Maury Allen was a once-respected sportswriter here in New York. He's moved over to a web site called "The Columnists", and last week he wrote one of the worst pieces of dreck I have ever seen. (With thanks to my pal Chris for bringing it to my attention.)It is a column that simply just fawns over Derek Jeter, called "Jeter At The Top". Listen, this post isn't meant to be a slam on Jeter. As I've always said, if I'm watching a Yankees-Red Sox game and it's close late, the one guy in that lineup I don't want to see with men on base is Jeter. I've always felt he was overrated, but just in the field. (Forget the Gold Gloves; they are a joke of an award.) He is a first-ballot Hall of Famer, without any question.
But Allen actually believes that Jeter maybe the best of all-time. Yes, you read I just wrote correctly. Better than Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Ty Cobb or even Babe Ruth. He wrote a book 30 years ago called "Baseball's 100" and now he writes this:
Now, three decades later, when I think about updating the book, I think about Derek Jeter as No. 1 in the game. Now, then and always.
"Now, then and always?" So NOBODY for the rest of eternity will be better than his boy Derek? This makes me just want to bust out laughing, as Allen comes off like some 15-year-old schoolgirl with a mad crush on the Yankee shortstop.
Jeter isn't the best overall shortstop in history (that goes to Honus Wagner or Cal Ripken), the best player on his team now (Mark Teixeira was the Yankees MVP) or even the best shortstop on his own team (the guy playing third is their best fielding shortstop). So how the hell is Jeter the best "now, then and always" Maury?
He details it with his idea that Jeter does nothing but win (so what was that he and Yankees were doing between 2000 and 2009?) and how he's never had anything to do with steroids (that we know of). He comes sounding like he wants the rights to Jeter's life story of something. Some real serious ass kissing going on in this column.
I won't break down this dreck of a column line-by-line, but some of it is really over the top, like calling Jeter "the Barack Obama of baseball." The only thing the two have in common that I can tell (and Allen points this out) is that they both have a black father and a white mother. I've seen some weird comparisons in my life, but this may just take the cake.
Allen ends the misery with this:
But for my money, Jeter is the game's number one player, now and always. (This again?--MQ) Sorry about that, Babe.
Somebody get Maury a straight jacket, please. Or Jeter's phone number so he can finish off his man crush on him.
This is what gets me from Allen's article:
ReplyDelete"Jeter is all about winning with the least amount of public ego I have seen in my lifetime around the game. His teammate, Alex Rodriguez, a first time World Series winner this year and probably the home run king with 800 or so before he quits, is the ego king of the game."
Yes, he's right. It was stirring to see the way Jeter gave up being Yankee shortstop to Alex Rodriguez, his superior at the position, for the good of the team. Oh, wait.
I'm not saying A-Rod isn't a diva - he is, as are most superstars - but the complete lack of credit A-Rod gets for giving up the chance to be the greatest shortstop of all time to be a Yankee is just astounding. Not to mention the way that this so-called "ego king of the game" came back early from surgery this year, and played in an enormous amount of pain, for the team's benefit. I'll take ego kings like that any day of the week on my team.