Dreams can come true as New York Yankees can attest to. Not only have dreams come true 27 times in the organization's illustrious history, but they've come to fruition once again on this particular Sunday.
ESPN's Buster Olney had it first. The great Derek Jeter is returning to the Yankees to play at the age of 45.
Jeter, 45, is an owner of the Miami Marlins. General thinking leads to assumptions that an owner cannot also play for another organization. He can own and play for the same team, but not two teams.
This is untrue.
According to an old baseball bylaw rarely cited and established in the early 1930s, the owner-player rule doesn't apply for the “other” league. It was established when the great Rusty Glassclock, owner of the Cleveland Indians, decided he wanted to give it a go with Dem Bums, the struggling yet rebranded Brooklyn Dodgers of the NL.
Despite baseball attempting to mesh everything together, the AL and NL remain separate entities.
Since Jeets owns a National League club, he has every right to gain employment for any American League organization. And because his comeback bid will be short-lived, once done with the Yankees, he can return to full-time business duties in Miami at any time.
Jeter has yet to comment on the report, but the Yankees have dropped hints that this too-good-to-be-true story is real. Current shortstop Didi Gregorius has already tweeted in relation to the news, assuring everybody that the 43-year-old Jeter won't be playing shortstop.
General manager Brian Cashman wouldn't confirm the report but did offer interesting words on the biggest Yanks news since Giancarlo Stanton.
“Listen, there is no official word from an organizational standpoint yet,” Cashman said. “Derek Jeter is a beloved Yankee who's the owner of the Miami Marlins.” Until something changes, I have no comment on the matter.”
“Yet?” Yes, he did say “yet.”
Speculation has Jeter coming back to get his legs under him for a month or two prior to rejoining the team around the MLB All-Star break. With the current rotation of players at third and second base, it's easy to speculate that he'll be playing one of those two positions. It's extremely doubtful—even without the Gregorius tweet—that he'd be playing shortstop at age 45.
Expect official word from the New York Yankees and Derek Jeter's camp to come down on Wednesday.
Also, expect your friends to laugh uncontrollably at you once you make mention of this headline. Derek Jeter would probably fall down while trying to leg out an infield hit at this age. Mrs. Jeter would also provide a nice tongue-lashing if Jeets left her all alone with young daughter Bella Raine.
He's not coming back nor could he ever own one MLB team and play for another.
It's April Fool's Day … “yet” again.
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