The Flip Play

Like many Yankee fans I've long admired the Jeter Flip Play, even more so than Jeter himself:

But if you were standing by the back field at the Yankees complex earlier this morning, you could have seen the Yankees practicing that exact play. Third-base coach Rob Thomson stood on the infield grass and rapped liners into the right-field corner as a line of outfielders took turns digging the ball out and throwing it to the cutoff man while the infielders went to their respective positions … including the shortstop running the Jeter route to the first-base line each time.

Like most folks, I was – and still am – amazed by that play, but the more I watched the drill today the more Jeter’s assertions make sense. “Where else would the shortstop be?” he has always said.

When I first read that, I kinda rolled my eyes and pooh-poohed it, that it was just Jeter being Jeterianly humble/dull/non chest-beating etc, but then I read this about tonight's game in Tampa:

UPDATE, 8:36 p.m.: Sometimes  you give up a triple to a fast guy at the bottom of the order. Walking Johnson was the real problem for Sabathia here in the fifth. I’m sitting next to Sweeny Murti who pointed out that Sam Fuld’s RBI triple went into the right-field corner with a runner at first base. It was basically the same situation as the flip play, and sure enough, it ended with Jeter running across the infield to be in the exact same spot he was in against the A’s.