You still remember his bow-legged stroll to the plate. His tight-lipped nod to the umpire and catcher as he dug his cleats into the dirt. The way he raised his right arm as though balancing a butterfly on his wrist. How he tugged on his helmet, twirled his bat in the air, and then glared over his left shoulder to tell the pitcher he was ready.
For 20 years Derek Jeter was the emblem of consistency and success, the exemplar of how to bask in Broadway's glow without burning in its glare. His records are too numerous to count here, as are all his big deeds under brown leaves, when all true Yankees are measured.
So it was no surprise that Jeter was almost unanimously voted into the Hall of Fame — does it really matter that one dolt didn't vote for him? — exactly five years after the end of his resplendent career. What is surprising, and saddening, is that we don't get to see his induction at Cooperstown this summer. Whether you planned to drive there and watch in person or planned to take in every pixel on your spare-age TV, Jeter's entrance into official immortality matters.
So while this coronavirus has hurt us in myriad ways, it's not theatrical to say that Jeter's journey to his eternal baseball home means a lot to many New Yorkers. The city that's been mauled the most by COVID-19, the virus that has flooded our hospitals and killed many of our older neighbors, is now unable to watch its adopted son have his time in the sun. The Hall of Fame is bunting Jeter down the calendar, to 2021.
In the face of a worldwide pandemic, some may shrug their shoulders. It's a formality. Jeter was one vote short of unanimity and one year short of his natural induction. So what. Who cares about a wealthy baseball player when folks are clawing and clinging to life? Well, we do. Just as Mike Piazza fired the shot that awakened us from our 9/11 doldrums, watching Jeter coolly walk into the summer heat and take his place among the titans would show us that the world is more than masks and gloves and hand sanitizer. Seeing Jeter would humanize and entertain the Big Apple for a few fleeting hours.
It feels like every day they're canceling some part of the sports calendar. And if you look at the aggregate, we don't recognize our nation. There is no America without the Boston Marathon, without the first pitch at Yankee Stadium, without the NBA Finals, without the Kentucky Derby or Indy 500, or without the muted majesty of the Masters. You take away our rituals, you take away our identity. And whether the highbrow types like it or not, this nation is deeply rooted in sports.
Derek Jeter is not the greatest player in baseball history. He's not even the greatest in Yankees history. But no player was more respected by his peers or revered by his fans than No. 2, who will always be No. 1 to those who were there for every inning of his career. And no player of his generation was more identified with a team and a town than Derek Jeter was with the Yankees and Gotham.
We can process most of the mandates - why we can't attend concerts or basketball games or squat in stuffy movie theaters. But baseball, more than any American sport, is tethered to the outdoors, to the vitality and virtues of sunshine, green grass and blue skies. We've been told to get outside and exercise and breathe in the real air that feels so different from the recycled oxygen from home or the office. So why can't the shot-callers allow us this one thing? If they're considering MLB and NBA games sans fans, why not let Derek Jeter stand at a dais, deliver a speech the way he delivered so many clutch hits?
Sure, Jeter deserves to be inducted in front of frothing fans, his family, and his HOF peers. But it would be nice to see something so regally related to baseball, even if for an hour or two. No doubt such a selfless player would make the sacrifice for his sport, his fans, and his de facto home, the Big Apple.
Jeter's post-playing life hasn't been quite as charmed. He fled for Florida and built a house sardonically called "St. Jetersburg" — which he rents to fellow snowbird Tom Brady. Jeter took over the Miami Marlins and, well, let's just say they aren't the Yankees. But the moment Jeter lands on NYC, he gets his halo back. During the rigors of coronavirus we could use someone who had such comical immunity to the pitfalls of celebrity. Derek Jeter reminds New Yorkers why New York City is so great, especially when we're not feeling so great. It would be nice to see No. 2 be No. 1 this summer, and double as a middle-digit to this damn virus.
Twitter:@JasonKeidel