Keeping up with “The Captain” Derek Jeter, with Ogi Overman(Jamestown News), Charlie Atkinson(News and Record) and John Horshok(Greensboro Hornets/Bats)

Got to see and read key parts of Derek Jeter’s new book, “The Captain”, and that book is filled with loads of local names, that you would know…..

There’s a big section/chapter on Jeter’s time spent in Greensboro with the Greensboro Hornets, right before they became the Bats and you’ll see the Greenboro Hornets’ official scorer metioned prominently in print, in this book and you know him well, as the current editor of the Jamestown News, Ogi Overman……

Ian O’Conner, the author, has Ogi down as the man that charged Derek with those 56 errors, while Jeter was in Greensboro back around 1993….The New York Yankees had one of their top brass men call down to Greensboro and talk to the Hornets’ team general manager John Frey, about the terrible job that Ogi was doing charging the Yankees young phenom, Jeter, with all those errors…..Jeter was setting team records for errors at shortstop and he was leading the South Atlantic League in miscues and the Yankees wanted to put a stop/end to all of this…..

Ogi nearly quit his job as official scorer over all of this, but he stayed on and he never received a minute’s grief from Jeter, over all of those legitimate charges….Jeter knew Ogi was right in what was showing up on the scoreboard and Jeter was a pro and he knew Ogi Overman was just doing his job, when all of those E-6’s kept popping up on the big Spring Garden Bar and Grill scoreboard, in center field….

Ogi felt like he was living in a nightmare, watching all of Jeter’s struggles at short, ’cause he had seen the same problems with Andy Fox at third base, just a year or so earlier and it was E-5 for Fox and E-6 over and over again for Jeter…..

Ogi survived and so did Jeter and you see key quotes from News and Record baseball beat writer Charlie Atkinson, who was covering the Greenboro Hornets at that time and Hornets/Bats owner John Horshok is all in the book too, with talk of Jeter during his stay in Greensboro and about life for Jeter in the South Atlantic League and living in the South, in general….Plenty of references to the Grand Stand and Horshok talks about the team being in the playoff finals that year and taking the trip down to Savannah, to face the then-Savannah Cardinals for the Sally League title……Horshok says the front office, the team and the Yankees treated this like it was a trip to the Super Bowl, chartering a plane, loading up on hotel rooms and going to Savannah first-class and the Yankees had promised each of the Greensboro Hornet players a $1,000 bonus, if they won the Title at Savannah, but they lost in Game Five to the Cardinals……

Jeter also talks about his teammate/friend D.A. Long from the Greensboro Hornets, as both were aspiring infielders/shortstops at that time and they spent plenty of time with Hornets booster/fan Earl Clarey at Big Earl’s big house……..Earl would call the girl/girls and then everybody would start showing up at Big Earl’s house after the games…….

A good read on Greensboro from Derek Jeter’s new book, “The Captain” and you can catch it at the Barnes and Nobles Bookstore in the Friendly Center…..

Ogi Overman, Charlie Atkinson, John Horshok, Big Earl and John Frey are all in the book and you need to check it out…….