Yankees Postseason History Recap: The Flip

Derek Jeter did a lot of amazing things in his career as a New York Yankee and it would take me a few pages and 20-30 minutes to probably tell you all of them and that’s just the regular season. Jeter somehow found a way to step it up in the postseason and always be in the right place and the right spot at the right time. See the 2001 ALDS against the Oakland Athletics with the Yankees backs against the wall for a perfect example of this.

The Yankees were down 2-0 in a best-of-five series against Oakland and with their playoff lives at stake the Yankees sent Mike Mussina to the mound. The Moose did not disappoint as he was pitching a gem before Terrence Long ripped a ball down the right field line. Jeremy Giambi came rumbling around third base while Shane Spencer retrieved the ball and hauled it home over the cutoff man Tino Martinez. Giambi looked all but safe at home and the Yankees looked all but dead in the water before out of nowhere came Derek Jeter.

Jeter grabbed the ball and flipped it to catcher Jorge Posada who applied the tag to Giambi thus saving the game, the series and the season for New York. Some will say that Jeter should have been in that position anyway and that he shouldn’t be cheered for simple fundamentals but it’s the small things that make ordinary men great and other men mediocre in this game and Jeter was great. Plays like this cemented his legacy.