Derek Jeter Live

Back when I was buying my scorecards instead of using my own, they often came with places in the back to compile season stats. So, of course, I kept track of the Red Sox players back there. Or, at least the regulars…depending on the space provided. I didn’t do it for the visitors, since I didn’t usually see any particular player more than once or twice a season. I did actually think at one point that it might be fun to keep career stats for the visitors. Compile a list of every player I’ve ever seen, and how they did in games when I was there. Obviously, that’s a big undertaking, but it could at least be started. Frankly the biggest thing stopping me was keeping track of players as they switched teams. Sure, I knew that the “Ortiz” in Minnesota became the “Ortiz” in Boston. Or, that the “Ramirez” in Cleveland was the same “Ramirez” that showed up years later in Chicago. But, everyone else? Which Martinez was witch? Is this a different Johnson, or the same one on another team? It would be a nightmare.

But, with all the hubbub over Derek Jeter this week, I thought it might be fun to do the career stats for Jeter in games I’ve been to. Especially since I’ve probably seen him play enough to make an interesting sample size.

As it turns out, I found scorecards for 24 games I was at from 1999 to 2012 where Derek Jeter played. I know this isn’t every game I’ve seen him, just the ones I kept score at. I can think of a couple others I didn’t keep score at for one reason or another.

How did Jeter do in those games? Glad you asked.

Those 24 games work out to 97 at-bats. About 15% of a season for Jeter. His stats? Lets’s start with the percentages.

AVG .247

OBP .311

SLG .351

OPS.662

Yuck. Not exactly superstardom there. In fact, if you pro-rate his numbers over a full season, he ends up with a .247/14/68 slash.

Does that mean anything? Probably not. It’s not a big sample size, after all. But, it includes games from every part of the season. It has night games and day games. So, it’s at least a good cross section of his career. It certainly argues against the common belief that Red Sox fans hate Jeter because he always killed us. A .662 OPS isn’t anything to shudder at. It’s lower than David Ross and Will Middlebrokks had last season.

So much for the fear.

To be fair, I didn’t check to see how many of these games were facing Pedro Martinez. I probably should. That could skew things a little bit. It’s possible that he since didn’t hit well at Fenway (which, he didnn’t) the numbers are low. Or, I kept catching him on bad days. For whatever reason, he wasn’t great when I saw him.

This makes me want to try this exercise with other people I’ve seen. Maybe if I start with the stars that I can follow from team to team, I can get a good list going. Maybe see how that Rodriguez guy did while I was in the park as he moved from Seattle to Texas to New York.

That might be fun.