The Hall of Fame Yankee legend’s autobiographical collaboration with fellow New York icon, filmmaker Spike Lee, has yet to address the “A-Rod of it all” one episode in. That said, the docuseries, which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 13 and premiered to the masses Monday night on ESPN, has indicated this as no whitewashed endeavor in the slightest through previews.
As announcer Michael Kay would contend, Derek Jeter is prepared to “open the screen door for you” in ways he never has before, with seemingly nothing off limits – even the infamous decades-long division with his friend-turned-foe. Their spout, hash-tagged by tweeters into the tale of two cities called “#RE2PECT” and #FORG1VE3,” a reference to their third-party assigned mottos and uniform numbers, arguably denied the 5-time World Series champ Jeter another full hand’s worth of rings.
“I asked, ‘are we good?’” Jeter’s 2004-2013 left side of the infield battery mate, Alex “A-Rod” Rodriguez, said in an interview testimonial teased throughout The Captain’s promotional rounds. A longtime polarizing league villain with hero dreams, A-Rod could not have felt and been less welcome in the Bronx clubhouse that essentially christened Jeter the King of its highest court upon arrival in 1996, and officially granted him captaincy in 2003. Despite three Most Valuable Player Awards, including two in his first four seasons as a Yankee, A-Rod’s playoff woes and persistent, negatively-lit Page Six appearances provided the distractions the media readily ran with when desperate to sit on the few and far between them anti-Jeter stories queued in the chamber.
Now, post-both their playing careers, the one knock, if you can even call it one, on the almost inexplicably pristine track record Jeter has cultivated: he is as proudly unforgiving and ungenerous in “true friend” designation as you can possibly get. And it all started with a misguided comment to the press, followed by a less than victorious, March 2001-set hour and a half drive into the black as the Old Yankee Stadium’s backdrop night.
Fresh off signing a then-record breaking 10-year, $252 million contract with the Texas Rangers, A-Rod came out swinging at his best buddy “Jetes” in an Esquire interview. “Jeter’s been blessed with great talent around him,” Rodriguez said. “He’s never had to lead. You go into New York, you wanna stop Bernie (Williams) and (Paul) O’Neill. You never say, ‘Don’t let Derek beat you.’”
With this utterance irrevocably sent into the ether, so too went the close-bonded “blood brotherhood” between he and Jeter. Up to that point, the shortstop sluggers that broke in together routinely slept at each other’s apartments while Jeter’s year-in and year-out World Series-winning Yanks faced off against A-Rod’s original squad, the Seattle Mariners. They had even ruffled the feathers of their teammates, who criticized the pair for joking with each other on the peripheries of bench-clearing disputes between their teams instead of intervening in the squabbles.
Learning of Jeter’s disappointment with the quotes, A-Rod was up in arms, and eager to set the record straight. Against advisement, he hopped in his car and hit the road for the rom-com length trek from the Rangers’ Port Charlotte Spring Training facilities to the Yankees’ Tampa base. To be a fly on the wall during this ill-fated voyage… What will I say? What can I do?
In the prestige miniseries retelling of this most unfortunate affair that went unresolved despite an hour conversation taking place between the two, you could cue up Todd Rundgren’s “Can We Still Be Friends” to perfection while the pilot episode fades to an emphatic close.
Three years later, the Yankees bombshell dealt for A-Rod. The 2-time reigning Gold Glove Award-winning shortstop agreed to slide over to third base, where he would occupy the space alongside his former mate he had burned many bridges with, as the pair also flaunted the juvenile knack for dating each other’s ex-girlfriends in those days. Despite the front office running the blockbuster transaction by “The Captain” and getting what must have been a “soft” go, what unfolded next was a 1970s “Bronx Zoo” revival without instantaneous championships.
As detailed in cutting works of non-fiction like ex-Yankee manager Joe Torre and acclaimed baseball journalist Tom Verducci’s revelatory The Yankee Years (2008), the team was less divided into Jeter and A-Rod camps as it was 23 and Jetes verses one primadonna rumored to be dating Madonna, and who was mockingly called “A-Fraud.” The talk of the summer doc is expected to shed even more light on this chaotic period.
It’s common knowledge Cashman eventually commanded Jeter to “fake it” with A-Rod to get the supremely crafted team back on series-closing stream, a method that finally panned out come 2009 in the wake of A-Rod’s humbling steroid controversy. A-Rod’s opportune ego-check course-corrected the group’s priorities and sent them parade float-bound for still the only time in the past two decades.
However, by the time the second PED scandal reared its hothead in 2013, A-Rod’s “heel” turn returned colossally. His unforeseen redemption tour post-Jeter retirement may have redeemed himself to Yankee fans and the entertainment world at large, potentially even for the first time. But, any faint semblance of a maintained rapport with Jeter was now gone for good, as evidenced by (1) their jaw-droppingly awkward and unplanned CNBC appearance together in 2017; and (2) recent reports that “corporate” A-Rod was eyeing the Jeter-relinquished Miami Marlins as his next big buy.
Fascinatingly, the once-Yankee Stadium-avoiding Jeter had remained quiet in all the ways the ever-in-your-face A-Rod was not during the first leg of their second acts. When Jeter left his Marlins ownership post in March, everything changed in his favor. His Hall of Fame induction speech candor was only the beginning, after all, as Jeter shocked the world when he joined social media two months later.
The splash came in cahoots with The Captain’s marketing blitz, surely, but this was nevertheless a sight to see for those still chilled to the bone by Jeter’s literal walk-off into the sunset in 2014. And to see him in a self-deprecating, unguarded light is just the calm before his documentary’s transparently The Last Dance-inspired storm. The Captain dares to explore a no-holes-barred dive into Jeter’s often fairytale-evoking mythos. With the A-Rod feud ruled fair game, it will be interesting to see what else is tackled.
“As a die-hard Yankees fan? Bleed blue, bleed pinstripes? Derek Jeter was El Capitan,” said Tom DeRosa, 26, of Hauppauge. The current Boston resident is rife with disappointment in A-Rod’s compulsive falls from grace, yet still counts his tide-shifting 2007 Opening Day home run and 2009 team-carrying shoulder strength as some of his favorite boyhood Yankee memories.
“It was his (Jeter’s) team. His city,” he added. “His speech at the old stadium, his cap brim nod in every glorious Yankees moment. His clean bill. A-Rod didn’t walk into an easy situation, but he didn’t help himself, either. I like A-Rod the retired player much more; I like A-Rod the wise businessman and the analytical genius. But Derek Jeter is the face of an entire generation. There is no comparison.”
Statistically, A-Rod had the power, yet Jeter was always the man of the hour. The pendulum may have briefly swung to A-Rod’s side when Jeter attempted to wield a silent assassin executive arsenal, as opposed to A-Rod’s “here is my hand, take it or I’ll make a scene as I leave it” approach. With The Captain, “The Captain” is back, by popular demand, as the man of the hour, of every hour, once more. And we are reaping all of the benefits.
Here’s to anticipating with watchful eyes how long until A-Rod kickstarts his own self-reflective docu-exercise, The Rod, executive produced by Dan “Big Cat” Katz of Barstool Sports and The Gentleman director Guy Ritchie.
