JUPITER, Fla. _ Derek Jeter is this kind of guy. On a casual walk Monday at the Miami Marlins' spring training facility, he asks how I'm doing, and without giving it a thought I say, "Couldn't be better." He smiles, clasps me on the shoulder and and says, "Oh, you can always be better."
Think of athletes whose careers are synonymous with success, with winning, and you would be hard-pressed to nominate a better one than Jeter. His 20 New York Yankees seasons included 17 postseason appearances (13 in a row), seven World Series and five championships.
His two seasons presiding over and part-owning the Marlins have produced records of 63-98 and 57-105 with two last-place finishes.
His Yankees career could hardly have been better.
His Marlins era might finally be heading in that direction.
It is time to turn a corner. Nobody knows it better than Jeter as the franchise begins Year 3 of the regime of majority owner Bruce Sherman and Jeter.
"I think we're in a lot better shape as an organization now than when we took over," Jeter said Monday, in his first spring training appearance of the budding season. We should be a lot better this year than last year. We have a lot more talent. We have an organization that's layered with talent."
Jeter took a moment to blast the Houston Astros for their sign-stealing scandal, when asked, noting that looking for an edge is a long-standing baseball tradition but that "they took it too far." He called it a black eye for the sport, likening it to PEDs and the steroids era. "You never forget it," he said.
The controversy is a cloud across the sport, though in Jupiter, optimism bubbles.
It isn't enough, of course.
So prove it. Let's start to see it _ to see a competitive won-lost record reflect the increased young talent and newfound optimism.
It has been a running theme of this 2020 camp.
"The time now is to be much better this year," Jeter's ownership partner, Bruce Sherman, said.
President of baseball operations Michael Hill referred to "a lot more talent _ upper-level talent."
Manager Don Mattingly: "I keep coming back to, 'It's time.' Time to kind of get this thing up the hill. We're going to be a disappointment if we don't make significant strides."
Jeter was pounding the same theme. That has been a difference this spring. Expectations were very reserved the first two years of the new regime. Now they are out there _ the Marlins publicly challenging themselves to start justifying the fragile faith of those fans who get why Sherman/Jeter traded all the top players for prospects in a farm-first reboot.
"We've got to make progress," Jeter said. "We've got to get better. We've got to improve."
The team's Marlins Park FanFest in Year 1 of Sherman/Jeter drew a paltry 5,000 fans. Last year it drew 12,000. This year's FanFest attracted just more than 17,000.
That's anecdotal, but there seem to be indications the faith of fans is being restored by degrees.
"We have to earn the trust of the fan base," as Jeter put it. "It takes a little time."
It has taken two years of a lot of losing.
Time for the reward to start showing itself.
