Hey, Anybody Remember Ted Williams?

This is how legends go out. With a meatball down the middle.

OK, that isn’t fair, but no matter what you think of Derek Jeter’s game-winning hit Thursday night in his final at-bat in his final game at Yankee Stadium, it’s pretty fair to admit that the pitch wasn’t Evan Meek’s best, no? Or do we have to do an Adam Wainwright and backtrack to tell the world what a nasty pitch it really was?

Ah, yes, the Derek Jeter farewell tour is, mercifully, nearly at its end. Only three more games in Boston this weekend remain. Jeter said after his heroics Thursday night that he’s done at shortstop and will likely only DH this weekend when the Yankees visit Fenway Park.

But no matter what he does on Sunday, it can’t garner more of a tongue-bathing action than his dramatics Thursday night. Mind you, if this were a real game – and shouldn’t Orioles fans be livid at Buck Showalter seeing as Baltimore still had a shot at the best record in the league as of Thursday? – the manager is walking Jeter with first base open and less than two out. But this was the way it was going to end, one way or another, I guess. Convenient.

I hate to pick on Richard Deisch, fine media critic for Sports Illustrated and SI.com, but he presented one of the dumbest questions in the midst of the Jeter idolization Thursday night.

Trying to think of a better end of career home stadium moment. Thoughts?

— Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) September 26, 2014

Gee, I dunno. Some dude named Ted Williams? Think he hit a home run or something.

This is the problem with the Derek Jeter love affair; in bending over backwards to make him go out as the greatest Yankee and one of the top ballplayers of all time, we tend to lose a sense of history in Bronx-colored blinders. In attempting to make Jeter moments defining moments in baseball’s annals, some tend to ignore other accomplishments, no matter how noteworthy, in order to give the praise and label of “greatness” to the present-day idol. Jeter is a top-five Yankee of all time? Please. Google search “Olbermann” and “Jeter” for the best takedown on that theory.

Three more days ’til serenity.