He may not get to wear a snazzy "C" on his jersey (such individual attention/glorification would certainly not be acceptable in the Yanks' house), but Jeterjeterpumpkineater is the captain of the team and works hard to lead his men into battle and eventually into championship-ville.

One problem, though: the Yankees have been championship-free since the inception of Jeter's tenure in the Captain Chair.

I'm not blaming the Jeet for the team's failures (soul-crushing, agonizing, yell-at-the-TV, maddening failures). The team captain is not responsible for every win or loss, but Jeter, who so many treat as infallible, hasn't had much success captain-izing his men in the post-season. His own post-season stats are plenty clutch-tastic, but apparently he puts his leadership job on the back burner when in actuality the team needs him most at that time! Maybe if he had that "C" on his jersey it'd be different.

This is not to say that ol' Jeter is not a fabulous player, chock full of raw talent and of course all those much-cherished intangibles (and sidenote: I am 100% a believer in the value of the unmeasurable "goods" like attitude, teamwork, spirit [see Duncan, Shelly] and the like). Nay, he is a vital member of the team and it wouldn't be the same without him.

That said, now that A-Rod is on board and will be for the next 26584392 years (and perhaps more! it is not out of the realm of possibility that at age 41 the Rodster wouldn't still be worthy of another contract...but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves, kiddos) some folks may start looking at him as a potential leader. It is unlikely that anyone would ever actually usurp Jeter's position as the C-Man, but I'd venture to guess that with his status as the undisputed best player on the team, he might be expected to step up and start being more vocal about encouraging and inspiring his teammates. He has not proven himself to be the outspoken and extroverted person Jeter is, and talent alone obviously doesn't always indicate who the captain of the team should be (look at the SF Giants: Bonds carried the team talent-wise but there was no chance in hell that his teammates would look up to him as a leader; on the other end of the spectrum there was John Franco, who remained a revered captain of the Mets long after he made any real contribution to the team), so when it comes down to it, it is up to A-Rod to determine whether he should work on his leadership skills with Jim Fannin.

We all love Jeter, and his intangibles are a big part of that love stew. A-Rod has gotten a lot of flack for everything from making too much money to not being clutch to being a diva (PS: I cannot use that word without thinking of Glitter), and I can think of no better remedy for his tarnished rep than to start emulating Jeter's leadership techniques.

Still no "C"'s for anyone though.