OT: Michigan Fan Derek Jeter
I know there were some haters out there yesterday... Personally I am not a Yankee Fan, but I do think DJ is a class act and a true professional...
Per CBS, he answered a few questions on his way into the clubhouse, and like any Michigan Fan, wore his favorite shirt...
At 11:42 a.m., Jeter walked out into the public part of the Yankees clubhouse wearing a navy University of Michigan T-shirt, blue jeans and white sneakers. Among the questions he faced after a night of celebrating: So just how heartily does one party after becoming the only Yankees player in the 3,000-hit club? "Not too much," Jeter said, grinning gently. "I don't really recover like I used to."
I think this should settle it that we should be happy for one of our own...
http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/players/playerpage/7758/derek-jeter
What a sad, bitter person you are, dead wrong too.
Whether to go pro or stay on the team is a big decision. Any advice a coach gives should be based on what he thinks is best for the player, not for himself. It's not surprising that coach Freehan would advise Jeter to move on. It was clearly the right decision for his career. I'm sure that when recruiting Jeter he knew there was a very strong chance he would leave early.
are not useful and inappropriate. I am not sad and not bitter. I just find the duality of this love fest for Mr. Jeter and his actual actions a bit odd. When others leave early, they are gnerally excoriated, but not here. Perhaps because he had not played, fans have not had an opportunity to cultivate an attachment is the reason. The reality is that what Mr. Jeter did created problems for the team and and, by extension, the University of Michigan. Jeter does appear to be a level-headed, likeable fellow. Does this excuse him from what occurred in the past? I guess in many eyes it does. In many respects, it is a clear indication of the gray area between professional and collegiate sports. Using college as a backup or insurance policy is giving short shrift to our academic institutiion and its stated mission, to educate the Leaders and Best. Perhaps the time is nearing when colleges will reconsider the athletic scholarship and its current configuration and consequences.
My son was a dorm mate and intramural teammate of Derek Jeter when he was at Michigan. The information I have is not from the coach but from my son. I do not believe Coach Freeman would give a scholarship to an athlete and then a few months later, before that athlete had played one game, advise him to leave, which, in fact, would leave him without a strong player for a key position. Those who find this pattern of behavior acceptable tend to use the financial factor as a validation for the action. I disagree. I view the role of the university in a different light.
sometimes there are bigger and better opportunities than what the University of Michigan can offer. Maybe not to you, but to other people.
just fucking accept that and move on.
You sound bitter.
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<br>And your son is wrong, and shows a complete lack of knowledge of what coaches do. Jeter's situation wasn't much different than taking a risk on recruiting a one and done basketball player (or back when high school players COULD go pro...like is recruiting Kevin Garnett. The timing is just different). Take from someone who is friend's (and former hallmate) with Jeter's actual roommate that semester (and who got a double sized single for half the year for his "troubles"). A coach MUST tell them what they believe is true for the player, or else they lose all credibility, and it will carry on with them and create a bad reputation with future recruits. That's not to say a coach can't honestly be wrong about a Player's value, and even have a player resent it...just that if he actively misrepresents the case or throws a player under the bus for it, it will do more harm than good.
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<br>No one really holds it against someone for leaving early. It's usually only if people think it's a big mistake for that player to leave, for himself, and thus the team too. No one said guys like Charles Woodson, or Desmond Howard, or Chris Webber (or even Howard and Rose) should stay. The rewards were pretty guaranteed, and it wasn't worth the risk to return for the rewards involved. Getting picked 6th overall is that kind of sure thing. There are others. Henson is the only guy who got some flack because A. The timing of leaving for BASEBALL left the football team kinda high and dry, unlike the NFL declaring schedule would have, and B. People thought it was a great financial decision, because while he got a lot of money, what he got would have been just a signing bonus for where he was projected to go in the NFL Draft...and he'd still have his high pick salary (not guaranteed). If he had left for the NFL, I doubt people would have been as sore. And in any case at this point I don't think a lot of people are still mad, and he's welcome at Michigan.
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<br>Jeter, even though he spent a semester here, has never ignored Michigan, come back for football games, and still shown loyalty. He's given no reason not to do the same back.
You have to give him props for maybe the all-time greatest girlfriends list.
Love Jeter and don't blame him for going pro when he did.
Jeter was the sixth overall pick in the draft when he came out of high school. Very, very few players turn down the pros when they are drafted that high although they often say and do things to try to leverage a better offer. Once Jeter was drafted that high, there was little chance he'd every play baseball at Michigan. That said, he's been as blue as most Michigan alums, regularly walking the sidelines at Michigan games after the baseball season has ended.
delete double post (I got blasted by an attack page screen).