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null  John Schlegel Derek Jeter hits a home run off Oakland's Barry Zito to lead off Thursday's game. (Al Bello/Getty Images)

Leading off ...

ODE TO 2
OK, not an ode. Not sure how to do that.

Let's go with "Haiku to 2" instead:

Jeter, first-pitch heat
Back, back to Monument Park
Forgot the oh-fer

Ah, New York. One day, you've gotten as many hits lately as the guys coming out of the cornfield in Iowa. The next day, you're taking a curtain call. It's a wild ride -- just ask Aaron Boone.

In fact, there were times during Derek Jeter's 0-for-32 slump -- ahem, now 1-for-36 for the cynical -- when it sounded like some fans at Yankee Stadium were chanting Boone's name. Hmmm, maybe they were just wishing No. 2 on your roster and No. 1 in the hearts of Yankees fans had reached the seats like Boone did in Game 7 of the ALCS, not taken a seat yet again.

The masses stood and cheered him as he came to the plate in the eighth inning Wednesday night with the bases loaded, only to be silenced when he grounded out to first. And you'd better believe they demanded that curtain call Thursday night after the slump-stopping leadoff homer off Oakland's Barry Zito.

Yankees fans were and are still behind Jeter in general, but at least a few might have worn their Jeter jersey with a fashionable cape covering the number and name on the back the last few days. As Jeter said himself, even he would have booed him.

Oh, and the statsologists came out of the woodwork, didn't they? Just goes to show how overrated he is, right? Don't you know about his OPS and his range factor and his bat-grain ratio? (OK, the last one is made up.)

Here's the deal: Jeter's a winner, and has been since he came up. Sure, he's on a team that's always loaded, but he's not the captain and he's not at the core of the Yankees' latest run of titles, pennants and/or rings because of his OPS. He makes things happen in crunch time like few ballplayers of this era, albeit with more opportunity than anyone around. Pretty much universally considered a class act and a top-flight athlete, Jeter's a name that's going to stand the test of time in Yankees lore. No, not for this slump, smarty.

He may not be the best shortstop in the American League -- Miguel Tejada is probably the best now that Alex Rodriguez has taken over Jeter's right flank at third base and Nomar Garciaparra is on the shelf. But Jeter's a player you want on your team -- the Yankees fans who cheered him know that, as do the ones who booed (Booned?) him.

However, in the interest of balance, a little food for thought on the oh-fer to end all oh-fers:

• Back up to a more respectable .165, Jeter only needs to go 20-for-20 now to creep up to his career average of .315.

• During Jeter's eight-day, seven-game lumber slumber, Carlos Delgado had 13 hits, including six doubles. It may be of some comfort to Jeter to know that Delgado's average rose from .143 to .253 during that time.

• Barry Bonds only got four hits over those same days in 11 at-bats, but he walked 16 times and scored five runs.

OK, so maybe none of that makes Jeter's almost oh-for-April seem any less horrific.

But there will be more curtain calls than boos for Jeter, that much is certain.

Bill Hall  /   SS
		Born: 12/28/79 Height: 6'0" Weight: 200 lbs Bats: R / Throws: R More info: Player page Stats | Splits Gallery Team Site | Shop

OUR MAN FRIDAY
Winning big, winning little. Hey, in Milwaukee, they'll take 'em all -- they're doing it a little more often this year, too. And one guy gave the Brewers a lifetime of memories in the span of a little more than 24 hours.

Bill Hall, you're Our Man Friday this week.

A backup infielder, Hall did the walk-off homer thing Tuesday night, but we've seen that before. He followed that up with a walk-off suicide squeeze the next night -- a spectacular combo platter of heroics. The squeeze, popped neatly between the mound and first, was Hall's fourth RBI of the night and capped a nine-run rally that ranks as the biggest comeback in Brewers history.

WEEKEND PLANNER
A quick look at a few of the top weekend series:

Red Sox at Rangers: Who needs A-Rod? So far it doesn't seem that either of these teams do, as they each open the weekend sitting in first place in their division.

Marlins at Giants: Meeting for the first series since Pudge Rodriguez squeezed the seams off the ball as J.T. Snow bowled him over, the Marlins still look like champions and the Giants, well, do not.

Cubs at Cardinals: Call it Sox-Yanks Lite, a rivalry with all the great taste but half the hype.

OPS-FREE ZONE
Put down the calculator. Enjoy the game.

Hey, kids, it's time for fun with translation. Some names don't mean anything, but some could mean something. Our guest is the Giants' Pedro Feliz, the corner infielder who has hit behind Barry Bonds more than anybody else this year. Ready? Spanish: Pedro Feliz. English: Pete Happy. ... Last week's hairdo item drew plenty of e-mails with Johnny Damon comparisons, including the inevitable "Passion of Damon." There's Forrest Gump (cross-country era, not Alabama football era), and perhaps there's the Tom Hanks double feature with "Cast Away" in there somewhere. There also was an interesting reference to the House of David baseball team, a squad from Michigan who were barnstormers in the early to middle part of the last century. ... Oh, and a few other hair stories: Gary Carter and the curly mullet, Joe Pepitone and his hair dryer, and a thumbs-down for Royce Clayton's dreadlocks. Weekender goes thumbs-up on the 'locks. ... From our friend Bill Arnold of Sports Features Group: Former big-leaguer Lenny Dykstra is looking to build a $3.5 million gas station in Corona, Calif. The plans call for the station to sit on 1.3 acres of land and will feature a Spanish colonial motif with mosaic floors, black granite counters and Italian cherry-wood cabinets. Dykstra calls it the Taj Mahal of gas stations.

LINES OF THE WEEK
Hitting
Kevin Mench, OF, Rangers
Apr. 25: 4-for-4, 5 R, 3B, HR, 2 RBI
A double shy of the cycle. Dude even got hit by a pitch, too. Milwaukee's Chad Moeller did get the cycle, but Mench wins by a head -- a size 7 7/8 one at that.

Pitching
Oliver Perez, LHP, Pirates
Apr. 25: 9 IP, 0 R, 6 H, 1 BB, 10 K
Looking like the gem out of the Brian Giles deal the Pirates hoped for, if he can maintain his control.

Written
"Ten percent done with the season, the Mariners have established that their offense, once a suspect, is now under arrest for impersonating a baseball contender."
-- Art Thiel in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Spoken
"I have an idea of what I can and can't hit. Instead of trying to cheat to try to hit those pitches, I'm not swinging at them and hoping the pitchers make a mistake. There's balls now that I realize I can't hit, where before I would try to hit them. If I'm trying to hit that pitch, then I can't hit the one that I can hit -- if that makes sense."
-- Whoa. Cincinnati's Adam Dunn just blew my mind.

John Schlegel is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

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