from the Daily News ?

07/22/98

The remnants of the longest day that flowed into the longest night could be seen in Derek Jeter's face. Usually it is tanned and unlined, the sort of face that belongs to carefree 24-year-olds, especially when they are at the top of their profession.

Yesterday afternoon, though, Jeter's chocolate brown eyes, the ones all the girls go ga-ga over, were bloodshot red, as if he had been dancing at the China Club until the sun came up. His arms felt like lead; his head was pounding. Twenty-six innings of baseball have a way of turning even the hardiest, fittest of players into decrepit geezers.

"When that last out came, I was so happy. I would have jumped for joy if I had any energy left," Jeter said as he sat slumped in his clubhouse chair, a pile of fan mail dripping off his lap.

He was talking about the grounder Brian Hunter hit to the infield, the one that came at 1:17 yesterday morning, putting the final punctuation on the marathon doubleheader between the Tigers and the Yankees that had begun nine hours and 11 minutes earlier. Having spent much of his energy going 6-for-12, Jeter barely could make the trot from shortstop to the dugout, too beat to even chew his gum.

"I came in here and sat still for a long time cause I couldn't move," he said. "All the old guys got to sit out the second game (a 4-3 Yankee win). They were pretty exhausted just from watching."

For a guy who acted as if eating Jell-o at a retirement home would be too difficult, Jeter sure did transform quickly. He emerged from the clubhouse cocoon and, on the first pitch of his first at-bat in the first inning of last night's 5-1 win over the Tigers, Jeter belted a home run over the right-field fence. Two innings later, there he was, spring-training fresh as he stole second, and then third after a walk off Brian Moehler. Tino Martinez' sacrifice fly brought home Jeter, who skipped across the plate as if he had found the fountain of youth.

That is the thing about Jeter. He might not have Mark McGwire's biceps, but he does have extreme stamina, whether that means personally answering his mountains of fan mail, or hitting his 11th homer of the season, a career high. He went 2-for-3, then put to rest any rumors of him being the next burly slugger.

"You want to hit more but I'm not going up there to hit home runs," Jeter said. "Playing shortstop, defense comes first. All the other stuff is a bonus. My job is to get on base. Doesn't matter how tired you are, you still have to produce."

Especially when you've spent the longest day and the longest night setting a record for futility, as Hunter did, beginning with Detroit's 4-3, 17-inning win in Monday's opener. The Tigers' leadoff batter got to the ballpark around the time Jeter was rolling out of bed yesterday, not that it made much difference.

"I'm sure my entire head would be gray if I had hair," joked Hunter, whose pate is as smooth as a bat. "Instead, it all fell out."

He could laugh at the way he stood at the plate 13 times Monday, only to chug back to the dugout again and again. He fell asleep on the bus ride back to Detroit's hotel, convinced that life could only get brighter, but Hunter's unlucky jinx would continue last night, as he went 0-for-5, hitless in 18 at-bats at the Stadium.

Homer Bush's odyssey was perhaps the most taxing. The Yankees' prime trade bait had to be at Rockland Community College by 8 a.m., then spent the day after the longest night talking to 150 kids about his greatest buzz.

"I was still on such a high," said Bush, who entered as a pinch runner during the 17-inning marathon and finished with a career-best three hits in the nightcap. "It was serious adrenaline, being a part of that. I really did feel like I was auditioning."

Chad Curtis' place on the team is cemented, but that didn't stop him from making like Carl Yastrzemski in left field in Monday's opener, when even breathing the heavy air seemed like a chore. Before manager Joe Torre posted the lineup for last night's game, he asked Paul O'Neill if he wanted a break. No, said O'Neill, let Curtis have the rest.

Torre then went and solicited the opinion of Curtis, who had played all 26 innings, an act that left him so exhausted he couldn't get to sleep. No, said Curtis, O'Neill deserves a night off.

O'Neill started in right; Curtis sat on the bench for six innings, as restless as a puppy, until Torre finally inserted him into the lineup, replacing Tim Raines in left field. Winning, as Jeter would later say, always is the best elixir.