Congratulations to Derek Jeter on a magnificent career. Much has been said the last few weeks about his retirement tour and if baseball was making too big of a deal out of it. Naysayers would argue that he wasnt even the greatest player at his position let alone the best in his generation. They would throw out statistics and formulas and mathematical equations which measure a players value and say that he was overrated and not that valuable to his team. First of all, the whole point of this retirement tour was not to argue who was the best ever to play the game. That debate can go on infinitely. Secondly, a players value cannot be measured by statistical analysis alone. Derek Jeters intangible qualities that he brought to the game were immeasurable. Finally, and most importantly, why wouldnt we want to celebrate someone who has represented himself and the game of baseball with the utmost class? Have we been polluted by the athletes of the twenty-first century and the headlines they create by their misconduct to the point where when we do find someone with positive qualities, we greet it with cynicism? In a time when the top stories about professional athletes involve drug using, child abusing, gun toting, wife slapping, baby daddying, etc., I find it refreshing to discover someone like Derek Jeter, whose conduct should be the norm, not the exception. And that is something to celebrate.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 01:34:39 +0000
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