If you read much about baseball on the web, you soon discover that
Kansas City Star beat writer Joe Posnanski is someone who's worth reading.
Posnanski proves this today in a hysterically funny tirade against those who worship at the feet of Derek Jeter -- not Jeter himself, but rather those who deify him. In fact, he invents a word for it:
Jeterate (verb) meaning ?to praise someone for something of which he or she is entirely unworthy of praise.?
Example: ?The father could not but jeterate his daughter for coloring on the wall because she looked so cute.?....
See, the thing is Derek Jeter is such a good baseball player ? I mean, we are talking about a no-doubt, first ballot Hall of Famer here ? that people don?t need to jeterate him for his fielding. The guy sucks as a defensive shortstop, OK? He?s brutal out there. Every detailed defensive number shows it. He?s back near the bottom again in zone rating and range factor and, I?m sure, the Dewan plus/minus. Plus every scout who pays attention knows he can?t go two steps to his left and his arm is subpar. It?s OK! Really! He doesn?t have to be Mark Belanger. He?s a great hitter! He plays every day! He?s makes up for some of his flaws with his awareness and mental stamina! I wouldn?t be bothered by his defensive liabilities, I really wouldn?t, except, well, you know, so many people don?t think he HAS defensive liabilities. They give him freaking gold gloves. They knight him Sir Derek of Defensive Wizardry because 238 years ago he tagged Jeremy Giambi and jumped into the crowd on a foul ball.
This is not the part that made me laugh (well, OK, I'm enough of a Sox fan to admit to a cackle or two here). No,
you'll have to click on the post and read Posnanski's imagined dialogue between the minds of Derek Jeter, Bobby Abreu, and A-Rod to understand why I was laughing out loud.
Hat tip:
David Pinto.
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