The Captain Speaks And We Shall Follow

Hopefully, this will be my last "A-Rod steroids" entry for quite a while. I doubt it will be, but one can always help. As promised, Yankee captain Derek Jeter addressed the media today and gave his thoughts on the whole A-Rod saga. Here are some excerpts, lifted from the article by Bryan Hoch, Yankee beat writer for MLB.com, with my comments following in bold:

"One thing that really upsets me a lot is when you hear everybody say it was the 'Steroid Era' and everybody was doing it. Well, that's not true. Everybody wasn't doing it. That's the thing that gets irritating. I think it sends the wrong message to baseball fans and kids, saying that everybody was doing it. That's just not the truth." - It's amazing how much I can sense Jeter's frustration just by reading his quote. I've heard a lot of players interviewed recently and many share this same sentiment. Jeter is without a doubt a first ballot HOFer and it's obvious he played the game clean. But no matter what happens, some people will always wonder if he truly was clean and he'll get lumped in with everyone else, with people questioning his on-the-field accomplishments. Nowadays, we fans can't be 100% on who played clean and who didn't. It wasn't long ago that everyone thought A-Rod was clean, and here we are.

"I know he's (A-Rod) very, very sorry. It's a difficult thing to do. Everybody makes mistakes, but it's probably pretty difficult to have to address it publicly in front of the whole country. We're here to support him through it. We don't condone what he did. Alex doesn't condone what he did. At this point now, it's our job to help him be as comfortable as he can on the field and try to move past this." - Can anybody picture Jeter lying? I can't. I believe him when he says that Alex is very, very sorry. That makes me believe Alex does in fact feel sorry. I don't necessarily buy most of what he said in his press conference, but I buy that. I do think it's funny that people are so quick to crucify someone over something which in the grand scheme of things is trivial. It's not like Alex went out and murdered someone. He used steroids, which as we know, was commonplace in the game. It sucks that he made the mistake of getting involved with them, but it is what it is. He's sorry. He admits his mistake. Let's move on and follow the Captain's lead. As Yankee fans we should try and help Alex be as comfortable as he can be on the field and try to help get him through this. He's still one of our own. Let's give him the support.

"I've said it time and time again -- we're here to support him through it as a teammate, the same thing as with Andy [Pettitte] last year and with Jason [Giambi] a few years ago. I get tired of hearing about things with our relationship. That's an old story. Regardless of what I do, people are going to have their opinions, but I get tired of hearing it." - Memo to the media: get over it and let the man be. Does it really matter if Derek and Alex are best buds? No.

"I don't know if Alex is going to address it again; I won't. As long as you're not constantly talking about something, I don't see how it can be a distraction. Is it going to be difficult for him, a distraction for him? I'm sure it will be. You're going to go to different places and hear it from the fans -- every game is not at Yankee Stadium. I'm sure he's going to be reminded about it." - At what point in spring training does Kim Jones ask him about this? You know it'll happen and I hope I'm tuned in when it does so I can hear his response. I understand it's the media's job to get the story and they'll probably try to get something from him. He's doing the right thing by making this the one and only time he'll discuss the matter. Hopefully, the rest of the team follows the Captain's lead. Like he said, it can't be a distraction if it's not being constantly talked about.

"Yeah, because he said it's in the past. That's all happened before he came to our team. You have respect for him as a player. Even when you have family members that make mistakes and do things wrong, you may be disappointed, but you don't lose respect for them and stop pulling for them." - Memo to those Yankee fans out there that plan on giving A-Rod the business: read that over and over again until you get the notion to boo him out of your mind. Derek Jeter is someone that all Yankee fans love and respect. Take what he's saying to heart. We may not be on the team, but we're all part of the Yankees family. Don't lose respect for Alex and don't stop rooting for him. He may not be handling this in the best manner possible. He may not be entirely truthful when he talks about it. He may be lying to our faces. I'm sure we've all had family or people close to us treat us in a similar manner and let us down. Let's help him through this. He's family.

If you're interested in hearing any of the audio, Pete Abraham has some up on his blog. But those are some retty solid quotes there from the Captian, wouldn't you say? Would you have expected anything less? Derek is a natural born leader and I hope the rest of the team follows his example. The first full workout is in the books. Spring Training is offically here and we're about a week away from games. I don't know about you but I'm pretty excited. It's been a long cold winter. The regular season is right around the corner. #27. Here we come.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie