Following up on this morning’s post about the new Jeter book, there’s a story over at ESPN New York -- home of the book’s author, Ian O’Connor -- detailing some of the book’s anecdotes. Among them:
- Some background the contentious contract negotiations last winter, including the shocking fact that team President Randy Levine was the “good cop” to Brian Cashman’s bad cop. How often is Randy Levine described as a good cop?
- Brian Cashman calling Jeter on the carpet over a contentious look he gave A-Rod when a pop fly dropped between them during a game in Baltimore. Jeter’s disbelieving response “show me the video.” and
- Brian Cashman taking Jeter out to eat in 2007 to inform him, that, yeah, he needed to work on his defense, with Jeter acting shocked because no one ever told him that he needed to work on his defense before.
I still don’t know what it all adds up to. A lot of this overall dynamic is old hat. We know Jeter and A-Rod didn’t get along. We know that the contract negotiations were bad. We know that, with respect to defense and his position, Jeter is someone the Yankees have always tiptoed around.
At the same time, I don’t recall Brian Cashman being referred to as a primary subject in the contentiousness, however mild it may be, involving Jeter. So maybe there are new revelations there.
