Thank you Captain

Today there is an epidemic of sadness coursing through the veins of baseball fans across the country with the core of it coming out of New York. Derek Jeter will never wear Yankee pinstripes again and baseball won’t ever be the same for many Yankees fans.

Jeter spoiled Yankees fans for 20 years. We are an unrelenting fan base that demand greatness every day from our team and Jeter thrived on our demands. He played the game the right way and made it easy to cheer for him. He excelled in the big moments and always made us expect greatness. While he never put up gaudy numbers like others in his era, his consistency proved he was the greatest of them all.

Jeter represented an amazing time to be a Yankees fan, in his 20 years he captured five World Series rings and seven American League pennants. He became the face of the winningest franchise in the history of sports and of the game he played. Young boys and girls became Yankees fans because of Jeter and now they’ve grown into young men and women and are passing along their love for the Yankee captain to their families.

Jeter’s professionalism has caused other major leaguers to marvel at him. He is revered by others in his profession and is held up as the model they aspire to be. Former and current teammates praise him for being a great leader, for playing hard every play and leaving it all on the field. He never took plays off and did everything he could to win, whether it was a sacrifice bunt to move a runner over or sacrificing his body by diving into the stands.

Derek was the picture of perfection in many fan’s eyes. He played hard for them on the field and never made off the field headlines which would make them regret rooting for him. There was never a split between Jeter fans and Jeter haters because the latter never existed. Fans might not have liked him for beating their teams but they couldn’t do anything but respect his tenacity and gameplay.

Jeter usually showed a cool demeanor on the field but there wasn’t much better than seeing him celebrate. His big smile while holding the Commissioner’s Trophy after winning the 2009 World Series is implanted in the heads of fans. The Jeter fist pump will be remembered by Yankees fans as a sign of triumph and opposing fans as acknowledgement of defeat. Last night, though, he provided maybe the greatest image of them all.

With a runner on second base during a tie game in the bottom of the ninth Jeter strode to the plate for the last time ever at Yankee Stadium. In classic “Jeterian” fashion he provided a dramatic ending to baseball fans worldwide. He simply brought his arms in and smacked a pitch through the hole between first and second like he’s done so many times before and after rounding first and seeing the winning run score he jumped with both arms reaching toward the sky.

When Jeter was a young boy he dreamed he could reach for the stars and play shortstop for the New York Yankees. With his hands held high last night he didn’t have to reach any longer because he finally grasped them. 

                                           

What can A-Rod do for you?

Honestly, I’m not sure which is more fun to watch; Yankee stadium workers doing the YMCA in between innings, the cap game on the Yankee stadium jumbotron or the 2014 Yankees offense. If I were forced to make a choice I’d say the cap game is the most fun (I’m really good at it), then the YMCA grounds crew and lastly the abysmal lineup that Joe Girardi is forced to run onto the field every night.

 Many Yankees fans are clamoring for Girardi’s head, blaming him for his team underperforming. I don’t agree with those fans. I think Girardi has done a tremendous job keeping his team in the playoff race. Think about this, there was a point where the Yankees were missing 80% of their starting rotation. They lost Ivan Nova and CC Sabathia for the whole season and no one really knows if what to expect in Masahiro Tanaka’s return this weekend. Michael Pineda also missed time due to injury and a suspension. Yet, the rotation has been the only shining star of this team. To be honest, the Yankees’ pitching looks like it could be formidable for years to come, and the fans might have something to root for in upcoming years.

 While the Yankees pitching has been very good, it’s the offense that has kept this team from making a playoff run. If you’re a Yankees fan, you might want to turn away, because this is ugly. The Yankees are tied for dead last in runs scored in the American League with 581. Along the same lines, their 543 RBI are fewest among AL teams. Their .245 team batting average is 12th of the 15 AL teams and their OBP is 14th. They have hit 137 homeruns and slugged a paltry .378, good for eight and tenth in the AL, respectively. The only bright spot on this otherwise putrid offense would be the 105 stolen bases which ranks third in the AL.

Without naming names, if I were to say to you the Yankees will add a former three-time AL MVP who has more than 650 homeruns and is just shy of 2,000 career RBI, what would you say? My first thought—after trying not to acknowledge this player is Alex Rodriguez—would be to say, I definitely think this type of guy could help this offense. Many Yankees fans are wondering why the team is going to bring A-Rod back next season after his suspension ends. There are a couple of reasons; they still owe him $60 million and he can help. As a Yankees fan, I can’t wait to see what A-Rod can do next year at the plate. A-Rod will do several things for this team. He’ll make people talk about them and want to watch them. There is only one thing worse than a bad team, that’s a boring team. The Yankees are both, terrible and boring. A-Rod will definitely eliminate one of those categories, boring. He also should be of some assistance in how bad they are.

A-Rod’s presence in a lineup isn’t just about what he can do. For arguments sake, let’s say Rodriguez hits 20 homeruns and drives in 75 runs next year, the Yankees will take those numbers in a heartbeat. Those numbers mean that he’s productive and he’s able to protect other players. Beltran, McCann and Teixeira will all see better pitches knowing there is another dangerous bat in the lineup. Let’s forget about next year for a second though. Let’s put those numbers on the current ball-club. 20 homeruns would be second on the team and 75 RBI would lead the team, taking a lot of pressure off of other guys to carry the load.

I know Rodriguez won’t put up the numbers he used to but no one is expecting him to. As long as he stays in the lineup he will be useful. I believe being suspended for 2014 will be a blessing in disguise. MLB gave him the opportunity to rest his body and allow time to heal. He’s had time to step back, live his life on his own terms, stay out of the spotlight and just be Alex Rodriguez. He hasn’t had the chance to just be himself for a long time. He’s always caught up in scrutiny about something. He can re-learn how to love the game that gave him everything. He can get that passion to play back. He can reset.

The 2014 Yankees offense was terrible without Alex Rodriguez. He may not solve every problem they have but we might as well welcome him back because the 2015 offense can’t be much worse with him.

Derek Jeter: The Greatest Player of his Generation

With the sixth pick of the 1992 Major League Baseball draft the New York Yankees selected a tall, scrawny shortstop out of a Midwest high school. Over the course of the next 22 years that scrawny kid became a five time world champion, a 14-time all-star, captain of the winningest franchise in professional sports and the face of Major League baseball. In that time, though, Derek Jeter also became the greatest player of his generation.

It would be foolish to deny or not discuss that Jeter’s generation of baseball took place mostly during the steroid era. Jeter’s peers were hitting homeruns at incredible paces. They were putting up numbers that had only been reached one time or a handful of times in the history of the game. Players were not playing on an even playing field. For many, it wasn’t fair. But Jeter rose above all of that and played his game to the best of his ability. And because he played it righteously and honestly he ascended to the top of the game and performed at a high level for 20 years.

Jeter came up at a time in baseball where shortstops were becoming not only cornerstone defensive players but they were also becoming the big threats in lineups. His contemporaries at shortstop include players like Nomar Garciaparra and Alex Rodriguez. There was constant conversation about who the best of the three was. Mariners’ fans claimed that A-Rod was because of his power and production. Red Sox fans argued that Nomar was the best. He was the one winning multiple batting titles as well as producing in the heart of the lineup. Jeter didn’t care. He kept his mouth shut and sat in the number two hole of the Yankees lineup and kept hitting. A-Rod switched teams twice, was forced to a new position and got caught up with steroids ending up in a yearlong suspension in 2014. Garciaparra moved teams several times and his career ended in 2009 due to ongoing injuries. Once again, Jeter rose above his contemporaries.

Jeter never put up gaudy numbers. In fact he only reached 20 homeruns thrice and 100 RBI once during his storied career. Jeter was never the American League MVP, although he finished in the top-10 eight different times. Although many experts categorized Jeter as a deficient fielder, he racked up five Gold Gloves. And while Jeter wasn’t a power hitter either four times he brought home the Silver Slugger award. Those numbers aren’t the important ones to Jeter and they aren’t the ones that define who he is.

What defines Jeter is simply his fistful of rings, the five World Series championship teams that he played for. He never cared about accolades, although he has many. He never cared about being on the back pages of newspapers, although he appeared there several times. He never cared about playing in all-star games, although he is about to appear in his 14^th. None of that ever mattered to Jeter. All he ever wanted was to hoist the Commissioner’s Trophy and be the last team standing. Jeter was lucky enough to do that five times.

Jeter has played baseball at a high level for so many years. He has worked hard day in and day out to be the best that he could be. By working so hard he became the captain of the most storied franchise in sports. He became the face of our National Pastime. He is now the all-time leader in many New York Yankee categories.

During his 20 year career he may never have been considered the “best” player in the game. But when we look back at the last 20 years of baseball, Derek Jeter will be looked at above every other player and we will all know that scrawny kid from Kalamazoo, MI was the only real MVP.

Open letter to LBJ

Dear LeBron James:

I am one of your biggest critics. I have let it be known to anyone willing to listen that I am far from your biggest fan; I’ve even gone as far as heckling you via Twitter. I know this letter doesn’t mean anything to you and why should it? I’m simply a sports fan, one of many who will probably never have the opportunity shake your hand or say to you, “Nice to meet you.” Experts began clamoring over your immense talent and potential while you were still in high school and when you joined the NBA we quickly learned that those experts were right. You became the “next Jordan” very quickly and I didn’t like that and because of that I didn’t like you. Today that opinion has changed.

I’d like to tell you that I’m only a couple years younger than you. You and I grew up at the same time watching the same basketball stars and both rooting for Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. I’m sure you and I celebrated very similarly as young boys during the Bulls dynasty runs. I’m sure you also shot basketballs pretending to play next to Jordan and Pippen and dreaming of one day winning a championship. For one of us that dream became a reality. Unfortunately I’m 5’8” and was never all that good at basketball. With all that being said, I root against you because you threaten Jordan’s legacy.

Four years ago I disparaged you for joining the Heat and taking the “easy way out.” In the last four years I’ve probably said “Jordan wouldn’t have done that” in regards to something you did probably 1,000 times. And the truth is I will probably say it 1,000 more times in the next four years. I don’t see me rooting for you anytime soon (except during the Olympics) but today with your decision you have turned one of your most fervent detractors into a fan.

I am happy for you. I am happy for Cleveland. I don’t think you should have ever left Cleveland four years ago but you did and that’s in the past. Now you can go home and reconcile with that fan-base. I will still root for the Bulls and root against you because I don’t want you to win six-plus championships and eclipse Jordan. I will still criticize you if you only score eight points in a playoff game. I will still hope that Joakim Noah gets in your face and shuts you down when you’re trying to get to the rim. But I will also applaud you when you deserve it. For me though, most importantly, I will not send you spiteful tweets again because you do not deserve that from anyone, especially not me.

Today I applaud you for doing the right thing. You’re going home and I’m sure there is no better feeling that that. Good Luck to you in all your endeavors.

Now go ahead and tap those Nike’s three times and say, “There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home,” because you deserve to.

Sincerely,

Still not your biggest fan—Tim Claro

P.S. Let’s go Bulls! 

Why Tino Martinez deserves Monument Park

Last weekend, Tino Martinez was given a plaque in Yankee Stadium’s Monument Park. Besides retiring a player’s number, it is probably the highest honor the Yankees can give to a former player. Since the plaque dedication the Yankees have faced much scrutiny about giving Martinez a plaque. Many Yankees fans and other teams’ fans feel Martinez simply wasn’t good enough to earn this honor and that adding a player like Martinez waters down the greatness of the players in Monument Park. Those fans are all wrong and here’s why.

Let me get this out there, Martinez is my all-time favorite baseball player and my opinion is probably somewhat biased. But my bias doesn’t make what Martinez did as a Yankee any better or worse. His play in pinstripes justifies why the Yankees organization believes he belongs in in Monument Park.

Martinez played 7 seasons (1996-2001, 2005) with the Yankees and in that time he helped the team win four World Series titles and compiled 192 homeruns and 739 RBI, good for 17^th and 21^st all-time for the Yankees, respectively. Those are good numbers and definitely put him on the list of the top 25 or 50 greatest Yankees ever, but they don’t really get him into Monument Park on their own.

If those numbers don’t put him in then let’s compare Martinez to his contemporaries at first base. I’ve taken arguably the top-10 first baseman from 1996-2001 (Thanks to some help from an SB Nation article), which was Martinez’s longest tenure as a Yankee. I need to thank baseball-reference.com for the ease of their website in helping to make this list:

		G	R	H	HR	RBI	BA
Thome, J	1996-2001	881	623	868	227	641	0.288
Delgado, C	1996-2001	909	571	935	217	671	0.287
Vaughn, Mo	1996-2000	756	472	892	188	579	0.307
Olerud, J	1996-2001	919	522	967	116	550	0.302
McGriff, F	1996-2001	910	455	976	159	597	0.291
Clark, T	1996-2001	745	418	759	153	503	0.278
Grace, M	1996-2001	900	515	1010	81	493	0.308
Karros, E	1996-2001	884	429	900	168	583	0.269
Young, K	1996-2001	741	400	698	113	464	0.27
Martinez, T	1996-2001	923	523	966	175	690	0.279

Martinez leads all these first baseman in, arguably, the most important category, RBI. He was also the most durable first baseman during the time racking up 923 games played. He was third in runs, fourth in hits and fourth in homeruns. The biggest detractor would be his finishing seventh in batting average. The fact that he played in 95% of his games and was considered an RBI machine, driving in 100+ RBI every year except for one (2000) proves that he was one of the best first baseman during his time with the Yankees.

Now we’ll discuss the other things Martinez did for the Yankees. It’s true that Martinez mostly struggled in the playoffs with the Yankees. But when the Yankees needed him most, Martinez often turned up his game, providing some of the most dramatic Yankee postseason memories we’ve ever seen. In game one of the 1998 World Series, after going five for 30 in the first two rounds of the playoffs that year, Tino launched a go-ahead Grand Slam into the right field upper deck at Yankee Stadium. Several members of the organization mentioned this as being the big moment of the series which gave the Yankees all the momentum they would need in the sweep of the Padres, it also helped cap off the greatest season in baseball history. The Yankees finished the 1998 season with a 125-50 record.

Martinez would provide more drama in the 2001 World Series. The Yankees were trailing the Diamondbacks three to one with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning. They were also trailing the series two games to one. The Diamondbacks were one out from taking a commanding three game to one lead when Tino smashed a two-run homerun over the right-center field wall tying the game. The Yankees would go on to win the game although they would falter in game seven of the series, a game in which Tino had a game tying RBI single in the seventh inning.

Lastly, there is one major category that goes into play that makes his numbers, his comparison to other players and his heroics irrelevant. This category can’t be quantitated by numbers or “clutch” moments or World Series victories, it’s what he meant to the organization, his teammates and the fans. Tino came to New York and had to replace a Yankee legend and former captain in Don Mattingly. Not only did he do it, he did it exceedingly well with grace and class. Before anything else, Tino was a winner. He played every game with everything he had. That’s what endeared him to the fans, his teammates and the organization.

Martinez’s plaque in Monument Park isn’t solely based on numbers, if it were, the plaque wouldn’t be there. His passion for the game, his attitude in striving to win every day and his hard work combined with his numbers is why he’s in Monument Park. The Yankees loved having Tino and he loved being a Yankee and now he’ll always be one. 

A Difficult Journey to Triumph

Nobody said life would be easy, they just promised it would be worth it.

-Author Unknown

We watch professional athletes play sports on a daily basis, whether it’s baseball, basketball, football, golf, hockey, soccer or tennis. We cheer on our favorite players and our favorite teams. We cry when our team loses, we cheer when our team wins. We feel the heartache when our teams were so close and we revel in the joy when our team wins it all. We ask for trades, we analyze moves, we beg for new coaches and players as if they were trading cards. But behind every groan of frustration and every shout of approval we give, another person, or persons, is responsible for that emotion. Sometimes we forget that person is also human and they go through the same tribulations we do.

The date was January 6, 2013 and the NHL owners and players had reached a tentative deal for a new 10-year collective bargaining agreement. Excitement brewed with NHL players as a new season was now only weeks away. Free agent Dominic Moore, though, was not one of the players excited for the upcoming season. Moore's mind wasn't with hockey. He had left his teammates in San Jose, the previous season, to tend to his ailing wife. But her health continued failing as she battled liver cancer. By the time the deal was ratified a few days later Moore's wife, Katie, had passed away. Moore decided it would be best for him to sit out that shortened season.

Many athletes tell us they do the best healing when they’re doing what they love to do. In this case, though, Moore couldn’t do that. Healing wouldn’t take place on the ice for him. He needed time away. In July of 2013 he and the New York Rangers, the team who drafted him 10 years earlier, agreed on a deal to bring him back to the Blueshirts. It was a mostly unremarkable season for Moore, who picked up 18 points in 73 games, for the Rangers. His moment was coming, though. It’s often said that these things have a way of working themselves out. Tragedy oftentimes turns into triumph and Moore was badly in need of that triumph and today he finds himself four wins away from hoisting Lord Stanley’s Cup because his moment came.

The Rangers and the Montreal Canadiens battled through five tough games of hockey. Each team lost players due to injury. Each team lost players due to penalty. Neither team was 100% by the time game six arrived but both teams played some of their best hockey of the postseason. The Rangers defense suffocated the Habs offense and replacement goaltender Dustin Tokarski was almost perfect, in fact, he was perfect against everyone except for Moore. With time ticking down in the second period Brian Boyle found Moore cutting in front of the net. A perfect pass and a perfect shot later, the Rangers had a one to zero lead. They wouldn’t need anything else. How true it is that these things have a way of working themselves out.

In January of 2013 Moore was going through perhaps the most difficult time in his life. Less than 18 months later, in the town where his career began, he scored the biggest goal of his life and sent his team to the finals. He knows, and the Rangers know, the job isn’t complete yet. They’re four wins from completing the ultimate goal.

The journey hasn’t been easy for Dominic Moore. Four more wins, though, and maybe it will have been worth it.

For more information about Dominic and Katie Moore or to donate please visit www.katiemoore.org

My Growing Passion for Hockey

My mindset toward the NHL has always been, at best, apathy. In my house baseball ruled sports, followed by basketball and football and somewhere down the road was hockey. I chose to root for the New York Rangers because I lived in New York and didn’t have an allegiance to anyone else. The truth is, though, that I didn’t really care about anything hockey. That mindset was changed because of one game; game seven of the 2001 Stanley Cup finals.

Without looking it up, I couldn’t tell you who played or who even won the Stanley Cup in 2001. The only reason I remember that it was 2001 is because I watched the game with my grandfather in a hotel lobby because we were visiting my cousin to celebrate his graduation. It was after that game that I became a fan of the sport of hockey. I watched the game, completely entranced in the action and emotion, with the biggest sports fan I’d ever known. After the game, I remember thinking that I’d never seen two teams play with such intensity and I loved every second of it.

Later that same year the New York Yankees lost game seven of the World Series to the Arizona Diamondbacks. While baseball is my favorite sport that game didn’t compare to one I’d watched months earlier without a rooting interest. Following the Stanley Cup finals in 2001 I began to pay attention to hockey and I would always see how the Rangers were doing in the standings. I would always try to catch game sevens in the playoffs because I loved the emotion from the players. But I still didn’t find hockey interesting enough to watch during the regular season.

When I made my decision to go to Plattsburgh State University, it had nothing to do with sports. The school was a Division-III NCAA program and didn’t get any national coverage but we had a great hockey program and I loved going to the games. I was crammed into the seats during the 2007-2008 SUNYAC championship when Plattsburgh’s men’s team won the conference. The little college town erupted that night and my hockey fandom grew a little bit more.

Following college I attended many minor league hockey games in Albany, NY. I watched the Albany River Rats and then the Albany Devils play many games at the Times Union Center and got the opportunity to stand right outside the ice. I loved watching the puck smash in front of the glass right in front of me. I loved feeling the boards rattle when players were checked where I was standing. I loved the speed of the game; the hard shots and the subsequent quick saves or fast goals fascinated me.

Little by little I became a bigger and bigger fan. Then during the 2011-2012 season the Rangers earned the first seed in the playoffs and made a run to the Eastern Conference Finals where they lost to the New Jersey Devils. That’s when I became hooked. Being so close and failing seemed like a travesty. The next season I attended my first NHL game where the Rangers beat the Capitals in DC. Then I went to game one of the Conference Quarterfinals where the Rangers lost 1-0 in overtime to the Capitals. Even though my team lost, the atmosphere in the Verizon Center that day gave me goose bumps. I loved it.

Now the Rangers are back in the Conference Finals and I’m so excited to watch them play. While I’ll always think baseball is the greatest sport in the world, there is no better sporting event to witness in person than a hockey game and there is no better sporting event to watch at home than a game seven in the NHL.