Joe Sheehan's Prospectus Today column for Tuesday is in the "free" portion of BP today, so if you don't have a subscription, you can read it anyway...
But Sheehan hits on something today that I was talking about yesterday...namely, how clutch is in the eye of the beholder...
Derek Jeter hit a home run Friday with the Yankees down four runs. He hit one last night with the team down three. The one last night was pointed to, by the game broadcasters as well as the ones on "SportsCenter," as evidence of his "clutchness."
Not for nothing, but why is it if Alex Rodriguez hits a solo homer with the Yankees down by a bunch, it's evidence that he's a stat-padding loser, but when Jeter does it, it's clutch?
It's just another example of the double standard in place for the two players. Neither covered themsleves in glory in the series--the statistical difference between the two is those two Jeter home runs, whose value seems to be entirely in who hit them--yet Jeter comes out as Captain Intangible while Rodriguez, whose back is still a bit sore from carrying the team in the '04 Division Series, for which he got no credit, is the choke artist.