ALDS Game 3 - St. Jeter Strikes Again Nick Punto had barely been tagged out at third when the words were out of Chip Caray's mouth that Derek Jeter had made yet another spectacular play.

That's just wrong.

Al Gionfriddo robbing Joe DiMaggio at the fence is a spectacular play.
Willie Mays tracking Vic Wertz' drive 460 feet is a spectacular play.
Devon White slamming into the wall to start a near triple play is a spectacular play.
Pretty much anything Brooks Robinson did in the postseason is a spectacular play.

Spotting an idiot baserunner and then throwing him out does not qualify as a spectacular play.

Jeter's already a god in New York, will be a 3,000 hit man, and is a deserving Hall of Famer. He really doesn't need to pad his resume with such fluff.

Thankfully, the TBS colour guy - Ron Darling, I believe - was rational enough to realize that the play was far more about Nick Punto's mistake than it was about Jeter's inherent greatness.

It helped that Carlos Gomez had run the Twins out of an inning in Game 2, thus providing the TV pundits with an easy, connect-the-dots narrative for the series:

Simply put, the Twins would likely still be playing baseball if not for their own bad baserunning...

... and the inability of the umpire whose sole job it is to call fair and foul balls to do so correctly
... and the fact that the Yankees play in a park with the approximate dimensions of a phone booth
... and A-Rod's new masking agent

Ok, so there are SEVERAL reasons the Twins aren't playing baseball any more. Derek Jeter's defensive wizardry is not among them.

Labels: Jeter, playoffs

  ¶ posted by Jim Turner at 11:11 AM