Ya Boy....The Captain

I was going to write something this morning comparing Bill Cowher and Tony LaRussa. That was until I was on the subway this morning and saw the back page of the Daily News. Who was it that I saw on it but none other than The Yankee Captain himself....DJ. That's right Derek Jeter. First of all, what is the story with Jeters' lack of a nickname? The Yankee history is filled with memorable nicknames. The Yankee Clipper, Yogi, Whitey, Mr. October, The Iron Horse, Donnie Baseball and of course the Bambino. Even the team itself has a nickname, "The Bronx Bombers." Meanwhile the man himself, best and most popular Yankee of this generation has got nothing? Don't give me Mr. November. Mr. November was a one time event, and DJ is just his initials. It is not a cool nickname. Can anybody get on this, whether it is Chris Berman, John Sterling or whomever??

Anyway, that was not the point of this post. The point I want to make is Jeters' uncanny ability to perform in New York. First off, we all know the stats. Among the leaders in hits, runs and steals year in and year out, two Gold Gloves (albeit undeserved), an All Star MVP, a World Series MVP and soon a Regular Season MVP. He always seems to be in the middle of any memorable rally that that Yankees mount and if he is not, he is on the top step, ready to be the first one to mob a teammate. While all of this is evident it is not what impresses me the most about him.

This guy manages to play great ball, while dating hot chick after hot chick, going out in New York, and never manages to say something inappropriate or do something to embarrass himself or the franchise. In a town like New York every one is bound to put their foot in their mouth at some point. What made me think of this were his comments concerning AROD from yesterday.

"You're there, you support him. Everyone supports your teammates at all times. I don't know if there's anything else I can do. Maybe I'm not that smart (to think of something else)."

Asked if Torre and AROD need to clear the air he replied, "Clear what air? I haven't heard that there's any air that needs to be cleared."

This guy is the master at playing dumb and making vanilla statements. We all know him and AROD have their differences. We also know that Torre and Jeter are aligned on the same side. Jeter has never reached out to AROD, yet whenever he comments he says the right thing. That AROD is just another one of the guys and they all support each other. Jeters' number one priority is winning, but I do not think it minds him one bit that AROD has come to New York and has clearly not been able to handle the media pressure. In some roundabout way this is Jeter getting back at AROD for calling him "just a number two hitter" and saying that "teams don't focus on trying to stop Jeter when they play the Yankees." Jeter has had chance after chance to help AROD and has chosen to continue doing what he has done his entire career which is saying only what he has to and not providing the media anything that could come back to haunt him. He continues to back off and let AROD fend for himself. Lastly, I think it is quite telling that all the Yankee heavy hitters (Cashman, Torre, Jeter, Giambi, Reggie Jackson) attended Cory Lidles' funeral, while AROD did not.

On to Cowher and LaRussa. Both have been coaching for a long time. Obviously LaRussa has been around longer but they both have had unusually long tenures with their current franchises. They are both known as coaches that drive their players hard and squeeze the most out of them that they can. As a result of this, both have been accused of burning their players out when they had playoff collapses. Look at the numbers of each guy since they have been with their respective franchise and see the similarities.

Bill Cowher became Head Coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1992. In his first 12 years he made four AFC title games (all at home) and lost three. The year he won, he lost Super Bowl XXX to Dallas. People began to wonder aloud if he could not win the big game, if he wore down if players, or if he was just uncomfortable being the favorite. Well, in 2005 he was not the favorite. In order for the Steelers to win the Super Bowl they would have to beat three teams on the road. That is exactly what they did before beating the Seahawks in Super Bowl XL. They were the first team in history to accomplish that feat. It was poetic justric in a way. After year in and year out of being the favorite and losing playoff games at home he finally won it all with a team that was an underdog through out.

LaRussa has had a similar career in St. Louis. He was the losing NLCS manager in 1996, 2000, 2002, and 2005. He lost the Division Series in 2001 to Arizona and got swept by the Red Sox in the 2004 World Series. The past two seasons his team has had the best combined record in baseball and came up empty. This year he led an 83 win team into the post season after nearly choking away the division late in the season. At this point he has the Cards up 2-1 in the World Series with his most unlikely World Series team. Could LaRussa find the same poetic justice in this season that Cowher did back in January? It just might be...

*I understand that a major difference between LaRussa and Cowher is that LaRussa actually won a World Series prior to joining the Cards. In the same respect though he was heavy favorites in all three World Series he managed with the A's and only won once.

**Lastly, I received a comment yesterday from "Relaxo" concerning my quip about how could anyone think the Tigers would just murder any NL team. I stand by my statement, but I understand that the Tigers were favorites coming in. My point was that the Tigers are not THAT good to act as if they would roll over anyone. It is not like they are the Yankees of 1998-2000 or something. I just feel like predictors got caught up in what happened the past two years with the Red and White Sox getting on a roll and sweeping the World Series and assumed the Tigers would do the same especially considering the weak NL. Every year is different and they should be treated as such, especially when different teams are competing.