Tangible

I heard a radio guy talking about Derek Jeter the other day. In a conversation with a caller, he was saying that Jeter didn’t have the best arm, the quickest legs or the strongest bat. Yet he will one day be called a baseball immortal.  

What is it then that makes Jeter so good, if not his arm, his bat or quickness?

The intangibles, he said.

The intangibles. I am a big fan of intangibles but the tangibles seem pretty clear to me:

Derek Jeter loves what he does.

He works at it every day.

He listens to himself, not the naysayers or the know-it-alls.

He’s a team guy. As he reaches milestone after milestone, every once in a while he will admit he was “a little excited” to move up a rung on the all-time hits list. But then he starts talking about the team and what his teammates did.  Every time.  

He’s clutch. When the game is on the line and he’s up at bat, he has said he knows he can get a hit.

He believes he will win. What a way to make your way through the world. Will I win? Yes.

And when he says it, the funny thing is, he’s absolutely humble. He just knows he has something inside himself he can draw on.

He leads the team in his own quiet way.

He is never effusive or ebullient,

just rock steady and reliable as a new dawn.