Frank Lampard: Is the Chelsea Midfielder Finished?

Perhaps it is ill-advised of me to speak of baseball on a page that I think is predominantly read by the English. I could never figure out the reason for our neighbors across the pond to have such a disdain for the sport. Is it because we took their hapless rounders and turned it into a national past time that transcends all that is good in sports and culture? But I digress. Please just allow me to make this brief comparison, then we will move on:

This past winter, Derek Jeter and his team, the New York Yankees, were stuck at an impasse on a contract dispute. The skipper of baseball’s most famous club wanted to continue to play for the team, but management felt that he was a washed up talent who had already passed his best days. Eventually, the two agreed to terms, and Jeter was set to spend his 16th season in pinstripes.

In the first month of the season, Jeter had one of his worst batting averages for a single month ever. He finished April with an abysmal .256. Management pointed to that and said “Ya see? This is why we didn’t want to give him the money.” Fans wondered if their hero, the man who had helped them win five World Series in the past 15 years, was indeed done. Was it time for No. 2 to hang it up for the good of the team?

The question that many had wondered privately in bars with friends, deep in the bleachers with their dads at the game and at home on the couch in their own minds was beginning to become public. It split the Yankee nation in two, each side accusing the other of being blind loyalists and ignorant dopes who have no eye for tradition.

Then all of a sudden, with nothing changing, without warning, something happened: Derek Jeter began to hit the ball.

He finished the month of July with a .292 average. Hit .387 in August and .303 in September to help the Yankees finish with the best record in all of baseball. In that period, he would also get his 3,000th career hit, a milestone that only 27 other players have managed to do in the games 100-plus year history.

So Jeter was not done. He was able to put together a good season. Not a career year, but one that he can look back upon and say he played well. But how did he do this? How did he go from one of the worst hitters in the entire league to finishing with the 16th best average overall? It is doubtful that at age 37 he developed a new swing or altered his game radically to improve. It is also unlikely that he ever really lost it in the first place.

The thing about athletes like Jeter is that they never really lose their ability to play, because for someone like him, the game has become a part of his nature. Hitting a ball is like digesting food. You never really notice it until something doesn’t sit right. It is a mindset that he has adapted and made inherent in him.

Right now, Chelsea are somewhat undergoing their very own Jeter situation. They, too, have a player that seems to be at the latter end of an already exaggerated twilight. He, too, has brought this club more glory than anyone has before him. And he, too, is a legend in his own right.

The situation involving Frank Lampard hit a climax last Saturday. With the minutes ticking away against Swansea and a comfortable lead established, Andre Villas-Boas put the young Josh McEachran on the pitch as his third and final sub. Moments later, Frank Lampard left the dugout and headed for the tunnel with no apparent reason why. Well the media gave him a reason.

Just short of putting words in the Englishman’s mouth, they concocted a story about him storming off after a rift with Villas-Boas over lack of playing time. The frenzy that ensued artificially created a schism within the locker room that never really existed between the veterans and the newbies.

Villas-Boas, in the calm demeanor that has become his trademark, dispelled any of this. He insisted he had control of the club and that no one was acting out of line.

A few days later, Lampard confirmed that there was no angsty motive behind his actions. The London Evening Standard reported that he, in fact, was actually getting prepared for a post-game training session to ready himself for the midweek fixture against Valencia. And how did he do in this match? A finally finished one-touch shot from the top of the box that could only be described as "Lampardesque" was key to making sure they came away with a tie.

Four days later, after being left on the bench for three times in four matches, he made his second straight start, this time against Bolton. And what about this game? Could he carry on his form and have another good showing? Would a hat trick be enough?

Yes, yes we can all say sarcastically, "Wow, Frankie can sure beat up on England’s worst club." But, really, what is the point of that? Two of those goals could be argued as gimmies, but no goal is ever a gimmie (just ask Torres).

The thing about Frank Lampard is that he may not have as fine as a touch that he once did. He may not have the speed that he used to. And he may not fit into the philosophy that Villas-Boas is trying to create around the club. But like Jeter, you can’t ever take away the kind of player he is: the way he is able to score when it is most needed; how he can control the midfield like no other player; the presence he brings through his attitude and persona.

We will see Lampard’s role diminish throughout the season. There may even be the slim chance he is no longer with the team come next August. But, as long as he is at the club, he will always be the Lampard we have known and loved. The game may be changing around him, but his class he has will never allow him to give up. As fans we owe him our faith that he will always bring the club through to glory.