The nice part about having little or no athletic ability is that no one other than my mother hassles me about each intricate detail of my life.

On Monday, New York reporters drove Alex Rodriguez to admit that his off-the-field friendship with Derek Jeter is not like what it used to be way back when. On Tuesday, Jeter responded by claiming that there is no rift between the two and that what happens on the field is the only thing that counts.

“I don’t see the relevance of it,” Jeter told the New York media. “It has no bearing on us playing baseball.”

Allegations that Jeter and A-Rod may not be the tightest of friends surfaced during a Yankees-Orioles game last August. Jeter gave his third baseman a prolonged death glare after the two failed to communicate on an easy infield popup.

It’s easy to see how the two budding superstars began to disassociate. Jeter was probably tired of the comparisons. How could he be considered the second or third best shortstop in the game after leading the Yankees to four World Series titles?

Now, the cynical Jeter goes on to say that past relationships are irrelevant to the game. That essentially good off-the-field chemistry has nothing to do with on-the-field results.

Maybe this is why the Yankees haven’t won the big dance since 2000. They can sign all the players they want, but they can’t buy unity.

Take the 2001 Seattle Mariners for example. After Rodriguez’s departure, no one, and I mean no one, picked them to win more than 80 games. Yet they smashed the odds and made history.

Not a single player earned more than seven million dollars that year. Five starting pitchers managed to win a combined 80 games, including journeyman Paul Abbott who won a career-high 17. David Bell nearly beat out Cal Ripken in voting for the 2001 All-Star game — Ripken’s last.

“I’ve never seen guys get along like that,” said Mariners second baseman Bret Boone a couple of years later. “Usually over 162 games, you drive one another crazy. But we never got tired of each other. If I had been forced to go to dinner with any one of my 24 teammates, I would have been fine. That was special, and it helped.”

Even in the real world, the world of $35,000 salaries and gray cubicles, nothing makes people hate their jobs than lame co-workers.

To me, the departure of guys like Paul O’Neill and Scott Brosius signaled a changing of the guard in Pinstripe Nation. The Yankees haven’t been able to establish the same level of cohesion or passion since.

They’ve got Jason Giambi, who looks fresh off the set of Tim Allen’s new movie Wild Hogs. They’ve got Jesus, who flanks Godzilla in the outfield, and the competing tandem of Derek Zoolander and Hansel on the left side of the infield. Nothing spells “good clubhouse relationship” more than the inability to call a teammate off on an easy popup.

Sometimes, I wish my favorite teams would win as often as the Yankees. But comments like Jeter’s remind me that I’d rather root for a losing team than fall victim to the robotic, all-business approach of teams like the New York Yankees. Ey, f’oget about it.

Reach columnist Maks Goldenshteyn at sports@thedaily.washington.edu.