6/4/2014 Derek Jeters Diary: Happy Captainversary!

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MLB
Derek Jeters Diary: Happy Captainversary!
The baseball season is a long and lonely road. To preserve his sanity, Yankees
shortstop Derek Jeter keeps a diary. These are excerpts from The Captains private
journal.
BY MARK LISANTI ON JUNE 4, 2014
The baseball season is a long and lonely road. To preserve his sanity, Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter
keeps a diary. These are excerpts from The Captains private journal.
Thursday, May 29: Off Day
Its important to never lose your focus. Even on the rare occasions you find yourself daydreaming,
youre so well-trained and disciplined that its almost always about baseball. Its about parades. And
trophies. Ticker tape in the air, champagne running down the lenses of your safety goggles, a new ring
heavy on one of your few bare fingers. The slow drive down the Canyon of Heroes, the key to the city,
the trip to the White House. The late-night visitation from the spirits of the True Yankees, who remind
you that the trappings of victory are meaningless; all that matters is going right back out there next
year and winning again. Theyre not even daydreams, really. Theyre championship premonitions.
Youre haunted by excellence.
But sometimes the daydreams arent about baseball. It happens. The mind is a mysterious thing.
6/4/2014 Derek Jeters Diary: Happy Captainversary!
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Thinking about Rick Reillys letter to my unborn children and the commissioners threatening scroll to
them makes the mind wander. I cant help it. I open up this diary to a blank page in hopes of regaining
baseball focus, but the questions come flooding out. Who are my future kids? What will they be like?
The names are picked out. Theyre going to be boys, I know that much. Derek Sanderson Steinbrenner
2 and Lil Captain. One year apart, both born on February 2. Both righties. Both naturally gifted but
such hard workers you cant begrudge them their talent.
But you cant know the future. You cant know their future. All you can do is support them and put
them in a position to succeed in everything they attempt, the way my parents did with me. You can
draft the Success Contracts and have them sign the minute theyre old enough to scribble their initials
in Crayola. Maybe thats not legally binding, but its spiritually binding. Ive said theyll go on to be pro
athletes in other sports so they can blaze their own trails outside of my shadow, but they can be
anything they want, even shortstops for the Yankees. Youd never place limits on their ambition; its
right there in the deals they signed, as long as they keep their grades up. Well work out a platoon and
DH situation at the major league level if they dont decide to switch positions as they come up through
the minors. If theyre both in the lineup, DJ2Js hitting second on even-numbered days, L-Cap on the
odd. Jorgies going to be their manager. It sounds complicated but its all going to work out great.
So these are the daydreams. Safe inside my head and in my diary, where Mr. Selig cant get to them. Or
Rick Reilly. We dont need a follow-up column with the updates on my future kids amazing careers.
Nothing good could come of that.
Friday, May 30: vs. Minnesota Twins
The offense has really been struggling lately. Scoring is contagious, but so is not scoring. The bats can
all go to sleep at the same time. You can tell the clubbie to get up multiple times in the middle of the
night and shake the bats awake in the locker room, but thats more superstition than any kind of
proven remedy. You look up and down the bench in the dugout and you see a lot of guys slumping.
Ellsburys cold. McCanns yet to really get on track since coming over here. Ichiros fading again.
Sorianos whiffing on breaking stuff in the dirt. We play a game with him during batting practice called
Dont Swing at This. He stands at home plate and we place a ball on the infield grass 10 feet in front of
him and yell, Dont swing at this! He thinks he can hit it. He swings. He misses. We move the ball
back two feet. Dont swing at this! And so on until we put the ball down in center field. We all laugh,
but its probably some kind of compulsive disorder. Sometimes we catch him in the tunnel, swinging at
gnats.
He might need a few days off. He hasnt killed a gnat in three weeks. You hope he eventually runs into
one.
Saturday, May 31: vs. Minnesota Twins
Nuney and Phil Hughes both play for Minnesota now. Youre happy they both found a home after
things didnt work out in New York. The Twins are a good old-school organization. They do things
their way, even if its a way that hasnt worked since 1991. They have the patience and dedication to
wait for the game to come to them, possibly as early as 2024. You really respect that kind of total faith
in the process.
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Nuney isnt in the lineup today, but follows me around the infield the entire time during warm-ups,
hoping to engage me. I refuse to make eye contact. Its tough to look him in the eye knowing how he
squandered his golden ticket, failing to establish himself while I was hurt last year and set himself up as
the next Yankee shortstop after my retirement. Not everybody thrives on the pressure of playing in
front of the greatest fans in the world, who always demand your best. Some guys are probably better off
settling into a utility role on a fourth-place team. You can have a nice little career that way.
Still, I feel bad about ignoring Nuney and send over a signed baseball during the game.
Couldve been you in 15. DJ2 Final Season.
Sometimes the best thing you can give somebody is the gift of motivation. You just hope its not too late
to make a difference in his life.
Sunday, June 1: vs. Minnesota Twins
Its Hughess first start at the Stadium since leaving the Yankees and escaping a brief and brutal
captivity inside the Green Monster scoreboard before settling in Minnesota. He had a rough time here
as a top prospect who never really put it all together to reach his full potential in New York. At least
with Nuney there were no expectations, only hope.
And its probably the best game Hughes has ever pitched. Robertson blows the save and Phil walks away
with a win, somehow.
I send over a signed game ball to congratulate him.
Ask Nuney to show you his ball. DJ2 Final Season
Maybe one day theyll get together and sell them as a set. Could be a nice nest egg for them.
Monday, June 2: vs. Seattle Mariners
Today the Post cornered me and asked me about my future ambitions. About whether I see myself
owning a team one day.
Of course I see myself owning a team. Thats the goal. Thats always been the goal. A family. Kids.
Saving the publishing business. Owning a major league baseball team and winning more
championships with them. You play the game for a very short time, but youre retired forever. Theres
a lot of free time for accomplishing things. There are more goals on the list that I havent shared yet,
not even with my diary.
Will I own part of the Yankees? Thats up to the Steinbrenners. Youd like to think that the Boss had
been grooming you to join ownership all along, and that when the time was right, his executor would
finally show Hank and Hal the supplemental hologram will he hid behind Joe DiMaggios plaque in
Monument Park, which details his wishes on the exact percentage of the team you should be allowed to
buy. You just hope that his sons take Mr. Steinbrenners wishes to heart and dont challenge the
hologram in court, because you dont want a beautiful final wish to secure the future of the franchise
ruined with costly extended litigation.
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But until that day comes, you have to consider all opportunities while you wait to fulfill your pinstripe
ownership destiny. It probably even makes sense to throw in a bid on the Mets. It would be an
undeniable show of good faith to the Steinbrenners if you arranged the sale of David Wright and Matt
Harvey to the Yankees as part of a bankruptcy liquidation. Maybe then theyd listen to what their
fathers hologram is trying to tell them about bringing his third son officially into the family.
Tuesday, June 3: vs. Oakland Athletics
I return home to an empty apartment after a brutal extra-inning game against Oakland that
featured yet another late bullpen collapse. Theres a single balloon tied to a chair in the kitchen. Come
find me! is written on it in Sharpie. The balloon slowly rotates in the draft. The other side says From
Alex inside a Sharpie heart.
I go to the wardrobe and open the doors. A dozen more balloons spill out and float up to the ceiling.
I grab one and read it.
HAPPY CAPTAINVERSARY!
Then I hear the sound of a party favor honking at me from inside the wardrobe, again and again.
I look inside and see the favor jutting out from A-Rods lips, furling and unfurling like a paper tongue.
More honking.
Happy Captainversary, Jetes, he says, biting the favor between his lips.
I dont know that that is, Alex.
11 years ago today, you were named Yankee Captain. Its your Captainversary.
I didnt even realize.
I got you a present, Jetes. Do you want to see it?
OK.
Close your eyes and turn around.
I close my eyes and turn around.
Open your eyes.
I open my eyes.
Above the bed.
Above the bed is a giant painting of my head on an eagles body. An eagles pinstriped body.
Its chest is adorned with a Nike swoosh and the number 2. It holds a bat in one claw and a World
Series trophy in the other.
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Its sublime, Jetes. Its OK if youre silent for a while.
Im silent for a while.
Its something.
Congratulations on being the best Captain of them all. The mighty eagle of Yankee Captains.
We had a terrible game tonight. This is really no time for any kind of individual recognition, Alex.
It gets better, Jetes.
I suppose youre going to tell me how.
You can be an eagle inside the wardrobe.
Im not going to do that.
Maybe one day?
I dont think so, Alex.
Have it your way.
Im going to bed.
Should I close the drobe?
You should.
Very well. Youre the Captain on your Captainversary.
Alex closes the wardrobe. The honks of the party favor grow softer, more distant.
I take the eagle painting down from above the bed and lean it up against the wardrobe.
The eagle has incredibly beautiful eyes.