Hurd By The Bay

Every so often, my almost-7-year-old son, Clayton, says or does something that makes me wonder whether he, indeed, has part of my gene pool. Example: He showed up for a recent overnight visit wearing a New York Yankees hat.

Seriously made me wonder whether the kid should remain in the will, lol.

Now you gotta understand, my mother and her side of the family all hail from a small town in Connecticut that's the halfway point where Yankee and Red Sox nations collide. So I've spent a lifetime listening to the obnoxiousness that results in rooting for the Microsoft's of the world. I choose not to partake.

If I had my druthers, I'd rather my children not drink the juice (no pun intended), either. So I asked this child of mine, "Clayton, how can you possibly root for the Yankees."

He says, "I like Derek Jeter."

Kid's pretty smart for 6. Tonight or sometime this weekend, Jeter will become the most prolific hitter in Yankees history, and there's no player I'd rather have my son emulate.

I was blessed enough to cover baseball during the Great Shortstop Debate earlier this decade. And I remember specifically a conversation I had while watching Miguel Tejada wreak havoc on the Bombers at the old Yankee Stadium while a member of the A's. And I remember specifically telling my uncle that Jeter was the least effective shortstop from a group that included Tejada, A-Rod and Nomar Garciaparra.

"You'll see who the last one standing is," he said.

Boy, I wish he had been wrong. But what fueled my uncle's argument, and he was dead right, was that Jeter "does it the right way," and that "those guys outlast the others."

Let's see. Jeter has never been arrested. Never had shady pics show up on the Internet. Never has incurred the wrath of his peers.

I interviewed Jeter on a couple of occasions, but only once in one-on-one. It was amazing how he steered every question about his own individual accomplishments into a topic about the greater good --- namely, winning games and winning championships. Jeter already has won four of them, and No. 5 is there for the taking in October.

Now, almost every player will say that it's all about the winning. But in reality, only a handful really mean it. If in actuality, Jeter is one of those, then he not only is the greatest shortstop in Yankees history, he's the greatest actor in the history of American theatre.

I choose to believe that he is, quite simply, the antithesis of the modern athlete, someone who's old school in motivation and actions. There's a reason he's the heart and soul of America's most famous franchise, and thank goodness he measures up to the expectation in every way.

So it is that Clayton is off to a great start in making sound judgements. His Yankees hat? Hanging nicely on the door.