Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada, Jason Giambi, Robin Ventura, Rondell White, Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, and Mike Mussina are rich men. Jeter, Williams, Posada, Clemens, and Pettitte have been on World Championship teams two or more times, while Ventura, Giambi, and Mussina have come close. They don't seem to want it badly enough. No one is going to hand anything to them.
Today's players have enormous distractions but when the game starts, the distractions must be overcome. Bernie Williams has been distracted more than most, sometimes for reasons more important than baseball (his father passed away recently) and sometimes for reasons that cannot be explained.
In Game 6 of the 2001 World Series, Bernie Williams arrived at the clubhouse late. Williams said he was caught in traffic. Derek Jeter was one of the few Yankees who expressed the fact that he was upset that Williams arrived late. Joe Torre accepted Williams' excuse that he was caught in unexpected traffic getting to the ballpark.
This season, Williams has played as if he were in Cleveland and the team was in the Bronx. He has made numerous mental and physical errors. In today's debacle against the Mariners, a very catchable Bret Boone fly ball hit Williams in the glove. He dropped the ball.
The official scorer first ruled it an error, and Yankees commentators Jim Katt and Michael Kay agreed. A few minutes later, the ruling was changed to a hit. Katt disagreed by implication when he stated that a major league outfielder should have caught the ball. What then is Katt concluding about Williams?
Later in the game, Shane Spencer tried to field a single. The ball hit off his glove, got past him, and allowed the runner to get to second base. Katt and Kay commented that the ball should have been fielded cleanly and that they didn't know why Spencer misplayed it. Perhaps Shane's thoughts were elsewhere.
