Derek Jeter named 11th greatest leader in the world by Fortune: Report

Derek Jeter may have a batting average some 300 points below the league leaders so far this spring, but the New York Yankees captain is among the front runners in another category. 

Namely — leading the world.

Fortune magazine compiled a list of the top 50 greatest leaders in the world — and the shortstop's name landed at 11, just outside a top 10 that include influential movers and shakers like Pope Francis, Warren Buffett, Bill Clinton and the Dalai Lama.

"As he begins his 20th and final season in pinstripes, Jeter remains the type of role-model player that even a Red Sox fan must grudgingly respect," CNN wrote. "It's not the five World Series rings he's won or his team record for career hits. In a steroid-tainted, reality-TV era, Jeter, the son of two Army veterans, continues to stand out because of his old-school approach: Never offer excuses or give less than maximum effort."

The honored spot puts Jeets ahead of other leaders including former New York mayor and billionaire Michael Bloomberg, 16-year-old human rights advocate Malala Yousafzai and actress and activist Angelina Jolie.

Along with about 40 other people I admittedly know little about.

Other sports figures who appeared on the list include Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski, San Antonio Spurs skipper Gregg Popovich and South Carolina women's coach Dawn Staley  who all tied for 20th place.

Nobody will ever doubt the pinstriped prince's dignified authority on the diamond and contributions off it, but Jeter himself will probably just smile and shake his head at this accolade.

Duke men's basketball team poses with assault rifles (PHOTOS)

Serious looking photos of members of the Duke men's basketball team holding automatic assault rifles were posted on some of the Blue Devils' personal Facebook pages Saturday and had some people wondering what the shots depicted or if they were in bad taste.

Deadspin later explained that the Dukies and their M4 Carbines were part of the team's four-day fall break. They had visited West Point —coach Mike Krzyzewski's alma mater — and taken some target practice with some of the cadets before heading to New York City where they planned on seeing a Broadway play, the National 9/11 Memorial and a show at the Apollo Theater. The team even had dinner with some former Duke greats including Grant Hill.

After all that infantry training, Coach K's sharpshooters might want to start their season by seeing both Blue Man Group and A Time To Kill.

Coach K wants fans to make room before storming court

The Duke Blue Devils suffered an upset 73-68 road loss to an unranked Virginia team Thursday and — after the No. 3-ranked team bit the dust on the Charlottesville court— fans swarmed the hardwood and made it difficult for Coach Mike Krzyzewski's  players to hit the locker room.

After the pandemonium on the ACC rival's court subsided and the Blue Devils team was safely tucked away, Coach K shared his safety concerns for his players after dodging rampaging Cavalier fans on the court.

"Whatever you're doing, you need to get the team off first," Krzyzewski said at his presser. "Look, celebrate, have fun, obviously you won, that's cool. Just get our team off the court and our coaching staff before students come on.

"Look do you know how close you are to, just put yourself in the position of one of our players or coaches. I'm not saying any fan did this, but the potential is there all the time for a fan to just go up to you and say, 'Coach you're a ... ' or push you or hit you. And what do you do? What if you did something? That would be the story. We deserve that type of protection."

This isn't the first time Krzyzewski has been critical of student running amok on the court after beating  Duke. Miami's 90-63 rout of the top-ranked Blue Devils on Jan. 23 led to mad rush off the court and a Maryland loss in College Park was another bum-and-grind to the visitor's locker room.

Krzyzewski's comment were not meant to overshadow the effort of the Virginia team and the exuberance of the fans.

"I don't want to demean the game with this," he said. "They played great. Harris was unbelievable. That's the story of the game."

And it's not like Coach K doesn't want the same sort of crowd control in his own backyard.  Following Duke's victory over rival North Carolina on Feb. 13, the revered coach held back the tide of Cameron Crazies with a simple wave of his arms — and they obeyed.

Nobody enjoys seeing Duke players walk off the court with bowed heads better than an ACC rival and even Krzyzewski understands opposong fans' unabashed joy when their team lays out one of his Blue Devils teams.

"Again, congratulations to them, and they should have fun and burn benches and do all that stuff," he quipped at the end of his press conference. "I'm all for that."

Just let them leave.