Bomber Bites With Jumping Joe–Why Derek Jeter Should Not Play In Boston

Prior to last night’s game at Yankee Stadium, I was in favor of Derek Jeter playing the final three games of the season in Boston.  However, my opinion changed the moment Antoan Richardson scored on Jeter’s game-winning single to right field.  Jeter has had a Hall of Fame career that was made for Hollywood, but for a long time, it looked as if the end would be anticlimactic, and seemingly unworthy of the greatness that preceded it.  After all, the man whose name is synonymous with the playoffs would end his career not making the tournament for the second year in a row.  There would be no parade, no World Series, no playoffs.  The illusion of a pennant chase ended the night before, when the Yankees were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs.  For all intents and purposes, this would be an otherwise meaningless baseball game, followed by three more meaningless games.

Mandatory Credit: Chad R. MacDonald.

But then the Yankees and Orioles played the game.  Jeter hit a towering double in his first at-bat to drive in Brett Gardner on a ball that everyone in the Stadium thought was going to be a home run.  He would score later in the inning.  Then with the score tied at 2, Jeter came to the plate with the bases loaded and hit a grounder to shortstop that was thrown into right field allowing two runners to score and then Yankees take the lead.  But David Robertson couldn’t hold the three-run lead and allowed home runs to Adam Jones and Steve Pearce in the ninth as Baltimore tied the game.  Jeter came to the plate with Richardson, running for Jose Pirela on second.  Jeter was being given one final chance to be a hero.  Jeter used his patented inside-out swing to hit a ground ball single the opposite way, the same way he had done thousands of times over the past two decades, to drive in the game winning walk off run.

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Last was the absolute best remaining possible way for Jeter’s career to end.  For all the walk off pies and Gatorade baths over the last several years, no one had ever gotten Jeter.  This because Jeter had not gotten that walk-off hit.  So to do it in his last game makes it extra special.  There will be no playoff this season, but Jeter can have his moment nonetheless.  Furthermore, Jeter and Yankee fans can also take both pride and comfort in how the final hit came about.  This wasn’t a slow infield roller or a blooper over the second baseman’s head.  Jeter hit a towering double in the first and patented opposite field hit in the ninth.  Jeter finished his career the way his played every other game in his career.

The final series with Boston means nothing in the standings.  Both teams are out of the playoff hunt.  The Yankees have already ended the seasons of some of their walking wounded such as Carlos Beltran, Mark Teixeira, and Jacoby Ellsbury.  Jeter can participate in the game in other ways.  Perhaps he can manage the games for Joe Girardi or go up to the booth and do some play by play with Michael Kay.  But nothing that Jeter can do in that series can make for a better and more suitable ending to his career than a walk hit in his final game wearing pinstripes.  Jeter should end his career on last night’s high note.