Derek Jeter had perhaps the biggest day of his career Saturday, joining the 3,000-hit club while simultaneously going 5 for 5 and driving in the winning run in the Yankees' 5-4 win over the Rays. Jeter joined Wade Boggs as the only players to homer for No. 3,000, and Craig Biggio as the only ones to get five hits on 3,000 day.
A great performance like that deserves some great stories. Say what you want about the craziness of the New York City media, but it's filled with true pros who can turn a phrase for a moment that might have supplanted all the great Jeter moments like The Jeffrey Maier, The Flip, Mr. November and The Dive into the Stands. And the covers, like the one from today's Daily News (left), are always talking points too.
Wrote longtime friend of the blog Mike Vaccaro in today's New York Post: "It shouldn't be this easy, this routine, to take ridiculously huge moments and slip into them like a Technicolor dreamcoat."
Added fellow Post veteran Joel Sherman: "This was chilling and memorable, nostalgic and surreal, impressive and historic. But because this was Derek Jeter, the most important element of a special day was this: It was meaningful."
Said Mike Lupica in the Daily News: "The moment of Jeter's 3,000th was always going to be a great moment, especially if it came at the Stadium. And then Derek Jeter decided to knock the moment right out of the park."
From longtime Yankees beat writer Bob Klapisch, now writing columns for the Bergen Record: "Jeter didn’t cry as he became the first Yankee to reach 3,000 hits, but he nevertheless experienced every possible emotion – from joy to relief and maybe a hint of a take-that to those who’ve ridden shotgun on the shortstop’s descent into 2011 mediocrity."
On the homefront, in this week's edition of Inside Baseball, I talk about the burgeoning problem with umpires, who are getting more arrogant by the day. Jack McKeon and Jim Leyland, among others, both ripped into them this week and I was in the Rogers Centre for last week's meltdown by Blue Jays pitcher Jon Rauch. You can see that one by clicking below.
---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)
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