48 hours after I have a dust-up with my folks, they offer to have me around to watch the MLB All Star Game on Foxtel. It's strange, but I won't get into that one here.
My mother rings up. She says: "Look, it's Roger Clemens on the mound. And Some person in a Boston uniform is at bat. All these names even I know. Alfonso Soriano, Jason Giambi, Alex Rodri...who? Oh Jeter too. Come over and watch this."
Sad, huh? So even sadder, I went and watched Roger Clemens get torched by the American League Hitters for 6 runs in the first inning.
Hometown icon takes the mound as tears flow and vocal cords rupture.The American League triumphed over the National League for the seventh time in a row. Joe Torre who was 8-1 as an All-Star player, has now managed the American League to 5 straight wins under his watch. Yes there was a re-match of last year's Eric Gagne/Hank Blalock moment. This time Hank Blalock just flew out, but by then the AL had the game in their firm grasp. Mariano Rivera trotted to the mound and retired 3 lefty power hitters, all on fly balls.
Strikes out six guys in a row on 18 pitches, all of which are clocked at 146 miles per hour.
After which Roger Clemens leaves to one final thunderous standing O, putting a perfect poetic stamp on his glorious All-Star career.
Remember it. Savor it. And please buy the DVD for a mere $29.99.
Yeah, that's how this All-Star Game should have unfolded Tuesday night. Unfortunately, this game of baseball is sure one screwy sport. Its beauty is that it makes no sense, follows no scripts, constantly allows the impossible to become possible.
Somehow, though, we have a feeling that "beauty" is not a word the great Roger Clemens will be using to describe the seemingly impossible stuff that happened to him on this particular All-Star evening.
Unfortunately, we're forced to speculate on Roger's exact choice of words, since Clemens was long gone by the time the American League had finished administering a 9-4 whomping on Roger and his National League buddies.
So the only media member allowed to converse with him, on this stupendous evening, was Fox's Joe Buck. Whom he told, succinctly, during an on-the-field ceremony in the middle of the game: "I put our guys in a hole."
The AL team was actually a bit of Yankee-fest with 8 of the 32 roster spots filled with New York away game uniforms: Derek Jeter, Jason Giambi, A-Rod, Gary Sheffield, Hideki Matsui, Javier Vazquez, Tom Gordon, Mariano Rivera. I guess it reflects their obscenely huge payroll used to collect a team of superstars. What was odd was that, Clemens is an ex-Yankee, as were Ted Lilly, and Al Soriano. It seemed like one big Yankee-fest.
Alfonso Soriano, the man who got traded from the Yankees for A-Rod was the MVP.
Soriano, a three-time All-Star at age 28, hit .289 with 17 homers and 55 RBIs in the first half, helping the surprising Rangers take a two-game lead in the AL West after three years of last-place finishes with A-Rod.Joe Torre described Soriano as inexperienced, but the man is actually not that young; he's the same age as Alex Rodriguez. While I miss having a 'homegrown' star in the lineup, I have to admit A-Rod at 3B is better for the Yankees than Alfonso at 2B, mainly because it seems to have freed up Derek Jeter's range at SS. As for 'The man' Derek Jeter himself, he went 3-for-3, making his career All-Star Average, .700 (7-for-10). The highest in History. How does he keep doing these clutch things? here's the answer:
Rodriguez, an eight-time All-Star and the 2003 AL MVP, hit .270 for the AL East-leading Yankees with a team-high 22 homers, 58 RBIs and 18 steals -- fine numbers, but below the even higher expectations he created for himself. He was 1-for-3 with an RBI triple Tuesday night.
``I think he's doing his job with the Yankees and I'm doing my job in Texas,'' Soriano said. ``I'm happy for him, but happy for me, too.''
Soriano's 343-foot shot off Clemens was his second All-Star homer following a drive off Dodgers closer Eric Gagne two years ago. It sailed over the ``This One Counts'' banner hanging over the out-of-town scoreboard on the short porch in left field and gave the AL a 6-0 lead.
He followed that with a third-inning single and a fifth-inning strikeout, going 2-for-3. He also made a nice pickup on Sammy Sosa's third-inning grounder to second.
``I've seen him do it for several years,'' said former Yankees teammate Derek Jeter, who knows a star when he sees one.
Surrounded by his friends, Soriano felt as if he was back in the Bronx.
``I feel tonight, honest, like I'm coming back to play for the Yankees,'' he said, ``Having Joe Torre (as) manager, Jeter at short, (Jason) Giambi at first.''
``I don't know, it's not just good fortune,'' said Jeter, whose three hits all went to the opposite field against Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson and Carl Pavano. ``I'm up there swinging early in the counts, especially when you're facing guys like Rocket and Randy Johnson.''At first I think, it must be easy because he's simply got it. However, upon reflection I think what it is, is that the greatest of anything have a knack of making what they do look smooth, fluid, effortless; even under the greatest of pressures. And these things take the greatest of efforts to achieve.
Jeter's perfect night against the NL's best arms makes it even more mind-boggling that this is the same player batting under .200 a month into the season.
His turnaround was evident in June when he hit .396 with nine homers, helping lift his average to .277 at the break.
``Well, it's a long season. It's not over after the first month and a half or two months,'' Jeter said. ``We've still got a long way to go. I just try to keep things in perspective and take it day-to-day.''
...
This was Jeter's second 3-for-3 performance in an All-Star game. He also did it in Atlanta in 2000, earning the MVP award. He went on to win the World Series MVP that season, making him the first player to pull off that double.
- Art Neuro
2 comments:
Great players have already the skills when walking into the game. It isn't training, although sometimes things need to be tweaked and adjusted. It isn't hard work, althjough there seems to be a universal work ethic to these guys, such that all they did as kids was, well, play these games.
I am convinced that I was meant to be great, but was sidetracked when I discovered I was a wolfling.
I promise, though, that when I make it big, it won't just be me at the top. To misquote Brazil "We're all in this together."
I agree with what you say about 99.9% of elite athletes on the planet. I draw the line at Derek Jeter because if cliches like 'intangibles' and 'things that statistics cannot show' ever had any reality, it was to describe this guy. He is an enigma, simply because he just keeps rising to big occasions and bettering himself. He gives me the same feeling as when Matt Burke was at his peak for the Wallabies or when Bjorn Borg played Wimbledon or when John McEnroe or Pete Sampras played at their peak (if anything better). He's like Michael Jordan at his peak, but his game isn't about 'domination', it's about being indomitable. It's not about inspiration or perspiration, it's about fate destiny. He's like the wrangler for the Yankee Mystique and Aura (who are definitely NOT dancers in a nightclub)
All these elite ballplayers will be playing their hearts out to a deadlock. Then, Derek Jeter will pull something out of nowhere that turns into one of those highlight reels that they keep rolling. Turns the tide, "And the Yankees Win!!!!!"
What is that quality? I dunno.
Is it 'Star Quality'? Well, Alfonso Soriano and A-Rod ar Superstars but they don't have it.
Is it 'being a gamer'? Well I've seen countless gamers that haven't had it.
Is it 'the Right Stuff'? Well, send him to Mars to play baseball against Martians!!
The man is a sports-psychological titan.
So... I just shrug.
Grace Under Pressure is one thing, to be like Jeter is something else again.
I do have one pseudo-explanation. It's said, winners always want the ball. I think this guy has never had a single moment, awake or asleep, in his entire life he didn't want the ball coming to him as the Shortstop of the New York Yankees. To that end, he's been ready all his life.
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