The Captain's Lament.

Derek Jeter transcends baseball. You may not like the Yankees. You may even despise the Yankees. You may be disgusted by their obscene payroll, their superstars acting like prima donnas, or their tendency to stick around no matter what travesties befall them. But whether you're a casual hater or a lifetime opponent, you most likely respect Derek Jeter. Red Sox fans and players have gushed about what a joy Jeter is to watch or square off against. If the Yankees' longest, most hated rivals can admit they're fans of Jeter, you know he's special. So to see him go down, especially during a time of the year in which he excels, is upsetting no matter who you root for. And if you're a Yankees fan (like me), and if Derek Jeter is your favorite player (he's mine), then what happened last night in extra innings will absolutely break your heart (like mine did).

I have no words for this one.

It was the first game of the 2012 American League Championship Series. The Detroit Tigers were facing the Yankees in the Bronx, and they were tied after 11 innings. The Tigers drew first blood, scoring 4 runs thanks to Prince Fielder, Avisail Garcia, and two hits from Delmon Young, before 2-run shots by Ichiro and Raul Ibanez tied the game in the bottom of the 9th. Reliever after reliever took the mound for both sides after Detroit closer Jose Valverde couldn't nail down the save (a far cry from the perfect season he had last year), and the game was still knotted 4-4 heading into the 12th inning. Miguel Cabrera, the most dangerous hitter in baseball right now, took a walk to first base, and was advanced by a Prince Fielder groundout. Delmon Young hit a ball that missed Nick Swisher's glove and scored Miggy, and then...it happened. Jhonny Peralta hit a ball on the left side of second base. It was a routine play, one hundreds of shortstops have made thousands of times. Jeter dove for the ball, but landed awkwardly on his left leg. The leg that's been giving him trouble for months. He went down and stayed down; he lightly tossed the ball towards his double play partner Robinson Cano, but when he didn't pop back up and get back into position, manager Joe Girardi and his trainers knew something was wrong.

After the game, Girardi confirmed that Jeter fractured his ankle. He wouldn't require surgery, but the projected recovery period would be three months, which made it all too obvious that the Yankees would be playing the rest of this postseason without Derek, the first such situation since 1995. Losing a star player in the middle of the playoffs is bad. Losing your team captain is catastrophic. Losing the all-time leader in postseason hits, who's played in 158 straight postseason games, and has led your team to 5 championship titles...there isn't a single word powerful enough to describe the negative connotations. Awfulterribledreadfulatrocioushorrendous comes close.

"It's fine. I promise. Take A-Rod out if you have to, just keep me here."

Can the Yankees advance to the World Series without Jeter? No. Flat out, cards on the table, no. Ichiro and Ibanez have kept this team afloat (both of whom are rapidly approaching 40), while players like Cano (in the middle of an 0-21 slump and only 2-27 this postseason), Curtis Granderson (only 1 home run in the last 6 games), and Alex Rodriguez (not even space to talk about how bad he's been) have been struggling. To lose Jeter all but guarantees that the Tigers will take this series. They have the most recent Triple Crown winner in Cabrera, a monstrous force in Fielder, a surprising power hitter in Young, and a lineup that properly complements the three. Not to mention their rotation: Doug Fister turned in a great performance last night, Anibal Sanchez and Max Scherzer shore up the back end of the rotation, and don't forget that Detroit has the best pitcher of the last 5 years in Justin Verlander starting at Comerica on Tuesday. If the Bronx Bombers want to stand a chance at avenging the loss of their captain, they need to start living up to their name, because this series can quickly devolve into a home run contest, and there's no guarantee the Yanks will come out victorious otherwise.

Derek Jeter transcends baseball. There's no getting around it. Losing him for the rest of the postseason gives the playoffs a different feel, one that hasn't been experienced in nearly 2 decades. Maybe it's good practice for when he retires. If it's all the same, though, I'd much rather cross that bridge when we come to it, not hop over the 2012 tributary and praying the floodgates don't burst. From all of us here at TBF, we wish Jeter a speedy and full recovery.