Yanks in No Danger With Jeter at Helm

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- You should forget the baseball fantasy that took place Thursday night next door to Disneyland, but only if you're among the wise who believe in pinstriped destiny this year. There is no Rally Monkey or Thunderstix at Yankee Stadium, where the American League Championship Series is headed after the fluke that was the Los Angeles Angels' 7-6 victory in Game 5.

The Yankees still will take it all -- the AL pennant, a world championship, maybe the Western Hemisphere -- because they have somebody who won't settle for less.

Derek Jeter.

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"He plays hard every day, every play, and he never takes a play off, and he never takes a pitch off," said Yankees manager Joe Girardi of his shortstop and leadoff hitter that the folks at the Elias Sports Bureau say has the highest personal winning percentage (.603) among all active players with a minimum 1,000 games.

I mean, you can have Alex Rodriguez, suddenly the new Gehrig, Mantle and Jackson during the postseason. Go ahead and combine the best of A-Rod with that jumbo-sized Whitey Ford named CC Sabathia. I'll even throw in Mark Teixeira, whose Louisville Slugger has been sickly this autumn after a healthy summer. Even so, he remains Lou Gehrig smooth at first base. He also flashed some of his regular-season magic in the seventh inning. That's when the Yankees went from a 4-0 deficit to the edge of the World Series after they scored six times in the inning. Teixeira provided the first of those runs with a double that cleared the loaded bases.

Give me Jeter, though, the sometimes hidden but always consistent force behind anything great that happens to the Yankees.


Something weird happened to the Yankees this time: They rallied, but they lost, and they did so dramatically. They saw the pesky home team counter their mighty seventh with three runs in the bottom of the inning. The Angels hugged that 7-6 lead to the end, and they even survived the Yankees loading the bases in the ninth. As a result, the Angels now trail 3-2 in this best-of-seven series, but it only will delay the inevitable.

Not only do the Yankees remain a victory from reaching the World Series, they have the man who will discover various ways to get them there. With his bat, his glove, his legs, his mouth and his example.

Consider this: Jeter is the same after victory or defeat, and it doesn't matter how he played during a particular game. He never fails to move promptly to his locker to meet the large contingent of New York media and others with strong eye contact and straight talk.

I was among the "others" this time, and the answers to my series of questions to Jeter told much about Jeter and that pinstriped destiny.

The Yankees still will take it all -- the AL pennant, a world championship, maybe the Western Hemisphere -- because they have somebody who won't settle for less. Derek Jeter.
So, Derek, I said. A lot of teams would have trouble coming back in the playoffs from a loss like this, so why is it that ...

"Why would that be?" said Jeter, politely but firmly, waiting for my response with curious eyes connecting with my shocked eyes. Rarely do you get a question with a question in these situations -- unless somebody wants to be confrontational. This wasn't the case for Jeter, not since he had curious eyes.

Well, I said, the way the Yankees had to scramble back from trailing 4-0 and then scoring all those runs in the seventh. Then watching the Angels come back.

"OK, and ...," responded Jeter, politely, still with those curious eyes meeting my shocked eyes, hinting that he wanted to hear more. So I added that the Yankees are loaded with so many accomplished veterans (you know, starting with their team captain who won four world championships during his first five full seasons with the Yankees) that they won't have as much trouble winning something like a Game 6 on Saturday in the Bronx as your average team in this situation.

That's when Jeter eased into a smile as if to say, "You've earned the right to hear what I just told the guys in my clubhouse." Then he said, "Yeah, I mean. We lost the ballgame. That's pretty much it. I don't think we have to go anymore in depth than that. They played well. They played better than us. It's not like they just went out there and said, 'Now you guys can have this game.' They're playing well, too. They beat us, and now we go home and try to win Game 6."

They'll win it. They've got Andy Pettitte taking his big-game resume to the Yankee Stadium mound. One more victory for the left-hander, and he'll surpass John Smoltz with the most postseason victories by a pitcher. They've got all of those fans screaming "Let's Go Yankees" as an inspiring mantra, and they'll join all of those Yankee ghosts to push anybody in pinstripes toward higher heights. They've got George Steinbrenner, the aging owner, who has become their Gipper.

Mostly, they've got more talent than anybody. It starts and ends with the incomparable Jeter, and get this: The man has the flu, a cold or something. You never would know it, because as Girardi said earlier in the evening, "If you ask him how he feels, he gives you the same answer every time, 'Great.'"

Not surprisingly, Jeter interrupted his coughing spells of the last few days to rip the first pitch of the game into right field. Later, he walked and scored during the Yankees seventh. But he also struck out twice.

That said, only Melky Cabrera (.381) and Rodriguez (.368) are hitting better during the postseason than Jeter (.280) among Yankee regulars.

Oh, I did ask Jeter one more question: How do you feel?

He nodded.

Terence Moore is a national columnist and commentator for FanHouse. He is a frequent panelist on "Rome Is Burning," an ESPN show hosted by Jim Rome, that is seen Monday through Friday at 4:30 PM ET. Moore spent more than three decades working for major newspapers, including 26 years as an award-winning sports columnist for the San Francisco Examiner and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He resides in Atlanta.