TAMPA – This is the story of a 156-pound kid. A gawky guy who had more difficulty going to his left than Newt Gingrich. A hitter with less balance than a juggler on a high wire.

This also is the story of a 196-pound man. A fluid fella whose left is all right. A hitter who these days can balance not just himself, but a whole team on broadened shoulders.

Both stories are about Derek Jeter. Which means it has a happy middle. We can assume, as well, that it is going to be a heckuva an ending with likely stops in the $100 million club, Monument Park and Cooperstown. But it would be wrong-headed to believe this story began just right.

“Sure he looks like the golden boy today, but he didn’t spring from his parents like this,” said Yankee minor league head Mark Newman. “No one has done more than him to improve. He truly works to be a great player.”

That is why this is a story about what you don’t see. Not about March to October, but November to February. Not about Page Six or position six on the scorecard, but five-days-a-week at the Yankee minor-league complex in Tampa. This is a story about how Derek Jeter turned a frail body and undeveloped skills into a superstar package.

“You know what statement bothers me – overnight success,” Jeter said. “There is no offseason any more. People don’t understand that. I’m down here in November. People may be better than you, but no one should be a better worker than you.”

This is a story that begins June 1, 1992:

BLOWN AWAY BY A DRAFT

“I wouldn’t have drafted me. I weighed 156 pounds fully dressed. The funny thing is on the basketball program in high school I was listed at 185 pounds. I figured when I got on the scale in Tampa they would just send me home.” – Derek Jeter

Jeter was 156 pounds. Shawn Powell, the Yankees’ strength and conditioning coach in Tampa, remembers “he had zero muscle on his body. None. Clothes just hung off him. I called him Gilligan in the Skipper’s clothes.”

As others worked out, Jeter mockingly flexed in the mirrors to reveal skin and bones. The body type was no surprise to the Yankees. Covertly they had sent 10 different people into Kalamazoo, Mich., to scout Jeter at Central High. “Skill wise, a man among boys,” said Brian Sabean, now the Giant GM, then the Yankees’ VP of scouting. The Yanks ran a ruse, pretending big interest in Olympic outfielder Michael Tucker.

“We hoped against hope he would be there at six,” said Bill Livesey, now Tampa Bay’s director of personnel, then the Yankee scouting director. Somehow five teams passed on the 17-year-old voted best high-school player in the nation. The Yankees pounced. The only skinny that concerned them was the informational type.

“He was really immature physically, but we knew it was just the opposite with his personality,” said Newman, then the Yankees’ minor league field coordinator. “He was weak physically, but you could close your eyes and see what tomorrow would be. And you knew he would get there because of his makeup. He has gotten there by lifting weights every day of winter.”

Starting in November 1994, Jeter began a five-day-a-week, off-season regimen designed by Powell. He has put on 40 pounds of muscle, increased strength dramatically across the board and not lost quickness.

“He is now the example for all the other kids who come in to lift in the offseason,” Powell said.

HITTING THE WALL

“THERE were times he told me I shouldn’t have done this, that he should have gone to college.” – Mark Newman

Jeter struck out once in 59 high-school senior at-bats. On his first day as a pro – July 2, 1992 – a Gulf Coast (Rookie) League doubleheader, he went 0-for-7 and whiffed five times. He remembers feeling “overmatched.”

In the cool climes of Kalamazoo, the seasons were short and so were the fastballs. “Everything was in fast forward in pro ball,” Jeter said. He needed a late burst to merely bat .202 in the GCL.

“But it was obvious he had the characteristics you look for in good hitters,” said Gary Denbo, Jeter’s manager his first two minor-league seasons. “He had bat speed, he was fearless and he was a coach’s dream from the outset. He worked hard every day.”

No one in the Yankee family knows Jeter’s swing like Denbo. Starting in early January, the two begin a seven-week program into spring training. Balance has been key and so has been turning on inside fastballs. This past offseason they worked on pulling the ball with greater backspin so that there is more carry. That and added weightlifting moved Jeter to tell Powell his goal is 24 homers this year, five more than 1998.

“We’ve only scratched the surface of his ability,” Denbo said. “It might be strange to say that with all the success he has had. But I think he is still learning how to hit. I think he has a higher ceiling than Nomar Garciaparra and Alex Rodriguez.”

DEFENSE NEVER RESTS

“HIS first year he hit .202, but he could field. The second year, he hit, but he made 56 errors. People started talking about him as a center fielder. That is when you have to go back to the tools. The tools and the work ethic.” – Bill Livesey

In January, Jeter also begins taking grounders daily off the bat of Trey Hillman, the Columbus manager. If another player joins the drill, regardless of how far into it Jeter is, he stays to take the last grounder.

“He is as competitive taking balls in Tampa as he is in a major league at-bat at Yankee Stadium,” Hillman said.

Hillman’s tutelage is furthered during the season by Yankee coaches Willie Randolph and Don Zimmer, who added great range to Jeter’s left by breaking his habit of reaching for balls with two hands. The result was just nine errors last year, none in his final 40 games, including the playoffs.

“It is very impressive what he does to enhance his God-given ability when there are no reporters around and no cameras,’ Hillman said. “He’s working. Anyone would have understood if he didn’t pick up a bat or glove after either of the championship years, and if he had gone on cruise control. But the taste of a championship and personal success only made him hungrier. That is why I think he’s going to get even greater.”

So this is the never-ending story.