Keith Olbermann's Anti-Jeter Rant is Spot On

I’m not the world’s biggest Keith Olbermann fan, I’ll admit.  But when a guy hits a nail on the head, he hits a nail on the head.  And when he does it by dropping a punchbowl turd right in the middle of the most over-the-top, fawning, national ball licking, hagiography in the history of sports, all you can do is tip your cap to him.  My enemy’s enemy is my friend, and all that.

And make no mistake, Olbermann did hit the nail on the head.  All things considered, Derek Jeter might be the most overrated athlete of all time.  That doesn’t mean he’s sucked by any stretch.  But by dictionary definition, “overrate” means “to rate or appraise too highly; overestimate” and that is Jeter to a tee.  He’s been a decent, steady little singles hitter and a defensive liability for 20 years, and that is it.  But at no point has he ever done anything to justify having SportsCenter get preempted by him taking batting practice six days before his last game, like happened yesterday.  He’s the Kim Jong Il of baseball; everything he’s ever done is completely blown out of proportion by the media to the point it’s fiction.

Consider his legendary clutch play. Compare Jeter’s October/November numbers and they’re virtually identical to his April-September numbers:

— Regular Season: .310 BA .377 OBP .440 SLG .817 OPS

— Postseason:        .308 BA .378 OBP .465 SLG .838 OPS

Not that there’s anything wrong with playing at the same level in the postseason as you always do.  But his Baseball Reference bio calls him “Mr. November” and “Captain Clutch,” not “Mr. Stayed the Same” and “Captain Maintained the Same Level of Production.”  By contrast, consider David Ortiz, whose numbers go up in every category and his World Series numbers go off the charts (BA: .285 to .455, SLG: .547 to .795, OPS: .926 to 1.372).  And if you want to take a specific example, in the 2004 ALCS, Captain Clutch hit .200 and slugged .233 with one extra base hit (a double) in 38 plate appearances.  While every Yankee fan and all the Jeter apologists fired all their bullets at ARod and then threw the empty gun, Jeter was also front and center in the biggest collapse in the history of everything.

And that doesn’t even address his fielding.  To point out that he’s a terrible shortstop and his Gold Gloves are the biggest joke awards ever given out is too easy.  It’s fishing with dynamite.  Barstool legend Soog once sent me a metric I can no longer find.  But it measured defensive runs given up over the average player and Jeter was dead last in baseball history.  Something like 18.243rd out of 18.243.  But absent the link I won’t stand on that.  I’ll just state the one point not even the most diehard Jeter jock sniffer… not Pete Manzo or Susan Waldmyn or anyone… could argue: He hasn’t been the best shortstop in his own infield for 10 years.  And the fact that Captain Intangibles has never moved to another position is the height of selfishness.

So yeah, make all the dramatic Nike and Gatorade ads you want.  Celebrate him for living in New York without getting into trouble like it’s a Chris Rock bit  (“I ain’t never been to jail!”  “You’re not supposed to!  What do you want?  A cookie?!?”)  Cry all you want at his 27 retirement celebrations and laud him for being the leaderiest leader whose leadership ever lead.  But you can’t believe he’s earned all this.  @JerryThornton1

UPDATE: Here’s the Droid I was looking for.  Big thanks to @JRPitt21: