Okay, time for a mini-rant.
Didi Gregorius is NOT Derek Jeter.
Let me say that again: Didi Gregorius is NOT Derek Jeter!
No one is Derek Jeter, except for Derek Jeter.
Everyone knows that the D-Backs, Tigers, and Yankees pulled off a pretty important trade yesterday which sent the D-Backs’ shortstop to the Yankees. Now, as anyone who has even had a inkling of what baseball is knows about a shortstop who was employed by the Yankees for the last 20 years. Yeah, Derek Jeter. That guy. Him. The guaranteed first-ballot Hall of Famer. Everyone keeps saying what big shoes Gregorius has to fill, and they are right. He will be under extreme pressure to do well, but can we stop asking him to be Jeter and can we stop saying that he isn’t? Can’t we just say “He’s Didi”, not “He’s no Jeter”?
Here’s a newsflash: NO ONE IS DEREK JETER. No one will ever be Derek Jeter again. Jeter was the kind of player that comes around once in a generation and no one should expect Didi or anyone else to be what Jeter was! It’s the equivalent of saying that David Robertson is no Mariano Rivera. See, that’s the problem with having these once-in-a-generation type of players: the next guy in line gets overwhelmed with undue and terribly unnecessary critique. Didi is a really good shortstop and he is going to do very well for the Yankees, but he doesn’t need the extra pressure to be Derek Jeter. No one can be Derek Jeter, just like no one can be Mariano Rivera.
Let Didi do his thing. Just stop comparing him to Jeter. He’s gonna be under enough pressure as it is, so let’s stop being turds. Let Didi be Didi. Don’t make Didi be Derek and stop saying Didi isn’t Derek. Because you’re right, he’s not: He’s Didi.
She Steals Second 