By STEVE POPPER
STAFF WRITER
NEW YORK – The question came and before it could even be fully formed, Derek Jeter stopped it cold.
The truth is easy to tell. Jeter is arguably the best postseason player ever – a product of the time, the place and his own skills, who has managed to become the all-time leader in almost every offensive category and right there on the ones he doesn’t own. But even though the history books will chart it, Jeter doesn’t want to think about it.
“Stop,” he said. “Don’t even try to jinx us.”
And there is the rub, the one piece of kryptonite that even Jeter is afraid of. If you talk about it, if you wonder how it happens, if you reason it out, then it changes everything. How do you become baseball’s Mr. November?
“The skill is probably having a lot of opportunities,” Jeter started, before admitting the odd truth. While others tense up and feel the pressure cinching around their necks, Jeter is something else. “I’ve just got to try to relax, I guess. I think the more you relax as a player that goes hand in hand with performance.”
So as the Yankees prepare for another round, most of the players getting their first taste of the American League Championship Series, Jeter is preparing for something simpler.
A game.
That’s it. The secret. It’s so simple and yet so brilliant. And no one else can pull it off. You can almost see the machinations rolling through Alex Rodriguez’s head in these sort of settings – his place in history, the next day’s headlines and how to avoid the goat horns. Other players shrink, hiding.
But Jeter is different. He has a formula – by having no formula.
“If there is (a secret) I don’t think about it,” Jeter said. “I.treat a playoff game like a regular season game or a spring training game. It’s still the same game. I don’t think you try to do anything differently. You just try to relax and play the game. Sometimes you’re going to have success, sometimes you’re going to fail. But if you can, try to draw from the times that you had success when you’re in certain situations.”
While it might be difficult to convince any of the players who are shaking or vomiting as they prepare for this stage, Jeter has always seemed at home in it. In his first full season in the majors, at just 22 years old, he was thrust into the midst of it and flourished – 22 hits in 59 at-bats and his first ring.
It has never really seemed to stop from that time on.
“I just always looked at it as being fun,” he said. “That’s just the way I looked at it. When you’re playing at this time you’ve got to have fun. My whole thing is if you’re not having fun I think it’s kind of difficult to do well.
“People always talk about pressure. We’re still playing a game. That’s just my mindset. If you’re playing a game you should have fun. You should enjoy it. This is where every player wants to be this time of year. Just try to have fun with it. If you have fun that’s a good way to relax yourself.”
He seemed relaxed, even surrounded by crowds of reporters. He’d answer the questions and seem to be doing it almost without thinking – grabbing a pair of socks and preparing them as if he were alone in his apartment straightening up.
Finally, the last question came – what had he sent to the Hall of Fame to commemorate his latest success, becoming the Yankees all-time hits leader earlier this year?
“Why don’t you take a ride up there and see,” he joked, before adding that he hadn’t been there since he was a kid.
And that seemed about right. Don’t think about it. Don’t count the successes or look at the trophies. Not now. Not when he’s having fun.
E-mail: popper@northjersey.com
$E
Who should be the DH tomorrow night (if they play Game 2) against Joe Saunders?
Well, Hideki Matsui is 1-for-1, with a homer off Saunders.
Jorge Posada is 2-for-4 lifetime vs. Saunders.
And, for fans of the old guard, Bernie Williams is 2-for-2, with 2 home runs off Saunders lifetime (courtesy of baseball-reference.com).
But it's a little too late to add Bernie to the roster.
Anyway, Joe Girardi is leaning toward using pairing Jose Molina with A.J. Burnett again for Game 2, but hasn't confirmed that. And he hasn't decided on a DH. Of course, all the focus is on Game 1, and the rest will be addressed afterward.
The Yankees' ALCS roster is in, and there are no changes -- other than Joe Girardi's Thursday announcement that fast, Freddy Guzman would sub for slugging Eric Hinske.
Francisco Cervelli remains as the third catcher, and lefty Damaso Marte has made the cut, while Brian Bruney continues to work out at Tampa, Fla.
ALCS ROSTER BY POSITION
91 Alfredo Aceves RHP
34 A.J. Burnett RHP
62 Joba Chamberlain RHP
48 Phil Coke LHP
41 Chad Gaudin RHP
65 Phil Hughes RHP
43 Damaso Marte LHP
46 Andy Pettitte LHP
42 Mariano Rivera RHP
30 David Robertson RHP
52 CC Sabathia LHP
29 Francisco Cervelli C
26 Jose Molina C
20 Jorge Posada C
24 Robinson Cano INF
17 Jerry Hairston, Jr. INF/OF
2 Derek Jeter INF
13 Alex Rodriguez INF
25 Mark Teixeira INF
53 Melky Cabrera OF
18 Johnny Damon OF
11 Brett Gardner OF
47 Freddy Guzman OF
55 Hideki Matsui OF
33 Nick Swisher OF/INF
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