Drafting Derek Jeter
ByIt might be tonight. It might be Friday. It might be Saturday. No matter the day, though, Derek Jeter will soon get the four hits he needs to become the New York Yankees’ all-time hits leader. Through a combination of health, talent and ability, Jeter has swatted his way to the top of the list of many Yankee greats. Next year, he may very well emerge as the organization’s all-time steals leader, and before he retires, he’ll lead the organization in runs scored as well.
With history upon us, Derek Jeter Nostalgia has been in full force. Dorothy and Charles Jeter have been making the media rounds, and columnists all over New York are warmly praising Jeter for his hard work and clean image. My favorite of these pieces is this Anthony McCarron column. The Daily News tracked down a yearbook photo of Derek from Kalamazoo and spoke to Dick Groch, one of the scouts who first evaluated the eventual Hall of Famer.
Today, we view Derek Jeter as the consummate Yankee, but that’s due more to history than anything else. Derek has come to symbolize the Yankee dominance of the late 1990s and the Yankee perseverance of the past decade. He is one ring shy of a full hand and hopefully will earn that piece of jewelry this year. Jeter though almost wasn’t a Yankee, and for that, we jump into the Wayback Machine.
The date is May 30, 1992, and the Yankees had just lost to the Brewers 8-3. Greg Cadaret drew the loss, and Bill Wegman walked home with the win. In the game recap, Jack Curry talked about the Yankees’ draft plans:
Miami catcher Charles Johnson, Pepperdine pitcher Derek Wallace and high school shortstop Derek Jeter are the players the Yankees are interested in selecting with the sixth choice in the amateur draft Monday.
Grouping Derek Jeter in with those other two players reminds me of the old Sesame Street song with the line “one of these things is not like the other.” Charles Johnson was selected 28th overall in the 1992 draft by the Florida Marlins. He played parts of 12 seasons for seven teams and hit .245/.330/.433. One can only imagine what would have happened had the Yanks opted for Johnson over Jeter in 1992, the year Jorge Posada moved behind the plate.
Derek Wallace is a name lost to time. Selected 11th overall in 1992 by the Cubs, he was traded twice and eventually made his big league debut with the Mets. His Major League career lasted all of 33 innings.
As the draft neared in 1992 and the Yankees considered their top three candidates, another team emerged as a potential player for Derek Jeter. Said Murray Chass:
The Astros, with the No. 1 selection, had been leaning toward Phil Nevin, a third baseman from California State-Fullerton, but late last week, they were considering changing to Derek Jeter, a high school shortstop from Kalamazoo, Mich.
With just five teams in front of the Yanks, the Astros were the prime candidate to snatch Jeter away from them. But the ‘Stros wanted Phil Nevin a little bit more than they wanted Jeter. In the end, the Yankees got their man, their four World Series and a Hall of Fame short stop.
* * *
Postscript: The link in the last paragraph goes to a Jack Curry article from June 2, 1992. Curry talked with the Jeter family shortly after the Yankees made Derek the number six overall selection of the amateur draft. Curry speculated that Jeter would command the then-high signing bonus of $400,000, but Jeter, in Curry’s words, “downplayed” the money.
“I enjoy playing the game,” a young Derek said. “I think the money part is just an extra.” Indeed.
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The Mason Williams Watch
Scary isn’t it? The first time machine better be built by a Yankee fan.
nah–if it was, they would have taken Manny over Brien Taylor
Just stop Taylor from getting into that bar fight. Taylor could’ve been THAT special.
except that changes everything afterwards and any player drafted or signed etc because if he makes it then the yearly records changed, etc.
i would og bakc and try to prevent the strike so we oculd see that expos yankees ws we shouldve seen in 94.
Ya know, that’s why they have The Prime Directive on Star Trek.
que?
Unreal, even just drafted he was better talking to the media then guys in their 30′s
I was thinking the same thing. It’s not a front that the guy puts up he is just built that way.
Unreal indeed.
Love the thread.
Hal Newhouser was the Astros’ scout who recommended that they draft Jeter. When they didn’t, he quit, and never worked in baseball again.
That was actually an Astros fan who went back in time.
Wow. You are inferring that was as a consequence? Was Drayton McLane the owner then?
There was a large gap in time during the 1980′s when the yankees never had a 1st round pick due to free agent signings. Carl Everett in 1990 was the first high pick they’d had in a while.
When Jeter was drafted it still seemed strange for the yankees to be selecting high in the first round and it didn’t seem like the organization had the whole draft thing figured out yet. The whole franchise seemed to be completely adrift then and picking high in the draft felt like it was just part of that whole malaise. It didn’t seem to fit at all.
As I remember, much of the talk before that draft was about the Yankees being very hot on Charles Johnson. He seemed to be the guy they were leaning towards. The buzz was that he was the guy they loved. Maybe I’m misremembering but that’s what I recall. Lots of talk about Johnson and the Yankees.
I remember being surprised that they passed on Johnson and picked this Jeter kid. And then he got off to that horrible start in low A.
To me, the best part of this story, and one of the best parts of Buster’s book on the Yankees, is that Newhouser resigned because the Astros didnt draft him. In the book he had a quote that said something about there’s no reason for him to do his job if he cant convince his team to draft a talent like Jeter.
which book? the yankee dynasty one?
Yeah, The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty. Buster has lost me over the most recent years. But the book is very well done and you learn a lot about the team.
+1
awesome. he was great at the whole meadia relations thing in high school….
i hope he breaks the record on friday while I am in attendance. It will be eerie too if it happens o september 11th..dont know why, maybe its just me…
Why would it be eerie? Thats when Rose broke Cobbs record.
really? dude come on. i must have my history backwards…so it went september 11th plane fiasco, then a couple years later rose breaks cobb’s record….my bad
Then cavemen discovered fire.
Then the big bang went down
Or God created the earth, whichever you prefer
way to cya ha
and then bo, an amorphous life form came into existence, his sole purpose to misuse reply buttons and heave armaments at strawmen and red herrings alike
Eh, I’m with the Bo on this one. If there was some sort of common thread between the 9/11 terrorist attacks and Jeter possibly tying/setting the Yankees’ career hits record on September 11, 2009, you might be able to call it eerie. But there’s really no reason why it would be eerie, one has absolutely nothing to do with the other.
for me, being from ny and being within such a close proximity to what happened and being so invested in the 2001 team and jeter’s mr november thing, i just feel like being at the stadium on september 11th while he breaks the record (if he does) will be seriously awe inspiring. again, like i said, it could be just me.
it is
well then go comment on someone else’s post jagon
Nice hit and run.
It actually is kinda hysterical in its idiotic simplicity. If you’re going to randomly pop-in to a conversation with a snarky comment, you can’t really beat that performance. keith’s a jerk who adds nothing to the conversation, but he’s a jerk a jerk who adds nothing to the conversation with style.
And what’s a jagon?
in south park episode with the aliens who think earth is a tv show the tv executives have a crazy party and in the end one dude goes to another “i cant believe you sucked my jagon”
so it’s an undertheradar way to call someone a cock or a dick.
Ahhh. Gracias.
No biggie, I wouldn’t have spoken up if Bo didn’t take such a beating for expressing an opinion I actually agree with.
It’s an interesting choice of words… ‘Eerie’ generally means something kinda dark and mysterious, and I also think ‘awe inspiring’ is a bit much. It’s an important day to New Yorkers in particular, and this will be a nice moment for Yankees fans, for sure. There’s just no connection there, to me, and I think even if there’s a connection there for you, the language used to describe it might be a tad over the top.
But whatever, if you think it’s awe inspiring or eerie, more power to ya.
Not just you. Sept 11 holds so much meaning to New Yorkers especially. If Jeter breaks the all time Yankee record for hits on the same day the planes flew into the twin towers, there will be a certain eeriness to it. I can’t put my finger on why, which is why I think so many people have a problem with you saying it, but it is unavoidable.
thank you. this.
I just don’t think that word means what you guys think it means.
yes. eerie. weird. as in, the hair on my neck raises and i go, wow, this is weird. it’s like it was meant to happen on this day. this would be the same if it was any ny team/player breaking a record on this day. yes it is a coincidence, but the fact that it worked out this way with 162 games a year that there’s a chance for it to go this way, if it does, it will be eerie. ESPECIALLY if he goes 0-fer tonight and bangs out 4 hits friday
ps also awe inspiring moreso that I am there but it also is given mroe meaning because history is being made on a night that has such a negative meaning for most every ny’er 9even if you think that history is dumb or trivial)
I know what eerie means. You are obviously not very superstitious, and judging from your comments, you are extremely rational, or at least you present that way. I have never seen tragedy and loss like I saw on Sept 11. I am a huge Yankee and Jeter fan. If two separate events that will have a lasting effect on me happens on the same date, I see it as eerie. Like there are forces out there that are unknown, which can be a bit scary.
Maybe you don’t see it as eerie, because you don’t believe in superstitions, but for people that may believe that something else is out there driving this world, it can be seen that way.
yes, and again, the main thing that mondesi does not seem to realize is that i NEVER said the two were related. i made a statement that IF this happens THEN it would be eerie/awe inspiring TO ME.
he si right, the hti chase has NOTHING to do with september 11th. Until it is broken on September 11th and then it has everything to do with it.
Ok, I’m cool with this being the reason for this disagreement.
My comment above (3:43) was in response to MikeHC, not jsb. Like I just said below… jsb… Just because someone disagrees with you doesn’t mean they don’t understand your point. I fully understand what you are saying, and I fully disagree.
“he si right, the hti chase has NOTHING to do with september 11th. Until it is broken on September 11th and then it has everything to do with it.”
I lol’d. Agree to disagree.
Damn a little hard on jsbrendog i guess people can’t express themselves anymore.
Well here is to hoping that Jeter breaks the record on Friday.
“Damn a little hard on jsbrendog i guess people can’t express themselves anymore.”
Laaaaaaaaaaaaame. He can express himself, and I can express my disagreement with him.
I think it’s kind of hard to disagree on what a certain event means to someone. All jsbrendog was expressing was what Jeter breaking the hits record and 9/11 meant to HIM. So who are we to question that.
I don’t think that jsbrendog ever made the suggestion that we all should feel the same.
Ok… But you’re still saying ‘sheesh the guy’s just expressing himself’ while poo-poo’ing my response to jsb, which was me just expressing myself, right? It works both ways, is all I’m saying.
I think its lame that your questioning what a person feels.
My comment was so nice you had to respond to it twice.
PS: I should have refrained from saying “laaaaaaaaaaaaame,” my bad.
Thank you for that I always think respect is key here same goes for my reply ( should of refrained).
I don’t know about the rest of you , but if Jeter breaks the record on friday it now has new mean for me.
LOL
What about the fact that Derek Jeter may in fact break the record on September 11th…Harry Connick Jr.’s birthday…
Doesn’t this creep you out at least a little bit??
lol
That’s some seriously eerie shit that inspires me with awe.
jagon
Your use of non-existant words ise erily awe-inspiring.
and your sarcastic comments about my opinion throughout this whole discussion are superbly douchetastic.
jsb… Deep breaths… Relaxation… Zen…
dude, don’t patronize me. not that there’s anything i can do about it but seriously, come on
I’m not being patronizing, you seem to be getting a little hot under the collar (per the “superbly douchetastic” comment and several others). Kind of one of those “dish it/take it” situations, you know? No reason to get so heated.
I was not taking issue with the fact that Bo sees no connection to the terrorist attacks and Jeter breaking the record, if it happens that day.
The issue is what Bo backed up his statement with, which had no relation to his first sentence.
Jeter breaking the record on Sept 11 is not eerie due to the terrorist attack because thats when Rose broke the record? Makes no sense. Or I should say it makes perfect sense for Bo
I think the point he was trying to make, however inartfully, is that you could find any number of things that happened to have occurred on September 11 of some year, but that doesn’t mean they have any connection to Derek Jeter’s pursuit of the Yankees hit record. That makes sense, and I agree with it.
are you now or were you living in ny or such close proximity when this happened? do you understand how much sept 11 means to ppl who were? makavelli posted a link eaelier to the hbo special about how the yankees really lifted the city’s spirits in the time afterwards with their playoff run and the most exciting WS any of us will probably see i our lifetime.
As new yorker’s we associated with that and it holds meaning because during that time of not knowing wtf was oging on in the world and a feeling of being lost the yankees were there. and something about jeter breaking that record on that day has meaning. and it definitely is eerie.
find two other events that would have the same connections. your point of any number of things that happened to have occurred on september 11th seriously downplays the WTC attacks. it is nto and was not some thing that happened and thefeeling of stability and somehting to rally around that was provided by the yankees in the following days really helped people stay grounded.
harry connikc’s bday and rose breaking cobb’s record are things that happened sept 11.
I was here in NY, I’m with you. The Yankees’ postseason run that year was fun and was a very welcome escape from everything else we were all feeling at that time.
Derek Jeter’s pursuit of the Yankees hit record still has absolutely nothing to do with what happened on September 11, 2001.
no youire right, the pursuit has nothing to do with it. and neither will the the breaking of the record.
UNLESS it happens Friday. in which case it will.
i don’t think you’re realizing here that i never said they had anything to do with each other. I said that IF he breaks it friday, on sept 11th it will be eerie and awe inspiring. Which i stand by.
This is all predicated on the notion that he does it friday. if he doesn’t it is a moot point.
By the way, I said this earlier if anybody is interested.
HBO On Demand has “9 Innings from Ground Zero” on it. Watched it last night. It’s sooo good. I still get chills with Brosius hits that 2 run shot to tie up the game with 2 out in the bottom of the 9th AGAIN for the 2nd day in a row…
No, I realize what you said and what you meant. For the reasons MikeHC stated above, I disagree with you. You think 2 things that absolutely nothing to do with each other happening on the same calendar date 8 years apart have some sort of connection, and I don’t. I fully understand what you mean. Just because someone disagrees with you doesn’t mean they don’t understand your point.
YOU’RE MY BOY, SCOTTY BRO!!!!
so how about that plane hijacked in mexico?
How are people still hijacking planes?
And by this point wouldn’t the whole “there’s a bomb on the plane” bit be utterly useless as there weren’t any on the 9/11 planes…and more so…regardless of claiming they had a bomb on the plane last time they still flew them into buildings…
I’d be skeptical…surprised people didn’t react similarly
and….get this….it’s on the runway….but apparently that still means “hijacked”
lol. I guess it takes on a different name (skyjacking) if it’s taken over by force in the air…but everyone just uses hijacking as the word for the most part.
wtf are those passengers doing?
maybe i’m just light-brained, but if i’m on a plane (on the ground or not) and somebody says ‘this is a hijacking’ or screams words in mexican that i believe to have the same meaning (and damn i hope he’s not saying let there be beer and nachos for all my men), it’s on! blood, guts, veins in my teeth, kill-kill–kill!!!
or, you know, have one of them kick my in the kadoodle and i start crying like a bitch with a skinned knee.
Everybody has their own opinions about certain things and act certain ways towards them. I personally don’t feel as though I were downplaying the 9/11 events by making a small joke about somebody who was born on the same day…therefore I’m pretty content with what was said and the responses that followed from most.
It is what it is. Some people joke to feel better about it, others cry, others leave the room if the subject is brought up. Everybody reacts differently to things. It’s what makes everyone unique.
dude. what? no one said you did anything wrong or even commented on what you said. stop trying to turn everything into a discussion on you. i’m glad you’re content with what you said cause no one else cares. it’s so tired.
you can read nothing into my statement other than fact.
harry connick’s bday and rose breaking cobb’s records are things that happened sept 11.
ps you were obv making a joke and i apologize since it could have been assumed i was talking to you but that was for mondesi. my bad
your point of any number of things that happened to have occurred on september 11th seriously downplays the WTC attacks.
I take this personally, so I explained it. Especially after I read this part in which you specifically name the things you were talking about.
harry connikc’s bday and rose breaking cobb’s record are things that happened sept 11.
So while you try and copy Mondesi’s act from a couple weeks ago on me trying to make everything about me. You failed. I took something you said, personally…about something that I said.
Get your own material. You’re putting me to sleep.
Deep breaths, jsb. You might need a time-out.
Apology accepted. I just wanted to explain myself that’s all.
Anyway, it’s squashed and over with. Let’s move on.
Mak – Really no reason for you to get all crazy-defensive and pull me into your little spat with jsb.
(And… It’s not my act, it’s pretty much everyone who has ever commented at RAB excluding you and Bill R. But that’s neither here nor there.)
Well we all know how I feel about the clique’s on this message board…but THAT is rather here nor there either.
I apologize for bringing you into it…but it was like a Twilight Zone episode reading it as you had posted the same thing a few weeks ago.
Oh well. It’s over with.
Maybe this little disagreement between me and jsb should poke a tiny little hole in, and make you reconsider, your whole theory about cliques and being teamed-up on around here.
Thanks Dad. Consider it done.
Let’s move on again please…we were doing so well for a while there.
In between the RAB commenting lines, there are no friends!!! Eye of the tiger baby
The original comment did not claim a connection between the record and the terrorist attacks. He just said it will be eerie and awe inspiring if Jeter could break such an important Yankee record on the same day we will be remembering what happenned on Sept 11, 2001. Just as baseball was used to help the nation recover from the attacks, Jeter can pay tribute to that day in his own way.
Still not sure how Rose, or anybody for that matter, doing something on previous Sept 11′s, precludes a later event from carrying an added cache. Sept 11 will always be linked to the terrorist attacks after 2001. Before that, the day was meaningless. It has meaning now though.
“The original comment did not claim a connection between the record and the terrorist attacks.”
Yes, it did. He said it would be eerie for Jeter to tie/break the record that day. The reason it would be eerie is because is because on September 11, 8 years ago, we were attacked. This whole conversation is about that claimed connection.
“Just as baseball was used to help the nation recover from the attacks, Jeter can pay tribute to that day in his own way.”
So now it won’t just be eerie and awe inspiring for Jeter to tie/break the Yankees hit record on September 11, because on the same date in 2001 we were attacked… But he would also be paying “tribute to that day in his own way” by tying or breaking the Yankees hit record on that day?
I’m over this argument. Here’s a short, concise version of my side: PUH-LEEZE.
“Sept 11 will always be linked to the terrorist attacks after 2001. Before that, the day was meaningless. It has meaning now though.”
Obviously we all know what that date means to all of us. It still has nothing to do with Jeter’s pursuit of the Yankees hit record.
It still has nothing to do with Jeter’s pursuit of the Yankees hit record.
(Comments wont nest below this level) unless he breaks it on Friday in which case it does because the days are entwined
there, fixed
Fair enough … you claim I didn’t know what eerie means, but I think you are one that does not understand. You are going at it from a rational standpoint. Logically, yes, it is complete coincidence. But superstition is people who think seemingly unrelated things, are related. Thats it
That really got out of hand fast, didn’t it? It jumped up a notch!
MikeHC – We’re cool. Internet handshake.
jsb – Big whatevs in your direction, dude. Time to let it go.
whatever man.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS159keLtY0 (safe)
heh. nice
Consider your internet handshake shook. I enjoy the extreme rational stance you take on many arguments. It evens out the extreme emotional responses. All love
At least Phil Nevin wasn’t THAT bad…I mean he’s significantly worse than Derek Jeter…but at least he isn’t Sam Bowie…
Sam Bowie wasn’t THAT bad either…11.0 PPG 7.5 RPG 2.0 APG 1.8 BLK PG
Hes no Kwame Brown?
Well, if we’re going to be technical, Nevin should be compared with Olajuwon since the Dream was the #1 pick in that NBA Draft.
He wasn’t good enough to be sandwiched in between Hakeem “The Dream” and Sir Michael
PonsonJordan though…True that.
Wouldn’t this mean that Jeter is Mel Turpin?
lol. Yes. Derek Jeter is Mel Turpin…
Key thing to remember with Nevin though is that he was never good until he turned 28 and was with the Padres (also the first time he was a full time player). By then, he was traded away by the Astros to Detroit for Mike Henneman, Det then traded him to the Angels for Nick Skuse, and the Angels traded him to San Diego for Andy Sheets.
For the Astros, Nevin was worth very little. He was a prospect that was turned into 21 games at a 3.00 ERA of Henneman. A horrible return for a number overall pick.
I’d rather have Portland’s return with Bowie.
He was NASTY in All Star Baseball 2002 (With Jeter on the cover)…for whatever reason…
A very good start on the greatest infield ever.
Jeter, Biggio & Bagwell.
this has been an awesome read
i’m so glad the astros and other 4 teams passed on him
The astros continue upon their path of ineptitude.
as a guy who went to high school in htown from 01-05, i can tell you that the ownership is idiotic at best
hiring ed wade = auto fail
Shawn Chacon would tend to agree with you.
Named my dog Jeter in 1996 when I was 11 years old.
That name really panned out for us.
So how is your Kei Igawa dog doing?
Just as well as David Parrish
I’m too tired to find it, but there’s a Luis Polonia joke to be mad here.
Definitely a Michael Vick joke waiting in the weeds.
Jeter’s the man. Even if he does look like The Rock had sex with a Muppet.
That is kinda funny in an odd way
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/article/61374
From Jete’s Appearance on SNL in 2001. I’d link to the video of it but can’t find it, readily.
http://snltranscripts.jt.org/01/01gwives.phtml