Jeter

Derek Jeter's disputed eighth-inning home run yesterday bailed out not only the Yankees, but also NBC, whose telecast of Game 1 of the American League Championship Series was spotty at best, until Jeter's contested blast.The network had turned in a competent, but not spectacular telecast up to that point, nailing the big themes, but missing small details. However, the camera work and commentary on Jeter's shot earned NBC a measure of redemption, though some of the holes will have to be corrected before the series ends.

TAMPA, Fla. - It was just a typical day at the Bronx Zoo. Superstar shortstop Derek Jeter was lost in a sea of media, trying to play down the seemingly simmering feud that developed over the winter with volatile owner George Steinbrenner. On the other side of Legends Field - the New York Yankees' sparkling spring training facility that is currently doubling as a three-ring circus - team officials were setting up a news conference for Japanese superstar Hideki Matsui, who was making his first appearance in the team's major-league camp.

It's only 6 o'clock on a midweek night but record store owner Larry Jeter is turning away customers. "Sorry, baby. We're closed," he tells a woman walking toward the aisles of CDs. "Show tonight." Those in the know, however, stroll through the doors of Dimensions in Music, go to the right and walk up the stairs. They have put in a full day's work as engineers, postal workers, teachers, college students, social workers and at other professions. They grab plates of food, a beer or maybe some wine.

NEW YORK - No Most Valuable Player trophy is awarded for the divisional round of baseball's three-tiered playoff system, but Derek Jeter won it anyway. There may not be an actual award, but everyone who played in the five-game series between the New York Yankees and Oakland Athletics knows that the Yankees probably wouldn't be two games up on the Seattle Mariners in the American League Championship Series right now if not for what Jeter did when they were two games down to the A's a week ago. It was Jeter's instinctive cutoff play on a seemingly botched outfield relay that protected a 1-0 lead in Game 3 of the Division Series and allowed the Yankees to embark on the five-game winning streak that has put them in excellent position to reach the World Series for the fifth time in six years.

NEW YORK -- Outscoring and then outlasting, it's the new brand of New York Yankees postseason baseball. They unveiled it last night with an offensively charged 8-4 win over the Detroit Tigers that had its share of stressful outs. Derek Jeter went 5-for-5 with two doubles, a home run and three runs scored and Bobby Abreu drove in four runs as the Yankees' lineup of All-Stars provided enough hitting in the opener of the best-of-five American League Division Series. "We just don't have that kind of firepower," said Tigers manager Jim Leyland, who added he needs a total team contribution to overcome New York.

Columbia's Tony Jeter had been anxious to turn pro for the past seven months after a 76-18 amateur boxing career. But before his pro debut last night at Michael's Eighth Avenue, in the first fight on a six-bout card, he was just plain anxious. "The butterflies before the fight, they were a feeling I never had before," said Jeter, a graduate of Laurel High School. "But when I threw my first jab, everything was back to normal." Jeter got the night -- and his professional career -- off with a bang, knocking Suitland's Ervin Fuller straight onto his back and out of the fight at 1:50 of the first round.

NEW YORK - A smile spread across Derek Jeter's face last night as a jagged portion of Kurt Abbott's bat lay at his feet. He could appreciate every part of the Subway Series, comical or otherwise, and allow himself to have fun. There were no token gestures. Jeter's home run in the sixth inning tied Game 5 and tightened the collars of the New York Mets, who needed a win to extend their season. He had delivered another hit in October. No need to stop the presses. His touch in the postseason remains 14-karat, and he has the hardware to prove it. Jeter was named Most Valuable Player in the 2000 World Series shortly after Luis Sojo bounced a two-out single into center field in the ninth inning to give the Yankees a 4-2 victory over the Mets at Shea Stadium.

NEW YORK - There will come a day when New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter discovers that his season won't always extend into October, won't always include champagne on ice, won't always contain more hugs and high-fives than disappointments. Maybe next season, though Jeter's on such a roll that it may take longer to stop it. Jeter sat in the Yankees' dugout during the 1995 American League Division Series against Seattle, excluded from the playoff roster as Tony Fernandez started at shortstop and the Mariners advanced to the next round.

Kyneshi Jeter, 3, still turns the heads of fellow joggers at Montebello Park, even though they've seen her run 10 miles without stopping every other day for the past month. "That girl is going to the Olympics," states a woman dressed in a blue jogging suit. "I've never seen anything like it." The Montebello regulars have dubbed her "Baby Flo-Jo" after the late Olympic champion Florence Griffith Joyner. There are those who have watched her every other day for the past month run as though she is training for the Olympics.

ATLANTA - The 75th All-Star Game probably will be remembered most for all of the marquee players who were unable to take the field, but New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter will remember it a bit more fondly. He'll remember how he was chosen to replace injured Alex Rodriguez in the starting lineup, and how he reeled off three hits against three of the toughest pitchers in the National League - the last of which drove home two crucial runs in a 6-3 American League victory at sold-out Turner Field.