Even Jeter was prone to an uncommon fall

Hope died hard and inevitably for the New York Yankees when even their most stalwart player, Derek Jeter, succumbed to a case of the bumbles.

Errors and stranded runners conspired to dismantle the Yankees in the World Series as surely as the Florida Marlins did with their timely hitting, gutsy pitching and a defiant, too-young-to-know-better attitude.

The Yankees are 26-time world champions, but all that history and prestige meant nothing when balls rolled out of their gloves, fell from their hands and floated harmlessly off their bats.

There was fault aplenty to go around in the Yankees' clubhouse, and owner George Steinbrenner surely will be pointing fingers all winter -- if not doing a fair share of cleaning house.

In the end, the Yankees had to give full credit to the Marlins and 23-year-old pitcher Josh Beckett for nailing down the 2-0 victory in Game 6 Saturday night and securing their second World Series title in 11 years of existence.

"They played better than us," Jeter said. "There's no sugarcoating it."

An all-around problem

Jeter contributed to this loss at bat and in the field. Up three times with a runner on, he grounded out, struck out for the second time on a 97 mph fastball and popped out in an 0-for-4 night. In the sixth, he booted Jeff Conine's grounder and bounced a throw past first, leading to an unearned run and a 2-0 deficit.

"I just messed it up," Jeter said, referring to his first error in his last 27 World Series games dating to 1996, when he had two. "I never had it, and then I hurried my throw and threw it low."

The Yankees made five errors in the Series, three more than the Marlins, and left 47 runners on base. New York outhit Florida, .261 to .232, but the Marlins produced the more timely hits with more aggressive baserunning.

With all the Yankees' injuries and slumps, they needed Jeter more than ever on this night, and he couldn't come through.

Wrapped in pounds of ice and yards of bandages after each game, Jeter's shoulders bulged larger than a football lineman in pads. His ice-packed left fist was bigger than a boxing glove.

It's not a physical thing

Leave it to others to moan about their aches and bail out of big games. Jeter, the Yankees' captain, stoically shrugged off the injuries to his shoulders, ribs and thumb, and the purple bruises that dotted other parts of his body.

Surgery of one sort or another might be in store for him after his toughest season, but on Saturday night all he could do was grit his teeth and watch the Marlins dance deliriously on the mound. There is no pain worse for a baseball player than seeing another team celebrate a championship on his own field.

"It makes you sick," Jeter said. "How else can you feel? If it doesn't make you sick, you shouldn't be competing."

Fans wouldn't suspect, simply by watching him play, that Jeter is so banged up. He moves fluidly at shortstop, tracking down grounders in the hole or up the middle, spinning around and making tough throws from awkward positions. He made a play like that going to his left in Game 5 and another one equally spectacular going to his right in Game 6 before his jarring error.

If he isn't the best shortstop in the majors, he surely has been one of the best ever under pressure. The lesson here is that even the best have bad nights.

At the plate, he had been relentless, spraying hits when other Yankees didn't, no matter where manager Joe Torre put him in the lineup.

Jeter moved from the second spot to leadoff when slumping Alfonso Soriano was benched in Game 5, then went 3-for-4 with one RBI and two runs scored. This time Soriano, batting ninth, got a couple of singles, but Jeter couldn't drive him in.

In the locker room, stripped of his Yankees pinstripes, the iceman came through each day with a quiet resolve, reserving his strength for when it matters.

He finished third in the AL batting race this season with a .324 average -- within .002 of winning his first batting title. He had gotten better since, coming into Game 6 with a .333 postseason average, including .409 in the World Series. That's despite spraining his left thumb diving for a ball in the first game against Boston in the ALCS. His oh-fer in the final game dropped his Series average to .346.

Jeter talked pleasantly about everything in the World Series, except his injuries. When asked if he was hurting, he clammed up, muttering, "I'm fine," and moved on, as if even acknowledging pain would be seen as an excuse for failure. And failure on the Yankees, whether for Steinbrenner or Jeter, is unacceptable. No excuses matter.

Jeter missed six weeks at the start of the season after dislocating his left shoulder in a chilling collision on a headfirst slide at third base on opening day in Toronto. He lost five games to a ribcage injury late in the season, but refused to stay on the bench when Torre wanted to give him more rest.

Seeing Jeter, Jason Giambi couldn't grumble or beg out of the lineup because of an inflamed tendon in his left knee that might require surgery after the season. David Wells couldn't whine about back spasms and wouldn't come out until they became too much to bear in the first inning of Game 5. Other players with less publicized problems kept going.

Jeter set the example, and the rest of the Yankees followed. On Saturday night, they followed him to defeat.

Steve Wilstein is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press.