Jeter Off and Running Again

If anyone thought last year’s American League rookie of the year, Yankees’ shortstop Derek Jeter, might become another Pat Listach, they can forget about it.

Listach was the Milwaukee Brewer shortstop who won rookie of the year honors in 1992 and then faded into obscurity. Jeter, who turns 23 on June 26, has hardly been obscure during the season’s first week.

Entering Wednesday night’s game against the Angels, Jeter was leading the league in hits (16), was third in total bases (23), third in batting average (.500). After going one for three Wednesday night, he has 17 hits in 27 at-bats.

Yankee outfielder Paul O’Neill wonders why anyone is surprised.

“There were times last year he swung the bat like this,” O’Neill said. “He’s going to the plate and hitting it hard. The guy can hit. He’s a career .300 hitter. He doesn’t strike out and he doesn’t overswing. He just hits it hard. He cares about the way he plays.”

Jeter also cares about his appearance, so he put on 15 pounds during the off-season.

“I lifted weights and ate a little better,” Jeter said. “Not healthier, just more. I have a hard time putting on weight.”

No one told Jeter he needed to add weight to his 6-foot-3, 170-pound frame. He just did it.

Jeter realizes .500 batting averages don’t mean much in early April.

“Seven games?” he said. “That’s not a hot start. Baseball’s a humbling sport. It’s a long season.”

Jeter has a plan, however, and it doesn’t involve going backward.

“It’s easy for me to improve on last year,” he said. “I made a lot of mistakes. I need to run more, steal more bases, make less errors and be a smarter hitter. I struck out too much last year, over 100 times.”

Jeter also hit .316 with 10 home runs and 78 runs batted in, the highest RBI total for a rookie shortstop in 17 years. He didn’t slow down in the playoffs--hitting .412 in the division series, .417 in the league championship series and .250 in the World Series.

During the off-season, Jeter capitalized on his success by appearing on David Letterman’s show and several magazine covers.

“It’s nice, but it’s also a challenge,” Jeter said. “People will always doubt you. They’ll doubt whether you can do it again. You just have to know that you can’t satisfy everyone.”

And you can’t worry about a sophomore jinx.

“Ask Andy Pettitte about the sophomore jinx,” Jeter said.

Pettitte followed up a strong rookie season in 1995 with 21 victories and a second-place finish in Cy Young voting last year. Jeter appears to be following the same path.