It figures. After writing on pretty much every aspect of the Derek Jeter contract saga, I was busy all day yesterday with my brother visiting from Portland, Oregon, so I didn’t get to write about the contract deal finally being done. (One of the things we did yesterday was take the Yankee Stadium tour — more on that in a future post.)
Anyhow, I think that the Yankees won the negotiations. Yes, they gave Jeter a player option for a fourth season, but they’re not paying much more per year, and Jeter didn’t even come close to getting the A-Rod type contract he wanted.
I wrote a piece for The Faster Times about my thoughts. Jeter did some real damage to his reputation, although that his cronies in the media will put this down the old memory hole and act like the Yankees, not him, were at fault. Mike Lupica already did as much today.
And Jeter biographer Ian O’Connor suggests that this all showed how “smart” Jeter is. O’Connor even had the nerve to write this: “The Yankees could have offered Jeter minimum wage, free parking and cab fare to and from the ballpark, and he would have found a way to accept it.” Oh, please. Looks like O’Connor needs some of that reality potion. It took a month of negotiations for Jeter to accept making less than his $22.6 million 2010 salary. The idea that he would play for minimum wage is just ridiculous. But hey, O’Connor’s got that Jeter biography book coming out — you know, the one that he never discloses in his columns — and he’s got to keep on polishing that ol’ Jeter image. Oy vey.
What do you think? Tell us about it!
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