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At age 35, Derek Jeter’s bat is looking like it took a dip in the fountain of youth. The face of the franchise has consistently put up Hall of Fame numbers as he elbowed his way through the black-clouded steroid era without an umbrella, needle or pill. Our generation’s Yankee legend is once again putting up Jeter like numbers as the captain finds his team just one game back in the hardest division in baseball – take that Trevor Hoffman.
It’s no question that the league and its fans have begun to realize the importance of the on base percentage. In the meantime, baseball archaeologists are looking to carbon-date the prehistoric ‘batting average’ that we have often gotten down on our knees for over the years. With that being said, going into the All-Star break Jeter’s OBP is a team leading .393, which is decent enough to be boasted higher than his performance as a member of the classic ’98 squad we all seem to reminisce about.
And its not just Jeter we should be happy about, although he is always a great starting point for any Yankee fan. The truth is; no one is having a breakout season. Everyone is playing their part and pulling their own weight. It seems like every Yankee and his grandmother is batting south of .300, and Yankee stranger Andy Pettitte, along with our two recently acquired “aces” on the mound have 8, 8 and 7 wins respectively. So how has this club just a game back in the rowdy AL East, and winners of 11 of their last 13? Mostly routine pop fly walk off’s, “Damon’s Deck,” beers that will cost you your nuts for resale, some more timely hitting, and team chemistry; something we haven’t seen since the better half of the 90’s. Teixeira’s slugging percentage and overall desire to win a ball game, mixed with characters like Nick Swisher who seems to always be packing a fat bomb are just two of the many invaluable assets to this year’s gang. This combination of players undoubtedly feed off of one another’s energy, which has led to a total of 25 come from behind wins, 8 of which were in walk-off fashion. The 1998 Yankees finished with a total of 50 comeback wins, a pace that this year’s club is headed straight for. Of those 50 wins, 7 walk offs. The numbers speak for themselves as Yankee fans can only hope for similar trends to come.

As for the Mets, typical. Some would argue the team is full of future stars – they’re just too young at this point, and that injuries have swept the Mets like the swine flu. Although anytime your team is given its own “Not So Top 10” on SportsCenter, it makes people like me wonder if these are all just excuses. In my eyes Jerry Manuel is about as exciting as toast, your ace is having a questionable (at best) first half, and David Wright and City Field are just about the only thing to smile about. Might as well wait for the leaves to change when you bet the pot on rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez, no pressure.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 at 6:21 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.