June 1, 2014

Posnanski: "Perfection In Jeteration"


Joe Posnanski:
Perfection in Jeteration is when you can so perfectly present over-the-top praise for the Derek Jeter that you would use the exact same graphic or story or take as satire. This is not as easy as it sounds. Many have tried, many have failed. But this is as close to perfection as we mere human beings can achieve. If Saturday Night Live was to do a skit about how absurd people are when it comes to their Derek Jeter love, this would be EXACTLY the graphic they would use, word-for-word. ...

There has been some high quality Jeteration lately — Rick Reilly recently wrote a letter to Derek Jeter's unborn children that had some doozies like, "He was the best player in baseball for 10 years straight," and called him "A kind of prince in baseball cleats" and remarked, "If there was a better man in sports, I never met him." I didn't think that was going to be topped.

But in a simple box, I think this little scouting report roars past any story written so far.

2 comments:

FenFan said...

"Painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel but did not want the credit"

Classic :-D

Tom DePlonty said...

Awesome. I couldn't put my finger on what I loved so much about the Rick Reilly column but Posnanski nailed it: it's so over the top, it can't be distinguished from satire without more context.

I wonder what would happen if somebody pulled a real skeleton out of Jeter's closet. (The womanizing apparently isn't enough.) I imagine Reilly et al would turn on him in a burning, hypocritical fury. It would be something to see.