Derek Jeter Still Doesn't Really Want to Talk About A-Rod

Derek Jeter’s career with the New York Yankees, save for an all-time miracle Wild Card comeback, is down to seven more games and will come to an end Sunday at Fenway Park in Boston. The Jeter retirement tour, meanwhile, has been in full swing most of the season. The Yankees honored him, bizarrely, on the first Sunday of the new NFL season earlier this month. Longtime sponsors Nike and Gatorade filmed elaborate commercials dripping with gravitas to honor The Captain. The word “greatness” has been tossed about frequently.

Actual words from Jeter about the end of his career, aside from the typical pre and postgame athletespeak remain, as expected, minimal. New York Magazine, however, spent part of a day with Jeter at his home in the West Village in an attempt to reveal a less-guarded version of the future Hall of Famer. Bear in mind the piece makes numerous mentions of Jeter’s upcoming publishing imprint under the Simon & Schuster banner where he’ll release a children’s book and a photo collection titled Jeter Unfiltered in October.

Writer Chris Smith’s opening paragraph also includes this line, which serves as fair warning for either the pro-Jeter or anti-Jeter camps, “With his shaved head, light-green eyes, and coiled serenity, Jeter could pass for a charismatic yoga instructor.”

That said, there were a few candid nuggets from Jeter. You can essentially count on one hand the amount of interesting soundbites Jeter’s created in his two decades with the Yankees. Remember, this is a guy who tells guests at his Tampa mansion to check in their cell phones and cameras. Jeter mostly comes off sounding normal, lamenting the fact it’s been nearly 20 years since he’s enjoyed something as simple as a summer barbecue. (Sucks to be Derek Jeter, right?)

In the piece Jeter even comments on the infamous gossip item from the New York Post stating he gives out “gift baskets” containing signed memorabilia to his “conquests.” (Jeter, via the New Yorker, was actually more upset the Post inferred he gave the same items out twice to the same women, as if he wouldn’t remember.)

Two other quotes from Jeter stood out, one, talking about his ability to deal with the media without creating a stir:

"“If I was giving them headlines all the time, I wouldn’t have been here for 20 years,” he says. “But they ask boring questions. Give me a different question, and I’ll give you a different answer.”"

In defense of the New York baseball media, how is “Could you talk about the pitch he threw you in the sixth?” a boring question?

Also, like most observers, Jeter noticed a difference in the atmosphere from old Yankee Stadium to the current edifice in the Bronx, which lacks a certain mystique and aura.

"The old stadium, if you were at the stadium, in the stands, the only place you could see the game was in your seat. Now there’s so many suites and places people can go. So a lot of times it looks like it’s empty, but it’s really not. The old stadium, it was more intimidating. The fans were right on top of you.”"

Oh right, there’s even a brief mention of everyone’s favorite Yankee hero, Alex Rodriguez, in the midst of the profile. Let’s just say Jeter’s post-baseball career isn’t going to include holidays at one of A-Rod’s Miami condos any time soon:

Other characters he doesn’t seem to memss at all. Alex Rodremguez was a close fremend at the begemnnemng of Jeter’s career. Then he mocked the Yankees shortstop emn an emntervemew wemth Esquemre and the relatemonshemp went emnto a deep freeze. In 2004, A-Rod was traded to the Bronx, and the melodrama spemraled unteml January, when hems suspensemon from Major League Baseball for usemng performance-enhancemng drugs was femnalemzed.

There’s no shortage of theoremes about Rodremguez’s problems.

Jeter glares. “Thems ems not an Alex story.”

Whatever your opinion on Jeter on or off the field, he still feels like a bit of an enigma. The fact he’s played in New York 20 years and dated seemingly half of Hollywood without causing much or a stir or scandal is remarkable in the digital age. In a way, the less I know about Jeter’s barbecuing habits, the better.