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Watch ESPN’s Skip Bayless And Rob Parker Literally Break Into A “Der-ek Je-ter!” Chant

You hear it all the time, and have heard it for years: “Derek Jeter is overrated.” You’ve heard players say it (or vote on it, anyway). You’ve heard fans say it (and say it, and say it, and say it). Even some in the media – the group most often accused (besides Yankee fans, anyway) of engaging in a 15-year-and-counting uninterrupted stream of Jeter hagiography, will say so.

But in some glorious moments, even if by accident, other media members will turn into perfect self-parodies when Jeter comes up. They will become everything the staunchest Jeter critic imagines them to be and more. So often accused of being Jeter cheerleaders in a metaphorical sense, they will literally cheerlead for Jeter. In short, they will turn into Skip Bayless and Rob Parker on this morning’s edition of First Take on ESPN2.

The setup: moderator (although not so much, in this case) Jay Crawford introduced a debate topic: taking into account the entire body of work for each, would you rather have Jeter or Mariano Rivera on your team? Parker and Bayless each took up Jeter’s cause, while Crawford carried the torch for Rivera. Did it end with Parker and Bayless chanting Jeter’s name like Bleacher Creatures at Yankee Stadium? You tell us:

Couple things in fairness to Parker and Bayless: 1) rather than out of a genuine hero-worship of Jeter, they were clearly chanting to troll Crawford, a noble pursuit. Additionally, in the argument itself (filled with shouting to the point of being nigh-unwatchable though it was at times), we were on Team Parker/Bayless. Mariano Rivera is a phenomenal pitcher. His consistency over the years defies logic. He’s the best closer baseball’s ever known.

But Jeter plays every day, and plays the whole game. And as inflated as his reputation might have gotten over the years, he played at an extremely high level for over a decade. For all his defensive deficiencies (and we should also note advanced fielding stats are much more imprecise than advanced batting stats), Jeter’s still a shortstop, and shortstops who hit like he’s hit over the course of his career don’t come along often. Parker and Bayless’ chanting was comical, but give them credit: they were right. But man, was that chanting comical.