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Jeter: Talks with Yanks made him angry

stevekstevek Posts: 29,035 ✭✭✭✭✭
Jeter: Talks with Yanks made him angry

Originally published: December 7, 2010 5:53 PM
By ERIK BOLAND erik.boland@newsday.com

Photo credit: Getty Images | Derek Jeter talks to the media during a press conference to announce his new contract with the club. (Dec. 7, 2010)

TAMPA, Fla. - Derek Jeter used a word he doesn't use often, at least not in public, and he directed it at the franchise that from the start he never wanted to leave.

Yes, Jeter said multiple times Tuesday, the Yankees made him angry during negotiations that resulted in the new contract that was officially announced at a news conference at George M. Steinbrenner Field.

More specifically, the 36-year-old shortstop was upset with general manager Brian Cashman for his public challenge Nov. 23 that if Jeter didn't like the Yankees' original offer of $45 million over three years, he could look elsewhere.

"I was pretty angry about that and I let that be known," Jeter said. "I was angry about it because I was the one that said I didn't want to do it [shop around], I was the one that said I wasn't going to do it. So to hear the organization say to go shop it when I told you I wasn't going to, if I'm going to be honest with you, yeah, I was angry about it."

Cashman said he had no regrets.

From Cashman's perspective, the statement, coming after Jeter's agent, Casey Close, called the team's negotiating strategy "baffling," helped get the deal done.

"The process can stink at times, it really can," Cashman said. "But it is what is. Sometimes you have to walk through fire to get to the promised land, so we walked through the fire. Maybe we took different routes but ultimately in the end, that's where we got to, which is where we wanted to be. I don't think we get to here if we didn't go through there."

Jeter settled on a three-year contract, with a player option for the fourth year, averaging about $16 million a season, a cut from the $21 million he made in the last year of his 10-year, $189-million deal.

Jeter said he no longer was upset and referenced the "big happy family" setting he had just been a part of announcing the contract. On the dais with Jeter were managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner, manager Joe Girardi and Cashman.

But Jeter, usually so careful with his words, spoke bluntly, both on the dais and afterward, about a process that he thought had sullied his name, at least in the short term.

"I was angry most at how I was portrayed throughout the whole thing," Jeter said of reports he said he heard from friends and family keeping up with the newspapers and talk radio. "I've heard greed, I've heard all of a sudden now I have an ego, arrogance. And I don't think that was portrayed correctly."

Steinbrenner said one reason the parties met here early last week was to clear the air. "We were all upset and a little bit angry that it reached the level that it did," Steinbrenner said. "It was escalating, no doubt, which is why we got together face to face."

And the deal reached last weekend keeps Jeter the game's highest-paid shortstop, though at a lower price. "I'm happy with the deal I have, I think that's the best way to put it," he said. "If I wasn't happy, I wouldn't have signed the deal."

Cashman said at no point in the negotiations was a position change raised.

"He can play shortstop still for us, right now, there's no doubt in my mind about that," Cashman said. "If he plays himself off the position, we'll adjust, but I don't need to talk to him about that now because that's not an issue now."

Jeter took a step back in many statistical categories one year after one of the best seasons of his career. His batting average (.334) and on-base percentage (.406) in 2009 fell to career lows of .270 and .340, respectively.

"You'd like to think that last year was a hiccup, so to speak," Jeter said. "But it's my job to go out there and prove that it was. I understand any concerns that anyone has, especially from an organizational standpoint. They're entitled to those concerns, so it's my job to go out and change that opinion."

Comments

  • stevekstevek Posts: 29,035 ✭✭✭✭✭
    oh Derek...you poor, poor baby. image
  • stevekstevek Posts: 29,035 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Poor Derek had to settle for $16,000,000.

    Oh the horror. image
  • stevekstevek Posts: 29,035 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Oh my gosh...and I just read it...now he has to...oh my goodness...now he's now forced to...I don't know if I can type the words but I'll try...he has to PLAY MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL. image
  • stevekstevek Posts: 29,035 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I'll work in a coal mine, I'll clean sewers, I'll remove dung from animal cages at the zoo...but play Major League Baseball? Never, at any price.
  • stevekstevek Posts: 29,035 ✭✭✭✭✭
    ...and the answer is "Yes"...it is already a cheat post thread. LOL

    +1
  • Don't forget about being forced to go home to St. Jetersburg.



    His 22,000 sq ft home here in Tampa
  • bkingbking Posts: 3,095 ✭✭
    What I love is how he's mad at Cashman for daring to suggest he shop around. Basically, Cashman threw cold water in his face by making him realize he had no market leverage. THAT is what made him mad.
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  • ctsoxfanctsoxfan Posts: 6,246 ✭✭
    What a jerk. But Yankee fans will still drink his Kool Aid and think he's a "class act" who is "clutch".
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  • BarndogBarndog Posts: 20,492 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I saw the press conference. Jeter expressed his anger toward the reports in the media that the negotiation was anything other than what it was: a simple negotiation. Not surprisingly, the same media is blowing the "anger" word out of proportion.
  • markj111markj111 Posts: 2,921 ✭✭✭


    << <i>I saw the press conference. Jeter expressed his anger toward the reports in the media that the negotiation was anything other than what it was: a simple negotiation. Not surprisingly, the same media is blowing the "anger" word out of proportion. >>






    That's your interpretation. Another is that Jeter overplayed his hand and is ticked that he was called.
  • bkingbking Posts: 3,095 ✭✭
    For those with their Jeter blinders on:



    << <i>"I was pretty angry about that and I let that be known," Jeter said. "I was angry about it because I was the one that said I didn't want to do it [shop around], I was the one that said I wasn't going to do it. So to hear the organization say to go shop it when I told you I wasn't going to, if I'm going to be honest with you, yeah, I was angry about it." >>

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  • GarabaldiGarabaldi Posts: 2,004 ✭✭✭
    I think Jeter is a very upfront guy.
  • BarndogBarndog Posts: 20,492 ✭✭✭✭✭
    it's really not a story, but baseball writers have nothing substantive to talk about...wait, winter meetings, free agent signings, trades, oh, they do.
  • I think part of it was because some writers believe that Jeter is being hypocritical. A long time ago, and I'm paraphrasing, Jeter was asked about Mike Piazza turning down an 18mil/year contract. Jeter went something like "Eigh-teen-mill-ion" (emphasizing each of the four syllables) "You can't spend that much in a lifetime." And now Jeter is doing what Piazza did.
  • swartz1swartz1 Posts: 4,911 ✭✭✭
    Wait until he sees what they pay Lee...


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