Fri, Oct 24, 2003 page24

• Derek Jeter draws attention with his eyes and ice packs

  • NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
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  All eyes are on Derek Jeter. Heads turn as he walks through the basement of the ballpark with giant ice packs on both shoulders.

  Women stare at the ice packs as he heads toward the media interview room, with a walk somewhere between a saunter and a swagger.

  "Maybe it's the green eyes, something a woman usually likes," one new Jeter fan wrote in an e-mail message, comparing Jeter to Salvatore Schillaci, who is known as Toto and is her favorite Italian soccer player from the 1990 World Cup.

  All eyes are on Derek Jeter, but last night was not one of his finer games. He hit into two double plays as the Yankees lost, 4-3 to the Marlins in 12 innings to tie the World Series at two games apiece.

  Roger Clemens got to pitch again Wednesday night, most likely for the last time in Clemens' career. Clemens had one bad inning, the first, and then left with a strikeout in the seventh inning, to an impressive standing ovation, including the Marlins' dugout.

  The Yankees would not have been here except for Jeter's performance in the seventh game of the American League Championship Series. . With the Yankees trailing Pedro Martinez by three runs, Jeter whacked a double off the wall and reached second base and clapped his hands, in joy and in anticipation. More was coming, his body language told us.

  All eyes are on Derek Jeter now that it is October and he is one of two shortstops still playing in North America.

  The poor fellow. All we heard this past summer, as we kept a vague tab on the long baseball season, was that Derek Jeter had found his level. Limited power. Limited range. And perhaps even slightly passe in the new century of the slugger shortstop.

  Ah, yes, we heard those bleats, quite often emanating from Yankees fans themselves, morbidly fearful that somehow a 39th pennant was impossible because Jeter would not slug 40 home runs or steal 40 bases.

  Since then, we have seen Tejada pull a rock on the basepaths in the first round. We have seen Nomar blow hot and cold in the ALCS. And here was Derek Jeter, standing on second base, clapping his hands.

  All eyes are on Derek Jeter. In the commercial for a credit card, Mister Bluster demands to know if Jeter is running around at night, and Jeter says "absolutely not," and everybody knows he is fudging, but it's all right because he is so, how else can one put this, cute.

  This spring, the Boss went off on one of his cruel and irrational tirades, picking on his leader, his best player, his most solid citizen. Jeter shrugged off the foolishness, and the Boss named Jeter captain, which, of course, Jeter had been, unofficially, all along. Then they starred together in the commercials that referred to George Steinbrenner's loose-cannon comments.

  It really must be nice to be Derek Jeter.

  All eyes are on Derek Jeter. On Tuesday night, young Josh Beckett blasted through the first 10 Yankees batters. Then Jeter lashed a double into the left-field corner. Once again, in the center of the field, he was the platoon leader waving his hand over his head to signal, "Follow me!" He had two more hits and scored three runs.

  Wednesday night was a totally different story. Jeter went 1 for 6, and even made a sloppy tag that did not cost the Yankees. He's not perfect. But the Yankees will count on him as this Series comes down to its final innings.
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