MINNEAPOLIS — At 6 feet 8 inches and 260 pounds, Yankees reliever Dellin Betances could easily be mistaken for Derek Jeter’s bodyguard. That is how tightly Betances clung to Jeter on Monday afternoon, the day before his first All-Star Game, and Jeter’s last. Major League Baseball assigned them adjacent tables during an early afternoon media session at a downtown hotel ballroom. And Betances, like a little boy on his first trip to the mall, was not planning to let Jeter out of his sight. Jeter drew one of the largest media crowds in the ballroom and again later at Target Field during the American League batting practice. Jeter was chipper and engaging for someone who had arrived at 5 a.m. via private plane from Baltimore, where the Yankees lost a rain-shortened Sunday night game to the Orioles, 3-1. He said he had not decided whether to address his A.L. teammates in the clubhouse before the game Tuesday, as Mariano Rivera did last year. “I’m still asleep right now. I haven’t even thought about it,” Jeter said. And he said he had no idea how, or whether, Major League Baseball planned to honor him. “I come out here prepared to play a game,” he said. “Anything that comes along with it, I don’t know. It’s all speculation.” Jeter will lead off for the A.L. Players on both sides gushed about the chance to play in Jeter’s last All-Star Game. That included Adam Wainwright of the St. Louis Cardinals, the National League starter, who has never pitched against the Yankees or Jeter, even in spring training. Both teams train in Florida.
Posted on: Wed, 16 Jul 2014 17:42:43 +0000
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