Starting Five

1. 2 Good 2 Be True

The Captain, No. 2, Derek Jeter, has 3,463 career hits, seven of which have been walk-off hits. That figures to about 0.02%, so of course one of the seven is his final hit in Yankee Stadium.

Jeter has 260 home runs, or about 7% of his hits have been home runs. So it figures that his landmark 3,000th hit was a homer. You link enough unlikely occurrences together and connect them to one person and, well, that’s how legends are constructed.

A cottage industry evaluating Jeter’s legacy has sprung up of late. There was a time when fans and writers would simply think, “Oh, the guy is No. 6 all-time in Hits, has five rings and was never an asshole over two decades.” But apparently that’s not enough now.

I used to work with some outstanding and highly intelligent waiters at the Steakateria, the best of whom, Peter IhaveareallylongItaliansurname-o, used to love to pigeonhole me to remind me how overrated and selfish (“Why is he still playing shortstop with A-Rod there?”) Jeter is, and I don’t quite have a comeback to that. Here’s the reasons I, and a lot of fans, I surmise, love The Captain:

1) One career, one team: Nobody ever says, “He’s the greatest husband; he’s been married four times!”

2) Bearing: Humble, professional, respectful of the game and fellow players.  It’s why even dudes don’t begrudge him the assembly line of actress/pop diva/supermodel conquests. By the way, 24 year-old Taylor Swift is a Manhattainite now. I’m just sayin’…

3) Longevity: He never had a better season than anyone in the American League (except for 2006) and you might even argue that the other dude who had a walk-off hit last night, Adrian Beltre, is a more talented baseball player. But do it for 20 years. That ain’t easy. Being consistently terrific for two decades? That in itself is greatness. And when people refute that, I wonder, Wait, so what was so special about Cal Ripken then? I mean, his lifetime average is 33 points (.276) lower than Jeter’s. Isn’t the streak at least 50% of his aura? That’s longevity.

4) Achievement: You know what? He was actually pretty decent. And no one with any sense has ever considered him the greatest player of all time or the most talented player to wear pinstripes. But he was, in the words of another former New Yorker, “Prit-tee, prit-tee good.”

5) A Sense of the Moment: Real humans don’t fall in love with stats. We fall in love with moments and stories. Jeter was a prince when it came to that. And while I cannot find a Bill James statistical metric to back up my point, I watched a ton of Yankee games before and after Jeter arrived. His presence, his insistence on doing things professionally and with respect for the game, rubbed off on everyone who played with him. And that made the Yankees better. I’ve seen enough to know that this is not myth. And the naysayers will learn this in the coming seasons.

*I really enjoyed Jeff Passan’s column on last night’s game, by the way.

**There was a moment when the score was tied 2-2 in the 2nd inning with a 2-2 count and 2 outs. It’s a coincidence, but it’s cool.

*** And, okay, maybe Baltimore’s second baseman was playing out of position. And I would have loved it if Buck Showalter, Jeter’s first Yankee manager, had called for an intentional walk with first base open. It would have been the biggest troll move in baseball history.

2. Tackling Dummies

I didn’t watch too much of the UCLA-Arizona State game last night –I was too busy jumping up and down on my hotel bed in my underwear doing “Derek Jeter!” chants– but every time I tuned in, it looked as if I was watching a colorized version of Horse Feathers. Wow, that was some bad tackling, Sun Devils.

UCLA won 62-27, in Tempe. The last time a team allowed 62 points inside Sun Devil Stadium, its coach was fired later that night on the tarmac of an airport. Avoid Sky Harbor this weekend, Todd Graham.

*p.s. An Arizona coach with four letters in his first name and six in his last, the first one “G.” was fired today. But it was Kirk Gibson.

3. Remington Steel Magnolia State

Someone, or some two, from the SEC West, will partake in the inaugural CFB playoff. Will anyone from among them, most notably Alabama, Auburn, Texas A&M or Mississippi State, go undefeated? I seriously doubt it, but they won’t have to.

The king of the SEC West is almost certainly headed to the CFB playoff. So is the runner-up. I wouldn’t even want to rank these four right now, but I’d put Alabama and A&M as my favorites. The fun begins next week No. 3 Alabama at  No. 10 Ole Miss (both undefeated),  No. 6 Texas A&M at No. 14 Mississippi State (also both undefeated) and No. 17 LSU at No. 5 Auburn.

The Bulldogs host the Aggies at noon in Starkville, while the Rebels will most likely host the Crimson Tide at 7 p.m. in Oxford. It’s about a two-hour drive to cover the 98 miles. Expect some enterprising reporter(s) to attempt a two-fer.

Update: I’m told the latter game kicks off at 3:30 p.m. EST. So, oops.

4. Groundhog Die

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio may be a good guy — I have no feel for him yet–but he does seem to be charismatically challenged. In a moment straight outta “Veep,” de Blasio dropped a prized groundhog and it later died. I found out about it by reading Ryantology.

Why was de Blasio hoisting a groundhog yesterday? He wasn’t. This happened last February 2 and the groundhog , in Staten Island, died a week later but we’re all just hearing about it now. Not a good year for innocent creatures in Staten Island who are handled roughly by New York City employees.

5. Fortt Knocks

Quick, name every African-American studio anchor on a cable business network. Yeah, me neither (okay, if you cannot name a single studio anchor on a cable business network, you may want to skip this). Today I watched as CNBC’s Jon Fortt, who is black and is ordinarily their Silicon Valley-based tech reporter, co-hosted what I believe was their 10 a.m . show (Something with “Squawk” in the title, maybe?).

Anyway, I think Fortt has found a home. Very good-looking guy, smart, and it’s not as if there are a glut of African-Americans in these positions. Plus, he knows Apple, and CNBC spends at least 25% of every morning discussing Apple.

Fortt is a DePauw (the one in Indiana) alum. Here’s hoping for bigger things for him.

Reserves

 Rory McIlroy was asked what he would be if he weren’t a professional golfer and replied, “A virgin.” You can’t beat that.