Forget how he and Stick put together a championship dynasty and how he became the scapegoat for them not winning the year before. Forget everything you've ever heard about Buck Showalter. The man, for all intent and purposes had no reason to do it, but he did.
Last Thursday, Jeter waited on deck. The winning run on first base. The Baltimore Orioles clinging to the a glimmer of hope of having the best overall record in baseball and home field advantage throughout the American League playoffs. Brett Gardner is at the plate and Joe Girardi has him bunt the runner over. Ninety nine percent of the time, that is the right play, but not tonight. Not with Derek Jeter waiting on deck for his potentially last at-bat. Gardner bunts and is thrown out, with the runner advancing to second. Textbook baseball. Jeter walked to the plate, fans cheered and the scene was complete insanity. Why? Why would 45,000 fans be excited to see an intentional walk? Their beloved captain has just had the chance to be a hero plucked away. Not one fan realized this. Not even the announcers.
And then a funny thing happened. Showalter decided to allow Jeter his moment, but he did something even I didn't expect. He gave up the opportunity to win the best overall record. He essentially gave his players the final three games of the season to relax and enjoy their season and their division win. He also allowed his three main starters to work, but in limited capacity, to be in top shape for the playoffs, knowing Detroit was still battling for the division. It was a stroke of genius, but that wasn't the real gem. The real gem is something only real, I mean true students of the game understand and to be honest, it took a few replays for me to swallow it all.
He pitched to Derek Jeter with one out and the winning runner on second, knowing Brian McCann was up next. McCann leads the Yankees in grounding into double plays. A scenario which would have ended the inning and possibly, Jeter's home career. This in itself is startling, but like I said, true students of the game realize that was the most rudimentary part of it. Showalter had the first baseman playing at normal depth and the second baseman less than six steps from second base. Jeter is a prolific slap hitter and has made his career hitting towards right in this situation. So what did Showalter do? He left the entire right side open. That to me was baffling, but here's where it gets even crazier. He had his catcher set up on the outside corner. In case you're confused, he played the pitch defensively as if Jeter was a dead pull right handed hitter and pitched to him as if his inside out swing wasn't legendary. He basically served Jeter up a winning combination of circumstances and said "Here is your moment. Enjoy!"
One columnist for some tiny St. Louis newspaper wrote about the fact that Buck didn't walk him. The rest of America shared in the oohs and aahs of the moment. He did it for baseball, Jeter and the fans, but he might just have won the next round of playoffs because of it. Either way, Buck is too classy of a guy to ever admit he hand delivered the feel good story of the year, but us baseball loons all know what happened that night and trust me, fan or not of the man, I admire Buck and I appreciated and enjoyed the moment too.
Last Thursday, Jeter waited on deck. The winning run on first base. The Baltimore Orioles clinging to the a glimmer of hope of having the best overall record in baseball and home field advantage throughout the American League playoffs. Brett Gardner is at the plate and Joe Girardi has him bunt the runner over. Ninety nine percent of the time, that is the right play, but not tonight. Not with Derek Jeter waiting on deck for his potentially last at-bat. Gardner bunts and is thrown out, with the runner advancing to second. Textbook baseball. Jeter walked to the plate, fans cheered and the scene was complete insanity. Why? Why would 45,000 fans be excited to see an intentional walk? Their beloved captain has just had the chance to be a hero plucked away. Not one fan realized this. Not even the announcers.
And then a funny thing happened. Showalter decided to allow Jeter his moment, but he did something even I didn't expect. He gave up the opportunity to win the best overall record. He essentially gave his players the final three games of the season to relax and enjoy their season and their division win. He also allowed his three main starters to work, but in limited capacity, to be in top shape for the playoffs, knowing Detroit was still battling for the division. It was a stroke of genius, but that wasn't the real gem. The real gem is something only real, I mean true students of the game understand and to be honest, it took a few replays for me to swallow it all.
He pitched to Derek Jeter with one out and the winning runner on second, knowing Brian McCann was up next. McCann leads the Yankees in grounding into double plays. A scenario which would have ended the inning and possibly, Jeter's home career. This in itself is startling, but like I said, true students of the game realize that was the most rudimentary part of it. Showalter had the first baseman playing at normal depth and the second baseman less than six steps from second base. Jeter is a prolific slap hitter and has made his career hitting towards right in this situation. So what did Showalter do? He left the entire right side open. That to me was baffling, but here's where it gets even crazier. He had his catcher set up on the outside corner. In case you're confused, he played the pitch defensively as if Jeter was a dead pull right handed hitter and pitched to him as if his inside out swing wasn't legendary. He basically served Jeter up a winning combination of circumstances and said "Here is your moment. Enjoy!"
One columnist for some tiny St. Louis newspaper wrote about the fact that Buck didn't walk him. The rest of America shared in the oohs and aahs of the moment. He did it for baseball, Jeter and the fans, but he might just have won the next round of playoffs because of it. Either way, Buck is too classy of a guy to ever admit he hand delivered the feel good story of the year, but us baseball loons all know what happened that night and trust me, fan or not of the man, I admire Buck and I appreciated and enjoyed the moment too.
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