Gretchen: Casey Who?

Fox & Friends co-anchor Gretchen Carlson scored an impressive interview with Derek Jeter, World Sports Illustrated’s “Sportsman of the Year.” As she basked in the glow of her catch this morning, she failed to share a little fact with her audience: Her hubby is Casey Close, a long-time agent of the World Series champion New York Yankee co-captain Jeter.

From the moment the interview began, an enraptured Gretchen seemed to almost have her own  Chris Matthews “thrill up [the] leg” moment. Gretchen introduced Derek with a glowing litany of his accomplishments and, subsequently, asked him such probing questions as to what he would do after baseball and whether he would go back to school (since he left college as a freshman). After effecting his apparent apotheosis, she sympathetically queried, “Twenty-four seven the microscope is on you: How difficult is it to live your life so perfectly?”

Even after the interview clip had run, Grethen continued to lavishly laud her husband’s client. She told her co-anchors Brian Kilmeade and Steve Doocy that she had also asked, “So many people think that you are this perfect guy–which he doesn’t like that label–I said, ‘Do you have any flaws, like, do you make your bed in the morning?” [He does not.]

Apparently, even the producers realized that Gretchen’s questions were more than a tad power puffish. Right before the segment ended, Brian, ratcheting Derek’s divinity down to demigod, remarked, “Here’s the thing about Derek. Great job! He’s not the best in the league; he’s not the best shortstop; he might not even be the best on his team. But, yet everybody wants to be like him, right? Even his enemies seem to respect him. It’s amazing!”

Mighty Casey did not show up today but his man sure did. And, thanks to Gretchen’s pitching, there will assuredly be joy in Closeville tonight.

Tags: Brian Kilmeade, Casey Close, Chris Matthews, Derek Jeter, FNC, Fox & Friends, Fox and Friends, Fox News, Gretchen Carlson, New York Yankees, Sports Illustrated, Steve Doocy, World Series