Talk of 9/11 is dangerous territory for non-New Yorkers (non-Americans in general) but it would be petty in the extreme to avoid the canny timing of the New York Yankees’ famed captain and second-baser Derek Jeter breaking the franchise’s record for most career hits.
Yankees legend Lou Gehrig, whose last hit came in 1939 just two years before his death, was surpassed on Friday by Jeter who was already well-placed to be as adored as that tragic pre-war hero.
Rain-soaked Yankee Stadium was the setting and it looked chaotic. Eventual defeat to the Baltimore Orioles rendered the scene bleaker still, the capacity crowd making for home long before the final inning whittled away. They'd seen what they came for.
Prior to the game, I’d received a trans-Atlantic text saying the game had been rained off. It was almost a sense of relief: “Jeter and Jay Z doing their thang on this day of all days would have been far too 'Merica,” was my provocative reply.
(Yankees fan and self-proclaimed God MC Jay-Z was holding court at Madison Square Garden, a 9/11 benefit concert.)
I wasn’t going to lose much sleep about Jeter’s ongoing quest, a mini-saga given the breakneck speed of the baseball world with its daily match-ups and multiple series. Hard to have sympathy for a multi-millionaire hitting and catching balls for what is widely regarded as the Dark Side of the Force in American sport.
That said, the famous No 2 did seem to be having an arduous time as he got ever closer to being Number One. It must have been irritating to field daily ‘when's-it-gonna-happen’ questions from media and fans.
With post-season all but assured, the only way to place on ice the debate over the franchise's ever-tightening odds on a first World Series since 2003 was to expend some ink on the Gehrig chase. Winning actual ball games became secondary; it was all about watching how the captain would cope at-bat.
The show had to go on despite the downpour and I woke up to the news that Jeter had in fact hit a third-inning single to right field which allowed him to run comfortably to first base. Lights, cameras, worship.
Just a quick point/query: is this Jeter feat one of the sport’s more honourable achievements? Ok, so he's going down in history for carrying out a rudimentary requirement: hit the ball and get to first base, or further if you fancy a sprint.
It’s still a skill though, connecting with a ball at that pace without fouling. Excitement greets every monster home run, as do questions about drug use. But no asterix could ever be placed over a decade-plus of consistency fused with a boyhood dream come true.
That Jeter et al lost 10-4 gave it an appropriate frayed edge; sort of like tragedy, sort of like hip-hop - there's glory in the strangest of places.
