[翻譯]Jeter Is Already One of The Greats

Jeter Is Already One of The Greats

By MIKE VACCARO

Published : May 24, 2007 / New York Post



The old-timers don't want to hear this, of course, because the sacrilege is so extreme as to knock them out cold where they stand. It doesn't matter that the final sentence the great Red Smith ever wrote spoke of his belief that he would one day see another Joe DiMaggio.

我這篇文章恐怕會激怒我的老前輩們, 老實說, 我並不意外, 因為這般大逆不道的評論簡直就是對他們的刻意挑釁。 就算連那偉大的運動作家Red Smith都在其臨終前最後一篇發表文章中提出和我相同的看法..."總有一天, 我們會看到另一個Joe DiMaggio"...也不會讓他們對我的不滿因此減少。



"There was only one DiMaggio," is what they tell you.

"DiMaggio是永遠無可取代的" 這才是他們想聽到的話。



Of course, every year there are fewer and fewer eye-witnesses to the feats of the great DiMaggio. Mostly, we rely on oral history and tales told from father to son.

隨著時間過去, 曾經親眼見過DiMaggio傳奇身影的人也越來越少, 大多數的人都只能靠著長輩的口述來了解這位偉大的球員。



And here's the thing: If you listen closely to those words, if you follow closely to those stories, they all have a familiar ring to them. They speak of an athlete of such grace that he seemed to be playing in 3/4 time while everyone else was at 4/4. They talk of effortlessness while playing a game that demands supreme effort out of most mortals.

而你是否有注意到一件事, 這些口耳相傳的故事都有一個關鍵的橋段反覆出現在每個不同故事中, 好像那些偉大的球員永遠都可以輕鬆地達到其他平凡人就算竭盡全力也無法接近一步的成就...



"The thing about Joe," Phil Rizzuto once told me, "is that you could bring someone to the stadium who'd never seen baseball in his life, and the first thing they'd do is point to him and say, 'Who's that one?' "

"Joe (DiMaggio)的與眾不同之處在於," Phil Rizzuto曾這麼跟我說,

"你可以試著帶一個完全不懂棒球的朋友到球場看球, 然後你會發現那朋友所作的第一件事就是...指著DiMaggio問你 "那傢伙到底是誰啊？" "



Derek Jeter collected a couple of base hits in his first two plate appearances last night, part of the Yankees' assault and battery on Curt Schilling, part of the early crush that helped salt away this 8-3 victory before it could ever reach a critical moment. The first one was the 2,214th hit of Jeter's career. That tied Joe DiMaggio on the Yankees' all-time list.

Derek Jeter在昨晚的比賽前兩次打數都擊出了安打, 不但幫助洋基擊垮Curt Schilling, 也讓洋基在比賽開始沒多久就取得了完全的主動權。他所擊出的第一支安打是他球員生涯的第2,214號, 這也讓他追平了在洋基球員生涯安打數排行榜排名第五的Joe DiMaggio。



The second was No. 2,215. That put Jeter alone in fifth place in Yankees history. He is a month away from his 33rd birthday, and it's becoming clear that he's not only a cinch to cruise to 3,000 hits - becoming, quite remarkably, the first Yankee to ever reach that forever milestone - but has a wonderful chance to become only the third man ever born to reach 4,000.

接下來的第二支安打則是Jeter生涯第2,215號, 讓Jeter正式超越Joe DiMaggio、在排行榜中獨居第五。別忘了, 還要再過一個月, Jeter才會滿33歲, 這代表著他不只幾乎篤定可以在退休前達到生涯3,000安的里程碑之外（如果真的發生, 他將成為史上第一個有此成就的洋基球員）, 他甚至有很大的機會可以成為棒球史上第三位在球員生涯中敲出4,000安的選手。





It's always been fashionable to say that the numbers don't define Jeter, but the fact is they do define him, they have to. His lifetime batting average entering last night was .318. In club history the only men north of him on that list have names like Ruth and Gehrig and Combs and, yes, DiMaggio.

人們總是會說...光從數據你無法真正了解Jeter的價值, 不過這些令人印象深刻的數據也實在讓人難以置之不理。在昨晚比賽前, Jeter的生涯平均打擊率是.318, 在洋基隊史上他只落後給幾個分別叫做Ruth、Gehrig或是Combs的傢伙...對了...還有DiMaggio。



"I won't lie," Jeter said. "When you hear your name mentioned with Joe's . . . that's pretty incredible."

"老實說, 當你聽到自己的名字被和Joe (DiMaggio)相提並論時...那感覺真是難以言喻" Jeter說道



What may be most remarkable is the season he's strung together in 2007. With warnings of a falling sky every few days, with everyone else on his roster suffering bouts of self-doubt and self-loathing (save for Jorge Posada - no coincidence they are the most inseparable Yankees), Jeter has been an absolute beacon of consistency. He has played 44 games. He has hits in 41 of them, and in one of the three hitless games he was forced to leave after the first inning with a wrist injury.

最讓人印象深刻的是, Jeter在今年球季為了凝聚球隊戰力所做出的努力, 今年的洋基不斷受到各種突發狀況的打擊, 其他隊友們也多半面臨自信心崩盤的考驗（Posada除外...這也難怪人們都覺得他和Jeter是洋基陣中不可缺少的中流砥柱）, 但Jeter的表現還是一如往常的穩定。在44場比賽中, 他只有3場比賽沒有擊出安打, 而其中1場還是因為手腕傷勢而被迫在第一局就退出比賽。



It's enough to hearken to DiMaggio, again. It was DiMaggio's brother, Dominic, who described best what it was like to watch Joe during May, June and July of 1941, when he assembled his fabled 56-game hitting streak.

Joe DiMaggio的弟弟Dominic, 很傳神地形容了在1941年的五月到七月那段時間, 當人們看著Joe連續56場比賽擊出安打時心中的想法。



"Most people who play this game, good as they are, it's still something of a pleasant surprise when you see them get a hit," Dominic said last year. "But in '41, whenever my brother made an out, that was the surprise. That's the kind of groove he was in."

"即便你是個多麼優秀的球員, 每當人們看到你擊出安打時, 還是多少會有驚喜的感覺," Dominic在去年接受訪問時這麼說道

"不過在1941年的夏天, 人們不會對Joe擊出安打感到驚喜...反倒是在他出局時才會感到驚奇, 當時的狀況就是如此..."



And that's how Jeter looks, and has looked, all season long. He is never going to be as spectacular as Alex Rodriguez was in April, not even for a little while. But there really is something magnificent in the simple things he does so well, and so much better than most of the other people who play this game. There is something joyful about watching all of that.

而這也是今年球季Jeter給人們的印象。他永遠不會像上個月的A-Rod一樣有著怪獸般表現, 不過光是看著他上場, 看著他把那些看似簡單的任務一一達成, 並且做的比其他球員都好時...觀看比賽本身就成了一種享受。



Leading off the seventh inning last night, Jeter hit a ball to the left-center gap. When Jose Reyes hits one there, you see flames on the basepaths. With Jeter, there was just an easy glide. But he wound up on third base, too, career hit No. 2,216. And you get the sense, if someone was at Yankee Stadium watching his first baseball game, he would have pointed to Jeter, and he would have had to ask his neighbor a question.

昨晚的比賽進行到七局下, 首位上場打擊的Jeter一棒將球撈到左中外野的防守死角, 如果今天打者換成了Jose Reyes, 你會看到在壘包和壘包間全力衝刺的Reyes像閃電一樣劃過球場, 最後上到了三壘。 不過此時全場球迷看到的卻是在跑壘線上看似輕鬆寫意地滑翔著的Jeter, 最終同樣靠著這支生涯第2,216號安打上到了三壘。這時你應該不難想像球場中可能真有個初次欣賞棒球比賽的球迷, 會指著站在三壘上的Jeter, 問他身旁的朋友...



"Who's that one?"

"那傢伙到底是誰？"