Part of the weekend was spent at my local Barnes and Noble reading the new Derek Jeter book. Another part was spent putting on late night sports talk radio as a way to doze off and until I reached the point of nodding off, the occasional call went something like this:

"Derek Jeter can't hit leadoff, Derek Jeter should change positions, the Yankees should trade for Jose Reyes."

Another part of my weekend was spent reading the newspaper, especially since I'm a Sunday paper kind of person and the text below appeared in one of the columns from people who scout the game stood out.

"I think he still might be bothered by how his [contract] negotiations went down in the offseason. I think he will get his head back right and the warm weather will help him. There is something left, but not an elite player.”

Nevertheless, an NL scout said of Jeter, “He is pretty much done. The success of middle infielders over 35 is not strong. I think the Yanks are going to regret that deal.”

I don't have the expertise to know whether someone is done unless it's truly obvious. Roughly one month into a season is not enough for me to make any kind of judgment, especially since I haven't played organized baseball in 20 years and can't even make contact on 80 mph pitches at batting cages.

But I know as long as things like home runs and fly balls elude a player, especially one of Jeter's age the chatter continues and almost to an excessive and annoying level, especially on the radio.

As an observer of most of Jeter's career, especially since the 2005 season (when I began covering the Yankees on a freelance/side basis), you cringe when some of the same questions are asked while being worded 25 different ways.

So with that in mind it was nice to see Jeter get different kind of questioning yesterday, such as about his first home run of the year, first home in over 250 at-bats and first multi-home run game in a while.

"Everybody needs a day like this," Jeter said to reporters in Texas. "I felt good in Detroit. I was hitting the ball the other way, hitting the ball where it's been pitched, I've been having some good at-bats, and it carried over to here. Sometimes it's not as easy as we make it look."

Easy is calling up a radio station to complain. Easy is sharing your frustration within the context of social media in a snarky fashion.

But it's not easy when a player has to hear the same question 20 times about how he may be washed up even it is a player with five championships and nearly 3,000 hits.

"It wears on you," hitting Coach Kevin Long told reporters. "There's some satisfaction involved because the guy's been busting his tail to get over the hump. He's been feeling a lot better but hasn't had a lot to show for it. Today, he got some dividends."

And if you're an observer of the Yankees, you'd like to see that continue because the washed up story is getting kind of boring and not because it may be a pending reality someday, but because it can get excessive.

And if this is an aberration, then so be it, some things are not meant to be, but if it's not, sit back and enjoy it just like this quote:

"I'm not catching Babe Ruth, you know what I mean?" Jeter said to reporters. "My job is to get on base and score runs. I just want to have good at-bats."

Many of us want to see just that, especially if another slump generates a similar reaction to what has been displayed most of this year until yesterday.