THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 27, 1995 TAG: 9505270568
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM ROBINSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
Derek Jeter keeps saying he's lucky, which is interesting from a guy who wears No. 13. But the fact is lottery winners and bouquet catchers are lucky. When you're 20 and nearly lead a Triple-A baseball league in hitting, luck has little to do with it.
The Columbus Clippers, they're the lucky ones. They were 19-26 before Friday's game against the Norfolk Tides, but think where they'd be without Jeter, the shortstop with the very unshortstop-like batting average of .357, third-best in the International League.
``He's special,'' Columbus manager Bill Evers said, and last year three prominent publications - Baseball America, The Sporting News and USA Today Baseball Weekly - agreed. They all honored Jeter as their minor league player of the year, and it couldn't have been close. A year ago, Jeter was playing for Tampa in the Class-A Florida State League. Soon enough he jumped to Double-A Albany, then to Columbus for the final month.
The final tally was anything but lucky: a combined average of .344, five home runs, 68 RBIs, 50 stolen bases. Jeter's 186 hits were second-most in all the minors, and he won the Florida State League's most valuable player award despite playing just 69 games.
Jeter, though, talks like he wants to disown those numbers. At the least, dwelling on them is out of the question. ``That's over with; that's last year,'' Jeter said. ``That doesn't carry over to this year. When you play, everybody's the same. . . . it's not helping this year.''
Not that Jeter needs much. Help, that is. The kid from Kalamazoo, Mich., leads the league in hits (60), doubles (13), triples (5) and is second in runs scored (31). He's had a 17-game hitting streak this season. The day after that ended, he began a 10-game streak. He's got talent, class and a workaday attitude that makes him come out for early hitting before every game.
Two years ago in Class-A Greensboro, Jeter made 56 errors - and the South Atlantic League's managers still selected him as their most outstanding major league prospect. He has booted it 12 times this season, only three more than the Tides' ace defensive shortstop Rey Ordonez, and is getting better by all accounts.
Still, one school of thought has Jeter a little too big, at 6-foot-3 and 185 pounds, and mechanical to be a major league shortstop. The New York Yankees, who drafted Jeter with the sixth overall pick in 1992, apparently want to give him the benefit of that doubt.
They had a chance to bring him up a few days ago when Tony Fernandez pulled a rib-cage muscle, but they chose the more experienced Robert Eenhoorn, who, ironically, was moved from short to second this year to make way for Jeter.
``They mulled it over and decided what's best for him is to continue to play here and get more seasoning,'' Evers said. ``He's going to be an impact player in the big leagues, I feel. I don't want him to go up for a couple weeks and have them send him back. When he's ready, they're going to take him and give him every opportunity to be the big league shortstop.''
At 20, hearing talk like that can pump up you and your hat size. At 20, three years younger than your next-youngest teammate, 20 years younger than the oldest, life can be a little weird. But Jeter said it has always been that way. The praise, the older teammates. Which is why he might really be as unaffected as he claims to be.
``I've been lucky,'' he said. ``My parents helped me out, really with the mental part; not getting a big head, don't make excuses, things like that. I think that's the biggest problem, when people start making excuses. You really don't learn if you make an excuse. If you mess up, you mess up. You don't say, `I did it for this reason or that reason.' Even if that's the case, people don't really want to hear about it.''
What they want to talk about in Yankeedom is Jeter's maturity, his business-like approach and above all, the sweet righthanded swing that should be worth millions.
Oh yeah, New York is going to like him, Evers said. ``For a long, long time.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Derek Jeter has had 17- and 10-game hitting streaks this season.
by CNB