sort items in a dropdown list without the first item

I have the following code to sort the items in a dropdown list:

function sortDropDownListByText(selectId) {
    $(selectId).html($(selectId + " option").sort(function(a, b) {
       return a.text == b.text ? 0 : a.text < b.text ? -1 : 1
    })) 
}

this works fine except in cases where, in my first item, i have a **"Please select and item from the list" message . . **

is there anyway i can sort the items in the select list and keep the "Please select entry" as the first item in the list always?

EDIT:

In response to some of the answers, the "Please select item always has a value of 0"