Philly Leader

Derek Jeter was known for his high baseball IQ during a 20-year Hall of Fame career with the Yankees, but even he was prone to the occasional mental lapse on the diamond.

Recognizing such mistakes in oneself and taking ownership of them is a quality that can be rare among players, especially rookies. However, as former Yankees manager Joe Torre explains in the latest episode of the 6-1-1 Podcast, hosted by former Phillies greats Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins, that's exactly what he saw from Jeter as early as his 1996 rookie season.

Torre recalls a game that season in Chicago against the White Sox when Jeter was on second base with two outs, representing a crucial run for the Yankees with slugger Cecil Fielder at the plate. Even though Jeter was a rookie, Torre said he'd already earned trust as a baserunner, and Torre knew his shortstop wouldn't do anything to run the team out of an inning. Or so he thought.

"All of a sudden, he takes off for third base, and he's out," Torre said. "I'm pissed. Now I'm blaming myself, [thinking] I should've put the hold on; I gave him more credit than he deserved and all that stuff."

As is customary when a player makes the last out on the bases, Jeter remained on the field as another player brought him his glove for the bottom half of the inning. Despite Torre's frustration, he told bench coach Don Zimmer that he wasn't going to talk to Jeter about the mental lapse and instead focus on winning the game.

After the White Sox hit in their half of the inning, Jeter made his way back to the dugout. But things didn't go as expected from Torre's perspective.

"A lot of times when someone screws up, they go toward the end of the dugout or get some water or whatever," Torre said. "He came walking in and squeezed between Zimmer and me. He just sat down."

Not much needed to be said.

"What do you say? I hit him in the back of the head. I said, 'Get outta here,'" Torre said. "Because he knew. He knew he screwed up. But that was him... He never hid from anything."

That trait is one reason why Jeter stood out among his peers during a career in which he and Torre won four World Series titles with the Yankees from 1996 to 2000.

"That's when you know you've got somebody different," Howard said in response to Torre's story. "As a rookie... you don't see that very often. That's where you know he was cut from a different cloth."

The 6-1-1 Podcast is available on MLB.com, MLB.TV, all podcast platforms and YouTube.