The Other Side of a Jeter Hustle Play
The young man from the Lansing Lugnuts' front office offered an email address for Ken Huckaby. 'You're welcome to try, but I should tell you that someone did a story recently on the Derek Jeter thing and Ken kind of regretted it,' said Ben Owen, the team's digital media and marketing manager.
Late last month, SportsNet, a Canadian network, published the article on its website with the headline 'Huckaby Had Lasting Impact on Jays, Jeter.' According to Owen, Huckaby, who is a hitting coach with Toronto's Class A team, climbed aboard the bus that night and was immediately chagrined that several players, on their digital devices, were transfixed by his brush with fame - or infamy - 11 years ago on opening night in Toronto.
The last thing Huckaby intended was to cast himself as an extra in another Jeter extravaganza, his impending retirement, after how his first cameo worked out.
Back in 2003, Huckaby was a 32-year-old catcher who had endured a 12-year climb up the minor league ladder to appear in 88 games for the Blue Jays in 2002. Jeter, a four-time World Series champion after seven years as the Yankees ' matinee idol shortstop, was craving a fast start to the season after George Steinbrenner, that past winter, had the audacity to wonder if Jeter's night life was impacting the Yankees' annual obligation to win it all.
In the third inning, Jeter, having drawn a walk off Roy Halladay, attempted to take an extra base on an infield out when third base was left uncovered with the Blue Jays in a shift for Jason Giambi. It was a classic Jeter hustle play. Huckaby tried one, too, taking off for third and arriving just in time to leap for a throw from the first baseman, Carlos Delgado, that was high and slightly behind him.
Huckaby's knee and shin guard landed on Jeter's left shoulder, which was separated, putting him out for 39 games. Huckaby was quickly criticized in the New York news media and by a couple of Jeter's teammates for making a reckless play.
Back from the hospital the next day, Jeter said little to dispute this version and dismissed Huckaby's claim to have left a concerned message on Jeter's cellphone the previous night. 'He doesn't have my number,' Jeter said.
The tempest soon subsided, Jeter recovered, and he was hitting over .300 when the Yankees returned to Toronto in July. By then, Huckaby was back in the minors with the Jays' International League club.
He was on the road in Columbus, of all places, then the home of the Yankees' Class AAA Clippers, when he picked up his hotel room phone and shared the result of a conciliatory visit to the Yankees' clubhouse before the final game of that season-opening series. As Huckaby recalled in the SportsNet article, Jeter 'wasn't very receptive. I'll just leave it at that.'
But in that July 2003 phone conversation, Huckaby was more forthcoming, making it clear he was bewildered and bothered by Jeter's refusal to recognize not only an absence of malice on his part, but also the mandatory nature of his defensive effort, especially for someone of such fragile major league status.
'I figured by then, the hoopla was over, he must have looked at it on film,' Huckaby said, recalling both the play and the encounter in the clubhouse.
When he spoke to Jeter that day, Huckaby added, he did not apologize for what happened at third base but did wish him an expeditious recovery and waited for some acknowledgment - a nod of approval, a tap on the shoulder. Instead, Jeter, by his own account, said merely, 'O.K.' Huckaby turned and walked out, feeling many prying Yankees eyes upon him.
'It was troubling to me, disappointing, the whole thing,'' Huckaby said, stressing that he did not wish to compare himself to Jeter, only to emphasize how desperate he was to cling to his beloved baseball.
'I'll be the guy limping around as a manager at 60 on bad catcher's knees,' he said.
He is on the way, 43 and making a living in the low minors. While the Blue Jays were clinging to wild-card life along with Jeter and the Yankees on Thursday night at Yankee Stadium, Huckaby, as predicted, did not respond to an email request for an interview. The first question would have been: All these years later, does Jeter's cold, separated shoulder make any more sense?
Brian Butterfield, a Boston Red Sox coach who held a similar role with the Blue Jays in 2003 and also worked with Jeter in the Yankees' minor league system, said in a telephone interview from Pittsburgh that articulation of what Jeter was thinking after the injury was surely less significant than what he was feeling.
'I do recall a lot of discussion with Huck, who felt badly about what happened and would never have tried to hurt anyone in 100 years,' Butterfield said. 'But sometimes when you're competing - and Huck, like Jeter, knew only one way, 100 miles an hour - it's an unexplained thing. Intent is not the issue.'
Jeter, in other words, was a star who always competed like a journeyman - every day, every play. In Butterfield's opinion, such single-minded and, yes, stubborn purpose left little room for sentiment, given the context and timing of the injury.
As for Butterfield, he felt for Huckaby. But having been a Yankees organizational insider, he deified Jeter.
'Many have asked me about Jeter and I always use the same word - respect for the game,' Butterfield said. 'So many guys say they want to emulate him, but they really have no idea of what that takes.'
Actually, Huckaby had a pretty good notion on opening night in 2003, and presumably is trying to teach young players with greater skills than he had to use Jeter as their role model: Play every day as if your day's pay is at stake. That should be the reverberating message over the next 10 days as Jeter, saluted all season, receives his final, deserved rewards.
But he also might consider giving one thing back - or taking back - a rare misstep made across nearly two decades of brilliance. Call up the Lansing Lugnuts, get a contact for the old catcher who 11 years ago landed on him with his tools of ignorance. Tell Ken Huckaby that he gets it now, he appreciates the effort, and leave it at that.
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