from the New York Daily News

Tuesday, September 29, 1998

By LUKE CYPHERS Daily News Sports Writer

Derek Jeter roams to his right, backhands a ground ball in the hole, and then without slowing, leaves his feet, takes flight and throws a clothesline across the infield to first base, just beating the runner.

He's probably done it a half-dozen times this season, and every time, it's a breathtaking sight.

But it doesn't impress Willie Randolph, the six-time All-Star Yankee second baseman and current third-base coach.

"I really wish Derek would give up that QB Y.A. Tittle stuff," says Randolph, playing the gruff-but-lovable mentor to Jeter's budding-but-still-learning superstar.

"You know when he'll be really good?" Randolph asks, not pausing for an answer. "When he gets to that ball and instead of doing that jump pass that they show on the highlights, he just goes Step, Plant, Throw Him Out."

To the fans, that "Y.A. Tittle stuff" exemplifies the genius of Jeter, the Yankees' 24-year-old shortstop whose athleticism, fluidity and Elway-like arm make the spectacular look commonplace.

To baseball insiders, the Tittle-ation shows how great Jeter will be as he continues to pay attention to the game's fundamentals.

"I think he can get a lot better, how about that?" Randolph says. "A lot of people look at him right now as better than sliced bread, but I love the fact that he's not as good as he can be yet."

True, Jeter has only been in pinstripes three full years.

But his offensive numbers - which put him among American League leaders in batting average (.324), hits (203), runs scored (127, tops in the AL) and triples (8) - coupled with an incredibly low nine errors this season, make him seem like he's roamed the infield since Roy White was around.

(Quick, name the Yankee shortstop before Jeter - took awhile to come up with Tony Fernandez, didn't it?)

On the surface, it may not seem like Jeter has a lot of room left for improvement. Every year since he came up to the Yanks in '96, he's erased question marks about a different aspect of his game.

In his first year, people wondered about his throwing. In the minors, he struggled because his cannon arm sent more than a few throws into the stands.

It wasn't a problem.

The next year, there were concerns about whether he would be able to hit consistently after opposing pitchers all had a book on him. He didn't match his rookie average of .314, but his .291 dispelled doubts about consistency.

This year, he took questions about his power off the board. After two straight seasons with 10 home runs, the 6-3, 195-pounder began turning on more pitches inside, and finished the year with 19 homers, the most ever by a Yankee shortstop.

All that production inspired manager Joe Torre to suggest that Jeter is the team's MVP - no small feat on the winningest team in American League history, one graced with superstars such as batting titlist Bernie Williams, Paul O'Neill and David Cone.

This all begs the question: How can Jeter keep getting better? "Easy," Jeter said. "You can't ever stop working. You have to keep up hitting, fielding, you can't ever let up."

So what's this winter's project, when he heads to Tampa for his off-season training? "Everything," he said. "Everything."

It's telling that Jeter won't specify any one area of his play that needs more work than any other. It may mean he's not conceding a weakness to any of his formidable rivals for American League shortstop supremacy - the Mariners' Alex Rodriguez, Boston's Nomar Garciaparra and Omar Vizquel of the Indians.

These rivals could be the prod that makes Jeter continue his rapid learning curve.

"It is kind of interesting how there are so many at once," he said. "There are always going to be arguments about who's better. But you can't really compare us all, because different guys do different things."

Rodriguez, with his 42 home runs, has the most power. Vizquel, a 30-year-old veteran with just five errors this season, is the best fielder. Garciaparra, with his blend of speed, power and clutch hitting, not to mention his importance to his team's lineup, is the most like Jeter.

But Jeter has what the others do not: a World Series ring.

While Jeter shows the utmost respect for his fellow shortstops, he shrugs off questions about the wealth at his position - and refuses to talk much about his relative worth.

"It's just one of those things, where I happened to come up at time where there's a lot of talent," he said.

But he's enough of a historian of the game to know that this didn't happen in a vacuum.

"There were guys in the last 20 years who set a new standard for shortstops," Jeter said. "Robin Yount, Alan Trammell, Cal Ripken, and then guys like Barry Larkin, showed that bigger guys could play the position."

Rather than convert them to third basemen or outfielders because of their potential power and speed, the teams who left the Younts of the world alone were rewarded with extra hits and extra homers.

In Ripken's case, they even moved a 6-4 third-sacker to short, and experiment that appears to have worked fairly well.

The whole thinking about what a shortstop should be changed. And now, Jeter - who was drafted sixth overall by the Yanks out of Kalamazoo Central High in 1992 - is a prototype. "You have to hit now," Jeter said.

That simple statement explains why Jeter is now the uncontested champ in the battle of the New York shortstops that brewed when he and the Mets' Rey Ordonez first came up together in '96.

Ordonez still does more spectacular things in the field, but it's unimaginable that the Yankees would ever pinch-hit for him, as the Mets regularly do with Ordonez.

Though Jeter can be declared the winner in that barroom argument, there are several others to settle in the coming years.

Jeter or Vizquel? Jeter or Garciaparra? Jeter or A-Rod, as his buddy Rodriguez is known?

Jeter won't get caught up in them.

Neither will Randolph. But he cites several similarities between Jeter and his cohorts at short that can keep the debate lively for years to come.

"They're mature, well-grounded guys," Randolph said. "They seem to know they are responsible to the game, that they'll be looked up to."

Jeter is an especially apt pupil. "Derek always listens, and when he hears something, he processes it and then uses it," Randolph said. "When he first came up, he was eager to ask about everything. But he's like everyone else, once he makes it, he doesn't come up to you as much. But I never hesitate to go to him and tell him something if I think he needs it. We have an understanding."

Randolph can find plenty for Jeter to work on - mostly involving concentration. "There are still times he seems like he gets caught by surprise in the field," he said. "He could be more selective when he's hitting. But all that's just experience. And he sometimes can get a big head, but how could he not?"

But the native New York coach is impressed with how Jeter has handled fame in the big city. "He has a foundation from his parents," Randolph said. "He's known from an early age how important it is to handle it, when maybe some other guys didn't."

OK, coach. But who's the best shortstop? "I don't like comparing, I just like watching all these guys go out and bang heads," Randolph said. "What's most exciting to me is not how good Derek is now, but how good he's going to get, because it means the people of New York will have something to appreciate for a long time."