Discussion: Maybe Jeter Really Is the Ideal Icon
When I finished reading the Derek Jeter book that Matt reviewed earlier, my first thought was that even after reading 15 years worth of press clippings and quotes about Derek Jeter, I know little about the man. We know all about his on-field play and persona, his leadership skills, and all the supposed intangibles that he possesses, but rarely do we ever get a glimpse at his personality. We are lead to believe that he is man of family and integrity, that he values friendship and loyalty, and that he enjoys a good practical joke. Other than that, we see little past the curtain that he has placed between himself and the fans, and the skeptical nature of fandom in the internet age leads many, myself included, to doubt the seeming perfection of the image that he has cultivated. Yet, when I finished the book, I wondered whether it was possible that we do not know anything more about Jeter because there isn’t anything to know. Jeter seems to be closed book, but maybe that is simply because the pages are not that interesting or scandalous.
As I noted above, I tend to be skeptical about these things. When someone tells me a player is a great leader, I want proof. When an argument is built upon intangibles, I usually scoff and dismiss it as an argument that could not be made with tangible evidence and therefore had to resort to “you’ll have to believe me” type reasoning. In regard to Jeter, though, it may be time to concede that there is something to the “leadership and intangibles” argument. He’s been in the league for 15 years, yet I have never heard anyone say a negative word about him. While people sometimes disparage his play, his work ethic and leadership have gone largely uncriticized, and are actually held up by teammates, opposing players, managers, and media members alike as examples from which others should learn. I am frequently amazed by the number of people within the game that buy into the Jeter mythos, but now I wonder whether they buy into it because they have observed him up close and find it warranted.
The personal life portion of this equation is admittedly a bit more speculative, as we do not have anything in the way of news stories or quotes to give us any sort of clue as to what he is like away from the ballpark. But that might be the greatest sign there is that Jeter is simply a quiet guy who is close to his family and does not do anything too risque in his free time. He is a huge star on the biggest stage who dates actresses and supermodels, yet he has rarely made a blip on the gossip pages and has never been embroiled in a serious scandal. Of course, after the Tiger Woods debacle nothing would surprise me, but I think the lack of evidence to the contrary suggests that it is conceivable that Jeter is in fact the ideal sports icon; the good looking boy from the Midwest who respects his parents, works hard at his craft, gets the girl, and wins the game as well as the respect of his peers.
What do you think? Does the Derek Jeter that we know represent all that there is to know? Or is this all just a carefully cultivated image hiding a person no different from any other athlete?
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This is going to come off as odd, but bear with me here.
After reading this, one person–a fictional person–came to mind. Derek Jeter reminds me, in some strange way, as a partially Charles Foster Kane-ish type person. The baseball Jeter is like Kane in some way: he’s larger than life and no matter what side you sit on–love or hate–there’s at least some bit of respect there. The difference, though, is that we don’t see the private side of Jeter’s life at all.
That sounded much better in my head.
Mo, I thought you nailed it in a previous post on Derek. He’s admired, but not loved. I really don’t know enough about him to have a personal attachment, the way I did with a Bernie or Cone. The Yankee icon he reminds me the most of was DiMaggio, and to a lesser extent Gehrig. In both cases, the more you learned about their personal lives, the more you realized there wasn’t much there.
Whenever people compare Jeter to Joe D. I think of this quote: “He’s rather unique for a young man in the 1990s. Endowed as he is with all that talent, all that money and such impeccable manners-that makes him an anachronism. In this era of boorish athletes, obnoxious fans, greedy owners and shattered myths, here’s a hero who’s actually polite, and that has to have come from good parenting. You can’t compare him to Joe DiMaggio, for DiMaggio didn’t have bad manners — he had no manners. Where have you gone, man with manners? Here you are, Derek Jeter.” – Sportswriter Gay Talese
I always found the off-field Jeter to be quite boring and someone for whom summoning enough fervor to have a personal attachment felt like too much work. I guess that’s why I never bought into his being named Captain. Leading by example is not enough: you have to be a hands on guy the players can come to—like, say, Mo or Posada—and Jeter always struck me as too aloof for the job.
What do I think? I think I have no idea. I was never a big Jeter fan in the 90′s, but have found myself becoming a Jeter fanboy over the last few years. It helps that my tween, now teenage daughter is a fan, which lead me to buy his first book for her. I think it was published in 98 or 99. I read it too, and while it has a lot of bio stories, it’s more of a self help book targeted towards teens. It showed a really strong family unit that helped him achieve his goals, although huge upside talent may have had a bit to do with it, too. I guess the big question is, can a guy who comes from, what seems to be, a great family and upbringing, stay true to his self stated values after hundreds of millions of dollars and enormous celebrity status? I’d say, so far so good, publically speaking.
Let’s not forget that there have been several reports of fun trysts that Jeter partook in at the Shore Club. The reason we don’t hear much about his off-field personality is because he’s not stepping on anyone’s toes. He’s probably a pretty likable guy, he was having his fun but he wasn’t out of control. He was never caught cheating (A-Rod), never making a drunk fool of himself publicly (Miggy Cabrera), never running into problems with authority (Plaxico), never using any shady tactics with women (Big Ben), etc. The guy had his fun but he did it with his head on straight.
I also recall several articles about some trysts he may have had. These usually take place after the season ends (but let’s not forget about the lead up to the George/Jeter Visa commercials). I always felt now one could make a big deal of these situations because he was a single guy, no law enforcement was involved, and no women came out after the fact claiming he did anything inappropriate for the situation. He’s managed to even do that right!
I am a big Yankee fan but somehow not a Jeter fan. He is a very good player and a very likable guy. He sure has run into some troubles in the past but somehow he is managed to keep it under control. He dated a ton of woman while keeping his single status, very smart. In my opinion he has gotten away with things most players haven’t just because he is Derek Jeter. He hasn’t been perfect at all in his private life; it just that no one writes about it, and they shouldn’t after all it is his life and we have no business looking into it. He is lucky, and his image has sold well in baseball.