This morning after the Jeter injury is worse than the worst hangover. Worse than any “What the fuck did I do last night?” feeling in the history of drunken mistakes. Waking up and remembering that the Yankees lost the captain resulted in instant nausea and depression. Watching #2 go down last night was one of the hardest things I’ve ever seen. It was like when you were a kid and you saw your parents look scared for the first time in your life. Last night was the first time in Derek Jeter’s career that he appeared human, and it scared the shit out of me.

During a game of roller coaster emotions, the steep drop of Jeter crumbling to his season’s end was the lowest of the lows. I don’t care what team you’re a fan of; if you are celebrating this injury at all, you’re the worst kind of person. Jeter is baseball. Jeter is the last stand for 100% purity in the game, and the way he goes about his business is one to which we should all aspire in every aspect of life. His playing career has been an embodiment of class and professionalism and watching him exit the field in the manner he did just isn’t fair. That’s not how it was supposed to happen for the guy who had this team on his back all season.

Moving forward with Jeter and Mariano side-by-side on the bench is going to be an eerie image, but the team has to use this tragedy as a spark to come together and finish this thing off. Jeter’s injury will either spread to the rest of the clubhouse, crippling the Yankees’ chances, or it will serve as something the team can rally around and take with them throughout the series. Which one’s it gonna be? Who’s gonna step up and take over the leadership role, cus it sure as hell isn’t gonna be Swisher. When Kuroda takes the mound today at 4:00, we learn how the 2012 Yankees are going to handle the most devastating loss this team could have possibly imagined.