racking upwards of 120 RBI’s each year. Rodriguez was also pretty smooth defensively because of his great athleticism and was named American League MVP in 2003 despite playing for a horrific Rangers team.

Conventional wisdom was that Garciaparra was the next logical choice for most. Nomar won Rookie of the Year honors in 1997 when he batted .306 with 30 HR’s and 98 RBI. Those numbers were pretty much representative of what you could expect from a healthy Nomar during that same period of time which included back-to-back A.L. batting titles in 1999-2000 when he hit .357 and .372 respectively. Garciaparra’s range at shortstop was terrific and many believed at the time that he would go down as one of the greatest Red Sox players of all-time right up there with the legendary Ted Williams.

And then there was Derek Jeter. The Yankee shortstop was the American League’s Rookie of the Year in 1996 when he batted .314 with 10 HR’s and 78 RBI. Not quite Nomar numbers and certainly far from A-Rod territory, but still very respectable.

Jeter was very solid defensively but lacked the range of the other two all-stars. But he had something that the other two didn’t – 4 World Series’ rings.

It was a great debate here in the northeast where Red Sox fans lobbied hard for Garciaparra while Yankee fans pointed to Jeter’s hardware as the reason why he deserved top billing.

Outside of the New York and New England area, the rest of the country stood behind Rodriguez for obvious reasons.

But now that we have the benefit of hindsight, that pecking order has changed dramatically.

For Jeter and Garciaparra, there was one day in particular that changed the perception of the two of them forever.

It was July 1, 2004 and the Red Sox were visiting the Yankees. New York had taken the first two games of the series and was going for the series sweep of Boston trying to push them 8 ½ games back in the standings.

In what many viewed as a critical game for Boston, Garciaparra was given the day to rest his sore right Achilles’. The game went into extra innings when Derek Jeter made the play of the game in the top of the 12th.

With 2 out in the top of the 12th, Trot Nixon peeled a foul pop up down the left field line. As Jeter gave chase it became apparent that he was running out of real estate. No matter. The Yankee shortstop made the catch at full speed on the run. His momentum carried him into the stands where his chin crashed into the seats at the old Yankee Stadium. He emerged bloodied and was taken to the hospital.

Meanwhile, on the Boston bench, there was no effort by Garciaparra to ask his manager to enter what was an ultra-important game. The juxtaposition was astonishing!

On one hand, you had a man doing everything possible to help his team win an important game. While on the other bench you had a player more concerned about his own physical well being.

That fact was not lost on Garciaparra’s teammates who were furious after the loss. When Red Sox starter Curt Schilling was asked about Jeter’s great catch, he replied, “that’s why that guy has all of those (explitive) rings!”

Schilling was right. And he may have also been sending a message to all of Boston that Nomar’s lack of putting team first was why he had yet to win one himself.

Garciaparra was traded to the Cubs later that season and the rest is history. His career spiraled downward before he eventually retired in 2009.

A-Rod’s path took a bit of a different turn.

Following his MVP season in 2003, it became evident that the Texas Rangers either couldn’t or didn’t want to hang on to their high-priced superstar.

For a while during that offseason, it appeared that Rodriguez would be traded to Boston but the deal never went through because the Players’ Union refused to allow him to take a pay cut as part of the deal.

That’s where the Yankees stepped in. Even though they had an All-Star shortstop in Jeter, they were enamored by his unbelievable numbers. So A-Rod was sent to New York where he agreed to play third base.

His first year in New York was below average statistically as he batted .286 with 36 HR’s and 106 RBI. But his defining moments both came against archrival Boston and neither was good for him.

On July 24, 2004, the Red Sox trailed the Yankees by 9 ½ games in the A.L. East and had lost 8-7 to New York at Fenway the night before. With Boston trailing 3-0 in the third, Red Sox starter Bronson Arroyo hit Rodriguez with a pitch prompting A-Rod to bark at Arroyo on his way to first base.

Boston captain Jason Varitek then took matters into his own hands and stuffed his catcher’s mitt into the face of Rodriguez causing both benches to clear. The game ended when Bill Mueller took Mariano Rivera deep into the Boston bullpen for a walk-off 2-run homerun in the bottom of the 9th.

The Red Sox won the game 11-10 and Boston seemed to take off from that point in the season.

A-Rod’s other not-so-great moment came in the American League Championship series against the Red Sox.

It was game 6 in New York and the Yankees trailed 4-2 in the 8th. With 1-out and Derek Jeter on first, A-Rod hit a grounder up the first base line which Arroyo came off the mound to field. As Arroyo went to tag A-Rod, Rodriguez batted the ball out of his glove making it safely to first while Jeter came all the way around to score and cut it to a 1-run game.

Boston players and manager Terry Francona protested to first base umpire Randy Marsh. The entire crew came together and eventually made the right call which was interference on Rodriguez. He became the second out of the inning sending Jeter all the way back to first.

Boston went on the complete the miraculous comeback from a 3-0 series deficit to win game 7 in New York and many Yankee fans fingered A-Rod as one of the main reasons why their team failed to make it to the World Series.

The controversy for Rodriguez didn’t end there. In 2009, after a Sports Illustrated story fingered A-Rod as one of 104 players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003, Rodriguez admitted to using PED’s. Just like that, his once hall of fame career was now called into question.

The suspicion of steroid use also hovered around Garciaparra in his later years. Nomar’s frequent wrist and tendon injures led many to question how he had built that muscular body of his. It made many wonder about his Hulk-like picture on the Cover of Sports Illustrated in 2001 where he posed bare-chested with a bat over his shoulders looking more like a body builder than a baseball player.

Meanwhile, all Derek Jeter has been doing is chugging along. The veteran shortstop has won 5 Gold Glove Awards for his solid defensive play in the field. He added a 5th World Championship to his resume’ in 2009 and just became the first Yankee ever to get 3,000 career hits all with New York.

What’s even more impressive about Jeter is that he has done it the right way on and off of the field.

Never has there been a suspicion of wrong-doing with the Yankee star. No link to steroids. No stories about him being a bad teammate. No run-in’s with the media or fans. Nothing! Just class personified.

And that’s not easy in the pressure-cooker that is New York.

Jeter caught a little heat these past few days for opting out of the All-Star game for being “mentally and physically exhausted.” But if that’s the worst thing that he has to deal with throughout his illustrious career, he’s way ahead of the game.

Unlike his teammate Alex Rodriguez, there is nothing narcissistic about Jeter. He is all about the team and all about winning. And that is why it is Jeter who stands out above the other two.

They say that hindsight is 20/20 and is the only perfect science known to mankind. And hindsight tells us that Derek Jeter is in a class by himself.