RIP, Bob Sheppard

He never played the game of baseball, never was a star on the field or in the clubhouse. Yet he was possibly the best known PA announcer in sports history.

Thew "Voice of God" has passed away today at age 99.

The New York Yankees say longtime public address announcer Bob Sheppard has died. He was believed to be 99.

His death was confirmed to The Associated Press today by team spokesman Jason Zillo. Zillo didn't immediately have additional details, but said the team would release them later in the day.

Sheppard started with the Yankees in 1951. His impeccable introductions of stars from Joe DiMaggio to Derek Jeter earned him the nickname "The Voice of God."

Sheppard last worked at Yankee stadium late in the 2007 season, when he became ill with a bronchial infection. He recorded a greeting to fans that was played at the original ballpark's final game in September 2008.

How iconice was Sheppard, at least here in the New York area? Let's put it this way: It's not often kids grow up anywhere emulating not the stars on the field but the guy introducing them.

Here's a tribute to him from ten years ago.



To this day a recording of Sheppard still plays whenever Derek Jeter comes to bat.

A Little Something for Yankee Haters

Enjoy. From the Yankee fan perspective, we can now breath a huge sigh of relief and start putting that nightmare of 2004 behind us.

Derek Jeter now has one for the thumb.

'Congratulations Phillies! Back-to-back Champs'

I guess they don't have layer upon layer of editors and fact-chekcers in the ad department at the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Talk about a premature promotion.

A Philadelphia newspaper Monday ran an advertisement by Macy's applauding the Phillies for a phantom World Series victory and promoting a 2009 championship T-shirt.

In the ad world equivalent of the "Dewey Defeats Truman" headline, the bungled banner in The Philadelphia Inquirer said "Congratulations Phillies! Back-to-back Champs."

Underneath, a shirt celebrating the Phils as the 2009 World Series winners is on display.

Of course, that piece of clothing is unlikely to ever see the light of day as the Yankees are poised to bury the Phillies after taking a commanding three-to-one series lead Sunday night.

And besides, Philadelphia had no shot to win the Fall Classic until at least Wednesday, even if they had come on top in Sunday's Game 4.

The three-quarter-page ad appeared in the back page of broadsheet's front section.

The Inquirer was quick to apologize, saying in a message to readers it "deeply regrets this error."

Could it be a copy editor is a closet Yankees fan there?

Anyone with knowledge of the ins and outs of a newspaper knows that it’s the job of a copyeditor to go through each layout page, making sure editorial and advertising copy are grammatically and contextually correct.

Whoever was in charge of proofing page A20 was obviously asleep at the keyboard. Or, great conspiracy theorists might say that there was a Yankee fan on the Inquirer staff:

Next to the offending ad is an article that should have the headline “Limbaugh, Axelrod Trade Jabs.” Instead, the second blooper on the same page reads: “Limbaugh, Alexrod Trade Jobs.” As in, Alex Rodriguez, not David Axelrod.

Indeed, that headline is still on their website.

Palin Visits Yankee Stadium

Today would have been a great time to visit Yankee Stadium. Not only did the Bronx Bombers stage an eighth-inning rally to beat the Tampa Bay Rays, but you would have had the opportunity to see Sarah Palin.

Needless to say she was a popular attraction.

'Yogi, What The F- - - Are You Doing Here?'

Can you believe this? This drunken fucking Indian guy call us New Yorkers rude?

Why, I'm so fucking offended!!! Who the fuck heck does he think he is???

Everybody knows Joba -- at least he thinks so.

During his DUI arrest last year, Joba Chamberlain boasted to cops that he's a Yankee, dissed New York manners and had a laugh at Yogi Berra's expense in an exchange captured on a police dashboard video camera.

"I came from Florida, and obviously I play for the Yankees," Chamberlain announced to Nebraska State Trooper Michael Grummert in his boozy explanation of why he had no registration or insurance card, according to the videotape of the Oct. 18 arrest in Lincoln, first obtained by thesmokinggun.com.

Even more horrifying, he cracks funny at Yogi's expense.

Chamberlain's witty observations took place in the front seat of Grummert's cruiser, as the cop checked the pitcher's identification.

The conversation inexplicably turned to Berra and Chamberlain revealed the Yankee legend's saltier side.

"I go, 'Yogi, what the f- - - are you doing here?' " Chamberlain recalled asking Berra during a visit to the Yankees clubhouse.

Chamberlain said Berra, 83, responded, "You know what? It's too cold for my old ass to be here."

Chamberlain also had a laugh at the diminutive Yogi's expense. "No bulls- - -, he might not be as tall as the front of your car," Chamberlain rambled.

Here's the video of his arrest.

'He's An Unsavory Character'

Just when you thought the whole A-Roid brouhaha was about to die down, here comes another potentially damaging revelation of a known steroid dealer who traveled with the Yankee slugger all throughout 2007. I was getting the feeling there was some piling on going on earlier this week, but if this story proves true, this will dog Rodriguez for a long time.

Embattled Yankee Alex Rodriguez has had a long relationship with a steroid-linked trainer who's been banned from major league clubhouses, four independent sources told the Daily News.

Angel Presinal, who was banned from private areas of every MLB ballpark after an October 2001 incident involving an unmarked gym bag full of steroids, has been tight with the Yankee slugger dating back to his time with the Texas Rangers, several sources said.

A former New York-area scout says Presinal, whose named surfaced in the Mitchell Report, was with Rodriguez in New York and Miami as recently as this past fall.

MLB has warned players to stay away from him.

"He's an unsavory character," said a source.

Another source said Presinal accompanied A-Rod for the entire 2007 season, staying in the same hotel as the A.L. MVP, but in a separate room with the "cousin" Rodriguez pegged three days ago as his steroid source from 2001-03.

The cousin was identified Thursday as Yuri Sucart.

The source said Rodriguez avoided being seen in public with Presinal.

"He was around Alex in 2007," the source said of Presinal. "Every hotel they went to, he stayed in the same room with Yuri. You would never see Alex with [Presinal]. They would meet in one of their rooms."

Alex Rodriguez Clearly Distracted by Steroid Revelations

It won't be long until this guy tests positive for Viagra.

Hours before a bombshell report revealed that he took steroids, Yankee superstar Alex Rodriguez wasn't sweating - he was snuggling, squeezing and otherwise savoring two smoking-hot women in a Bahamas nightclub.

These exclusive photos show Rodriguez partying - seemingly without a care in the world - at the Aura Club at the Atlantis Resort early last Saturday.

And, boy does that buxom brunette on his lap look comfy.

Less than two days before, in Miami, Sports Illustrated reporter Selena Roberts had confronted A-Rod at a gym, and asked the slugger about his having tested positive for two forms of steroids in 2003 while playing with the Texas Rangers.

But instead of hunkering down at his Miami home to await SI breaking the bad news, Rodriguez jetted to the Bahamas, where he stayed on Paradise Island on Friday.

He showed up the Aura Club with the aforementioned brunette and - just to balance things out - a red-hot blonde.

"The girls said they had come down with A-Rod from the US," said an eyewitness. "They were dancing in front of him and even kissing each other to entertain him. He seemed to like the brunette more."

Shocka! A-Fraud Tested Postivie for Steroids

For a guy who's probably already the most loathed man on baseball, this surely can't help an image already in ruins. Can't wait to see how the fans in Boston react the first time he bats at Fenway this season.

In 2003, when he won the American League home run title and the AL Most Valuable Player award as a shortstop for the Texas Rangers, Alex Rodriguez tested positive for two anabolic steroids, four sources have independently told Sports Illustrated.

Rodriguez's name appears on a list of 104 players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball's '03 survey testing, SI's sources say. As part of a joint agreement with the MLB Players Association, the testing was conducted to determine if it was necessary to impose mandatory random drug testing across the major leagues in 2004.

When approached by an SI reporter on Thursday at a gym in Miami, Rodriguez declined to discuss his 2003 test results. "You'll have to talk to the union," said Rodriguez, the Yankees' third baseman since his trade to New York in February 2004. When asked if there was an explanation for his positive test, he said, "I'm not saying anything."

You suppose the Yankees regret keeping this guy around?

Torre: 'A-Fraud' Obsessed With Jeter

Well, things are always interesting around the Yankees. Now a book by Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci chronicling Joe Torre's years with the Bronx Bombers is grabbing front-page headlines. Naturally, Alex Rodriguez takes a beating.

Scorned skipper Joe Torre is blasting the Yankees - calling many of his former players prima donnas, confessing he stopped trusting the powers that be years before he left the team and charging that general manager Brian Cashman betrayed him.

In an explosive new book called "The Yankee Years," Torre gets most personal in his attacks against Alex Rodriguez, who he says was called "A-Fraud" by his teammates after he developed a "Single White Female"-like obsession with team captain Derek Jeter and asked for a personal clubhouse assistant to run errands for him.

Torre, who left the Yankees and became manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers after the 2007 season, says Cashman never told the brass that the manager wanted a two-year deal and instead remained silent during Torre's tense final sitdown with the bosses.

The book also reveals that, during spring training in 1999, team doctors revealed to owner George Steinbrenner that Torre had prostate cancer - even before informing the manager himself.

The 477-page tell-all, which The Post purchased from a city bookstore last week, is written by co-author Tom Verducci, a longtime Sports Illustrated reporter.

Verducci weighs in tonight.

Yankees Reel In Big Fish, Land Sabathia

When I say big fish, this dude, at 6-7, 300, is the Orca of pitchers.

Sure, they overpaid, but these are the Yankees, and they're seemingly recession-proof with the mega-millions they have rolling in with the new Stadium.

Now he better get the job done. Oh, and don't expect this is the end of their shopping. Expect another starter in the fold soon, be it Derek Lowe, A.J. Burnett or even possibly Ben Sheets. Or perhaps two of them.

CC Sabathia is not going to play on the West Coast. He is not going to play in the National League. CC Sabathia is going to be a Yankee, The Post has learned exclusively.

After three straight days of face-to-face meetings between GM Brian Cashman and Sabathia, the big lefty decided he wants to spend the next six years of his career as a Yankee. The decision came late last night after Cashman flew to see Sabathia at his home in San Francisco. By the time the meeting was concluded, Sabathia had informed the YankeesNew York Yankees that he had made his decision to call New York his baseball home, the Post has learned.

There are still minor hurdles to finalize, notably that Sabathia must pass a physical. But after so much belief that Sabathia was stalling because he wanted to avoid New York, he agreed to the largest pitching contract in major league history, at least $140 million.

It means that the Yankees have lassoed the player they were building their offseason around: An ace in his prime. Sabathia is just 28, and last year between the Indians and Brewers he went 17-10 with a 2.70 ERA. The previous season he won the AL Cy Young. Now he is the first major new piece to be put into the new Yankee Stadium.

In other news, New York's junior varsity squad landed a closer.

Steroid-Drenched Goon 'Heartbroken' By Yankee Snub

It just tears at your soul, doesn't it?

Estranged former Yankee Roger Clemens was "heartbroken" when his former team left him out of Sunday night's Stadium-farewell festivities, which included a video montage honoring the Bronx Bombers' greatest pitchers - but not him, a relative told The Post yesterday.

Clemens was sitting at home in hurricane-ravaged Texas, in front of a battery-operated television on his living room couch, when the team delivered a final crushing blow to its former star.

Clutching wife Debbie's hand on one side and mother-in-law Jan Wild's on the other, Clemens tuned in to his final team's last home game hoping for some recognition for helping win two World Series titles, Wild said.

But that Rocket never launched.

When the team played the video celebrating its greatest players at every position, the steroid-scandal-scarred Clemens was nowhere to be seen.

"Debbie and I held his hand while we watched the game, and he was heartbroken," said Wild, 70. "Not mad. He still loves baseball and the Yankees, but it was sad what they did to him."

Even Chuck Knoblauch - who was also named in the scathing Mitchell Report on steroids - was acknowledged on the big screen, hailed as the second baseman of the 1990s. Fellow steroid targets Andy Pettitte and Jason Giambi were at the Stadium in uniform for the Yankees.

Aside from Clemens, also noticeably absent from mention was former manager Joe Torre, who guided the Yankees to 12 straight playoffs and four World Series victories.

"A lot of great Yankees were not mentioned," the team insisted in a statement. "There was no slight intended, and perhaps both Clemens and Torre should have been mentioned as well as several others."

If anything, Torre should have gotten more mention, but I sense that's just lingering bad blood coming off their split last year. Torre was shown during some highlights, however. I'm sure when his managing career is over in Los Angeles he'll be welcomed back at the new ballpark and should rightfully have his number retired.

As for Clemens, the less we hear from him, the better.

RIP, Bobby Murcer

The first Yankee centerfielder of my youth has passed away.

RIP, Bobby.

Bobby Murcer, the Yankees outfielder and broadcaster, died on Saturday at age 62. He had been battling brain cancer since being found to have a tumor on Christmas Eve in 2006.

After Mickey Mantle’s retirement in 1968, Murcer was one of the few bright spots in the Yankees universe as the team struggled to compete in the late ’60s and early ’70s, and was considered by many to be the most popular Yankee during this time.

More here.

"Bobby Murcer was a born Yankee, a great guy, very well-liked and a true friend of mine," Yankees owner George Steinbrenner said. "I extend my deepest sympathies to his wife Kay, their children and grandchildren. I will really miss the guy."

Murcer was traded for Bobby Bonds and later returned to the Yankees in 1979. It's a shame he missed out on those 1977-1978 World Series teams.

When Red Sox Fans Attack

You'd think winning a couple of World Series would have made them chill out a bit.

Think again.

A rabid Red Sox fan on Cape Cod bashed a New York man on the head with a baseball bat after he was mistaken for a Yankee fan, cops said.

William Nestor, a commercial diver from Northport, LI, was returning with his family from a Fourth of July fireworks display in Falmouth, Mass., when he was attacked - allegedly because he had New York plates.

"The guy hit me with an aluminum bat," Nestor told The Post after returning home late last night. "I never saw it coming."

Nestor, who was stuck in heavy traffic after leaving the fireworks show at 10 p.m., said he noticed a group of hooligans harassing people in several cars.

But they seemed to be targeting cars with New York plates and cursing at them.

"They were yelling, 'Yankees! Yankees!' and 'F - - - New York' " Nestor, 29, said. "When they saw the plates, they came at me.

Apparently they're so stupid they don't realize how big a state New York is.

"I didn't even know the Yankees and Red Sox were playing" this weekend, added Nestor, who's not a particularly big baseball fan.

The victim was in his car with his wife and parents while his daughter, Kayla, 9, was in a second car with cousins and her aunt and uncle. Nestor's mom, artist Sybil Nestor, said her son asked the mob to calm down.

"William said, 'Hey, guys, I've got the family in the car, would you put a lid on it?'" his mom recalled. "They kept saying stuff, and then they started to approach the car, and William got concerned."

His dad, Bill, said William "stepped out to face the group, and an individual who he had not seen before just stepped out of the second rank of these clowns with a baseball bat and . . . hit him on the head."

The bat thug, identified by cops as Robert Correia, 20, allegedly whacked William's head, body and arms before Grandpa Bill could get into it.

"I'm 69 years old, but I was so pissed off . . . that I swore to myself he wasn't going to hit him a fourth time," Bill said. "I gave [Correia] kind of a football tackle . . . really hard, and got a chokehold on him and flipped him over."

The stupidity goes both ways, you might recall.

People, it's a game. Get real.

Way Too Much Information: Yankees Share Special Good Luck Charm

Newsflash: Washed-up Yankee likes to wear a gold thong to help him get out of a slump.

Disturbing newsflash: Other Yankees also wear the same gold thong.

I think I'm going to puke.

"I only put it on when I'm desperate to get out of a big slump," Giambi told Portfolio magazine's Franz Lidz.

What's more, he has loaned the magic thong to past and current Yanks Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Johnny Damon, Robinson Cano and Robin Ventura when they went into hitless streaks.

"All of them wore it and got hits," he told Portfolio. "The thong works every time."

Thanks to Hot Air for the link!

Pride of the Yankees Crumbles in the Clutch

We're all used to Alex Rodriguez coming up small in the postseason. Who knew his knees would also turn to jelly in the delivery room? Good Lord, man up already.

Alex Rodriguez passed out during the birth of his first daughter.

"The one nurse had a cold cloth on his head. The other nurse had the blood pressure on his arm. And my mother was like rubbing his back. And he is passed out on a couch. And I am there, in the middle of labor," Cynthia Rodriguez, wife of the Yankees star, said on an episode of the YES Network's "YESterdays" scheduled to air tonight.

"And really, I am not being paid much attention to besides the doctor and a couple of nurses," she said. "And he is there moaning. In between pushing, I am going, 'Honey, are you OK?' and 'Are you breathing? Are you OK?' "

Red Sox and A-Rod haters fans are sure to have a field day with this.

Meanwhile, speaking of Red Sox fans and on a more somber note, that psychopath who mowed down the Sox fan the other day is a really big fan of you-know-who.

The boozed-up Yankee fan from hell who ran over and killed a Red Sox supporter last week had a crush on Derek Jeter and a living room dominated by Pinstripe regalia.

A neighbor of Ivonne Hernandez, 43, who was charged with murder for allegedly running down Matthew Beaudoin in her Dodge Intrepid in Nashua, said the Bronx-bred fan loved the handsome shortstop.

Seems her interest in the Yankees was fleeting.

"When it comes to baseball, she didn't know much," the woman said. "The neighbors would give her hell. It was jokeable fun."

It would be a nice gesture, be it done privately or publicly, if the Yankees helped the Beaudoin family.

Psycho Yankee Fan Mows Down Red Sox Fan

Having an interest in the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, I just cannot fathom how out of control one has to be to take it so damn seriously.

Hopefully, this beast goes away for the rest of her life and is stuck in a cell with some Red Sox fans.

Ticked off by an earlier scuffle and taunted by anti-Yankees chants, a 43-year-old mother pulled out of a New Hampshire parking lot last week and rammed into one of the Red Sox fans taunting her, prosecutors said today.

The woman, Ivonne Hernandez of Nashua, had allegedly been drinking and was charged with reckless conduct, aggravated drunken driving, and second-degree murder. She was arraigned in Nashua District Court this morning on charges she used her car to kill Matthew Beaudoin, 29, of Nashua, who died Saturday of head trauma at the Lahey Clinic in Burlington.

Prosecutors would only say that an argument led to the attack. But a relative of Beaudoin’s said the scuffle escalated after a group of people that included Beaudoin saw a Yankees sticker on the back window of Hernandez’s car. They began chanting “Yankees suck!”

“I want her to rot in a cold jail cell for the rest of her life and remember every day the face that hit her windshield,” Faith Beaudoin, the victim’s sister, said in a telephone interview. “I want her to remember that she took a wonderful, kind-hearted gentleman. She has children of her own. How could she want to harm another’s child?”

Hernandez allegedly sped toward the group, striking Beaudoin and his friend Maria Hughes, 21, with whom she apparently had a fist fight shortly before in the parking lot. Hughes suffered minor injuries.

Hernandez, of Nashua, was arrested at the scene. She acknowledged she had been drinking and refused to take a breath-alcohol test, said Susan Morrell, a senior assistant attorney general. Hernandez said she had been in an argument with the group.

"She indicated to police that she wanted to scare this group of people. She thought they would get out of the way," Morrell said. "She never braked, and she accelerated at a high speed for about 200 feet. She went directly at this group of people."

The best remedy when anyone tells your your team sucks is to smile.

People really have to stop taking games so seriously.

Godzilla's Sketchy Nuptials

A rather strange announcement from New York Yankees slugger Hideki Matsui.

"Godzilla" has taken a bride.

Yankee slugger Hideki Matsui stunned his fans and teammates Thursday when he revealed he secretly wed a longtime girlfriend at a New York City chapel.

"I met somebody who felt right. That was it," the 33-year-old outfielder said upon returning to the Bombers' spring training camp in Tampa.

Matsui refused to reveal many details about Wednesday's wedding or his new wife, only saying she is 25 and from Japan, where she formerly worked "in a reputable position at a highly respected company."

He is so secretive about his wife's identity that he held up a drawing of her, rather than a photo, at a press conference where he showed off the silver band on his left hand.

"I have decided to spend my whole life with her," said Matsui, considered the most eligible bachelor in his native Japan.

As teammates congratulated him, Yankee captain Derek Jeter and outfielder Bobby Abreu claimed they were conned into a bet by the newlywed slugger.

Don't expect to see Derek Jeter walking down the aisle any time soon. Do I even need to explain that to anyone?

Meanwhile, this little nugget jumped off the page.

Matsui, also known back home for his large collection of porn films, said he and his wife have been planning their wedding for a year. He began dating her during the 2006-07 off-season. He said the nuptials took place in New York City at an undisclosed chapel.

Large collection of porn films?

Dude!

And boy, do they mean large.

Take porn, for instance. While porn is not publicly displayed, every fakir worth his rod has a vast all-inclusive personal museum of deviance that would make Casanova blush. For comparison’s sake, according to Sports Illustrated, Yankee outfielder Hideki Matsui has 55,000 distinct items in his porn collection.

Hello! 55,000 distinct items? How does this man find the time to play baseball?

Update: Thanks to Hot Air and Ace of Spades HQ for the links.

A-Rod Crawling Back to Yankees?

That's all the buzz in the New York area this afternoon.

Alex Rodriguez has come crawling back to the Yankees. It's a huge defeat for self-professed superagent Scott Boras as well as yet another failure of nerve in crunch time for the most controversial player in Major League Baseball.

A-Rod has contacted his once-and-perhaps-future team about negotiating a new deal. One report said the Yankees are willing to talk to him with a couple of “ifs” the size of the Matterhorn attached: He’s got to take less money than he was making on his celebrated $25.2-million-a-year deal, and he can’t bring the Boracious agent into the negotiating room with him.

“Alex is going to be back with the Yankees,” one of the sources reportedly told the New York Daily News.

He wasn't going to get the absurd $350 million floated by Scott Boras and if he comes back at anything less than $30 million per--which was virtually assured him given his numbers in 2007--then the Yankees come out huge winners in the deal.

Let's just hope some year he shows up in October.

So Long, Farewell, Enjoy Your Money

It's all about A-Rod.

DLTDHYOTWO, you greedy SOB.

Not content to make outrageous sums of money and never produce in the post-season, he decides to try and steal a little thunder from the Red Sox.

What a jerk.

“I got a call from Alex tonight, and he is going to opt out," Scott Boras, Rodriguez's agent, told The Post last night during Game 4 of the World Series. “He was just too unsure with new ownership talking about a transition where the organization is going right now. He is not sure what is going to happen with [free agents] Mariano [Rivera] and [Jorge] Posada, and if Andy Pettitte is coming back. He needs more time to assess where the Yankees are going in the future."

Yes, well those three will likely show loyalty to the Yankees and re-sign shortly. As for Rodriguez, if it was all about winning, he'd never have gone to Texas in the first place.

BTW, congratulations are in order for the Boston Red Sox, who are now 8-2 in their last 10 World Series games.

Joba Rules Oz

New York Yankees' Joba Chamberlain, left, is dressed as the lion and Ian Kennedy is Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz as they sign autographs outside Yankee Stadium after MLB baseball Monday, Sept. 24, 2007 in New York. The rookies had to dress in costumes as they left for a road trip. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)

I've seen some bizarre hazing rituals, but this one is most creative.

Yankees rookies dress up in Oz costumes

NEW YORK - Joba Chamberlain raised his oversized paws, shook his shaggy brown mane and let out a feeble roar. Looking and acting every bit the Cowardly Lion, the big reliever was ready for a scrap Monday.

"Put 'em up! Put 'em up!" he said, playfully challenging Jason Giambi and Mike Mussina. No takers — they were laughing too hard at Chamberlain's head-to-toe costume.

It was rookie hazing day for the New York Yankees, and this well-worn baseball tradition came with a theme: The Wizard of Oz.

So after their 4-1 loss to Toronto, and while the movie's soundtrack played over the locker room speakers, about a dozen rooks slipped into their outfits for the bus ride to the airport and the flight to Tampa Bay.

They're off to see a playoff spot, they hoped.

"I'd rather be here dressing up than anywhere else," pitcher Ian Kennedy said, stepping into the sparkling ruby red slippers as Dorothy. "It makes you feel like one of the guys."

Phil Hughes wiggled into his shiny silver pants as the Tin Man. Shelley Duncan put on sunglasses to complement his Scarecrow get-up. Tyler Clippard flapped around with Kei Igawa as flying monkeys.

Edwar Ramirez faced a more difficult dilemma: How to shimmy into that little Wicked Witch of the West dress?

He eventually made it, then pulled on his pointy black hat and looked into a mirror. Just for confirmation, he called across the clubhouse to Derek Jeter.

"Jeet! Jeet!" the pitcher said. "Nice?"

Jeter studied the ensemble and smiled.

"Yep," he said. "Bueno."