from Newsday

For once, there was no feigned nonchalance, no unflappable stoicism about having the spotlight trained on him for the umpteenth time.

Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter was thrilled to be back at Yankee Stadium last night after 36 games missed, and he didn't hide it. He bounced on his toes during infield practice, playfully scooping up ground balls and laughing often at something teammates Enrique Wilson or Erick Almonte said. Jeter chattered more than usual around the batting cage, and the other Yankees seemed to make a point of strolling by just to welcome him back, sneak a look at the rust on his swing or rib him about something. And Jeter would start laughing all over again.

"Anytime you get a guy back of that caliber, it has to be a boost," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said from the Anaheim dugout as Jeter took batting practice.

Smirk. "I thought he needed three more days [off] myself," Scioscia cracked.

Jeter's return was the big news last night, the all-eclipsing story line that overshadowed Mike Mussina's attempt to improve to 8-0 and the world champion Angels' first visit to Yankee Stadium since they knocked off the Yankees in last year's playoffs. Jeter's Back! That was the curiosity that turned an otherwise nondescript Tuesday night at the Stadium into a buzz-filled event and a re-do of Opening Day - at least for Jeter, who had been out since then with dislocated left shoulder.

He had been out six weeks and a day, to be exact. Six weeks and a day that Jeter, grimacing last night, found, "Boring. BOR-ing.

"This is the first game I've played at home [this year], and I don't know what to expect," added Jeter, who was hurt in Toronto while sliding head first into third. "I'm sure I'll have butterflies going out there. I had butterflies in Trenton."

Of course, Jeter also hit .444 in his five-game rehab stay with Double-A Trenton. As good as the first-place Yankees have been this season, they're only 5-6 the past two weeks and hoping now for a jolt from Jeter. So are the Yankees' fans.

The squeals, then roars, then steadily crescendoing applause that Jeter got for every minor "first" that he notched last night - the first time he jogged out of the dugout for pregame sprints, the first time his name was announced in the starting lineup, and the rousing 30-second standing ovation that Jeter got the very first time he came up to hit - all made last night feel like it was some "This Is Your Life" night at the Stadium.

Before the Yankees even batted in the bottom of the first, a one-minute highlight tape of Jeter's greatest moments played on the outfield scoreboard, and all of the usual goose-bump moments were included: Jeter's pinwheeling tumble into the stands for a flyout against Oakland; his crossfield sprint and shovel pass to Jorge Posada to nip the Athletics' Jeremy Giambi at the plate in the 2001 playoffs.

When Jeter came up to bat for that first time last night with Alfonso Soriano dancing off second after a leadoff hit and stolen base, it said a lot about the countless thrills that Jeter has provided that most of the 37,750 fans actually stayed on their feet for every pitch, as if they actually expected Jeter to do something special or mythic again. "It makes you feel good. I'd be lying if I said it didn't," Jeter said.

But Jeter popped out to second. He did the same in his second and third at-bats, too. Truth be told, even by then, all the hoped-for juice from Jeter's return didn't seem like it would materialize in the Yankees' play. He finally managed an eighth-inning single. But the Yankees fizzled to a 10-3 loss for the same reason they had a sparkling 26-11 record coming in to the game.

"The quality of our pitching," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "Pitching," Jeter agreed.

Jeter is among the first to say the Yankees played like they didn't miss him all that badly. Torre actually volunteered that when you compare Jeter with other star shortstops in baseball - Torre meant hit-for-average sluggers Alex Rodriguez and Miguel Tejada - "I'm not sure Derek can match up ability-wise to any one of them. But there's something about the whole package that makes him pretty special. I mean how [Jeter] grinds. The toughness. Not accepting losing. He plays a very tough game of baseball. That's the only way he can play."

Jeter insisted that he will play that way again now, like he never dislocated his shoulder at all.

Jeter's back. And he didn't bother to hide this, either: "When you're gone this long, you realize how much you really appreciate things."