If only Derek Jeter could trade Bryant Gumbel.
An interview with the Marlins CEO and Yankees legend got somewhat heated — at times with a laugh disguising the underlying tension — on HBO’s “Real Sports.”
Jeter refuses to admit the Marlins are tanking, taking issue with the implication that the team is trying to lose.
“We’re trying to win ball games every day,” Jeter said, in the episode that airs Tuesday at 10 p.m., ignoring the fact that he has put his team in position to lose every day by trading nearly anyone of worth (Giancarlo Stanton, Dee Gordon, Marcell Ozuna and Christian Yelich).
As Gumbel called out the new Marlins co-owner on semantics, Jeter, with a smile, decided the anchor just couldn’t understand his message.
DEREK JETER: Now, you can think — now — now, I can’t tell you how you think. Like, I see your mind. I see that’s how you think. I don’t think like that. That’s your mind working like that.
BRYANT GUMBEL: No, I get that. But I guess not in so many words–
DEREK JETER: But you don’t. But you don’t get it.
BRYANT GUMBEL: I do.
DEREK JETER: You don’t. We have two different mi– I can’t wait to get you on the golf course, man. We got– I mean, I can’t wait for this one.
BRYANT GUMBEL: No, I mean–
DEREK JETER: You’re mentally weak.
Gumbel didn’t take it personally. The two continued bickering over what qualifies as tanking — Gumbel seeing a 5-15 team bereft of players capable of winning, Jeter seeing a squad of young guys whom he ideally would like to play well.
“You expect them to contend?” Gumbel said.
“I do. I do,” Jeter responded. “If I don’t believe with the — in the players that we have on the field, who’s going to believe in them?”
“But as an executive, it looks like you’re delusional if you believe otherwise,” said Gumbel.
“Well, call me delusional,” Jeter said.
