Jeter to retire in 2014

[Tonus]

The baseball world mourns.

I watch very little baseball these days, though it was my first sports love and I still geek out over the numbers and analysis. This means I will miss out on the love-fest that will be visited upon Derek Jeter as he makes his ostensible farewell tour through the baseball universe this year. This is a good thing, as I expect baseball announcers to go overboard in polishing Jeter's knob, much in the same way that the writers did in the amusing story in the link.

It might be worth a read even if you're not a baseball fan, because it's not really about baseball.

[LostLocke]

I think what I'd miss most about him is not him as the player himself, but more that he's part of a dieing breed. In my two viewing sports, baseball and hockey, you're hard pressed to find a player that sticks around on one team for any real length of time.
Where it seems in the past, if a team really wanted a player, and that player wanted to be with that team, that was it, he was there for most, if not all, of his career.
Now it's like they spend one or two or just one and a half seasons before shipping off somewhere else. I can't figure out of the players are being greedy and asking for too much money or the franchises are being cheap and trading them for cheaper players. (Or, more likely, a little bit of both )

[Minimalist]

I've been a Yankee fan since the early 80's so I remember Jeter's entire career. So many amazing plays and even the NY press corps never dug up any hint of scandal about him. But Father Time is a relentless enemy. I just hope he gets through the season without another injury.

One of the greatest.

[Tonus]

Where it seems in the past, if a team really wanted a player, and that player wanted to be with that team, that was it, he was there for most, if not all, of his career.

That was due to the reserve clause, which allowed wealthy team owners to treat players like property. Until 1976, if an owner really wanted a player he was there for his entire career, whether he wanted to or not. And if the owner wanted him gone he was gone, whether he wanted it or not. Free agency meant that the players had the leverage they needed to force owners to pay them something that was much more in line with the revenue they helped generate. It also meant that the day when good or popular players spent their careers with one team was done.

Derek Jeter stayed a Yankee because after his previous contract (which paid him an average of $17 million per year for 11 years) finished, he was at a point in his career where no other team was going to pay as much as they Yankees could, so they "low-balled" him with a four year contract that will "only" pay him $12 million this year. Big numbers, but the negotiation was a bit contentious.

I will give him credit for walking away while he is still an effective player who could easily milk his popularity and reputation to force the Yankees into a corner. If he stays healthy and collects another 184 hits this season (within the range of possibility, he had 216 in 2012) he would have 3,500 hits and people would wonder if he could reach 4,000. And the Yankees would not want to refuse him if he wanted to return and chase that milestone.

If he has a season like that and sticks to his decision, he goes out on top and in five years would threaten the record for highest vote percentage on a Hall of Fame ballot (currently 98.8% achieved by Tom Seaver in 1992). Jeter appeals to the broad spectrum of baseball media, from the stat-obsessed sabermetricians (who will give him some grief over his defense, but otherwise acknowledge that he is a no-doubt first-ballot Hall-of-Famer) and the old-school writers who look beyond the numbers and towards less tangible properties in a player. While I doubt it would happen, it would not shock me if he got 100% of the vote.