My latest blog poll results yielded a dead-even split; half said Derek Jeter was back, half said he’s finished. My conclusion: he never left.
Believe me, I was very close to posting something about Jeter’s demise in April. I mean, come on, he was hitting .206 nine games into the year.
But that was just it. Nine games is only one-eighteenth of the season. I told myself I would wait until the end of April to post about him. But when May 1 came, I was having trouble making an argument for why he was finished. That’s why when I saw the NY Post’s cover on May 9 I was shocked.
Jeter never left, people. He just had one mediocre month. Now he’s hit safely in 10 of his last 11. He has two four-hit games and 10 multi-hit games.
Yes, I’m well aware of his ground ball tendencies (68.9 percent) and his lack of extra-base hits (3 percent), but I’m not worried, yet. He’s showing he can still hit — perhaps not at leadoff hitter quality — but he’s OK for now.
Next poll: Have you voted for All-Stars yet? If so, how many Yankees got your vote?
