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Let me start by saying the following blog is my opinion and I am in no way an expert on the topic. I played baseball my whole life, my apex being at a High School Varsity level for two years. In that time I was an average, at best, baseball player. I love the game though, if you know anything about me or have read any older posts you'll see the level of admiration I have for everything about this game.
Last night was Derek Jeter's final home game of a storied 20 year career for the New York Yankees. He announced his retirement from baseball at the beginning of this season and has been sent off in almost every stadium he's played in along the way. Last night however was his final go round in the Bronx. It played out like every little boy who ever imagined himself playing in the bigs could script it. It's the bottom of the 9th inning, there's one out a runner on second and the Captain is coming up to the plate! A base hit will almost certainly score the runner from second. Jeter walks up to the plate, digs in and sets up for the delivery. It's a belt high fastball and in true Derek Jeter fashion he drives it between first and second just past the glove of the diving Oriole first baseman and into right field. The right fielder comes up with it cleanly and makes a good throw to the plate. The throw is just wide, the catcher has trouble coming up with it cleanly and the base-runner scores on a head first slide into home. Let the celebration begin folds!
This is GREAT because Derek Jeter has had a Hall of Fame career and this is how it should end for such an ambassador of the sport. Here's just a few numbers to back what I'm talking about.
-He's played in 2,745 games.
-He's had 12,598 plate appearances.
-He's collected 3,463 base hits.
-He's got a career batting average of .309
-He was the 1996 Rooke of the Year.
-He's a 5 time World Series champion.
-He's the 2000 World Series MVP.
-He's a 14 time All Star
-He's a 5 time Gold Glover.
-He's a 5 time Silver Slugger.
Where Derek Jeter falls in the history books as far as "leaders" and "greats" is debatable but what is not debatable is that he is an all time great and he has orchestrated an impressive career that will undoubtedly land him in the Hall of Fame. He has handled his career and celebrity with a level of class and humility that is very refreshing. I am not a New York Yankee fan but for me it's impossible to not be a Derek Jeter fan and therefore fall in love, a bit, with the story book nature of him being a career Yankee and accomplishing everything that he did as a member of one of the most storied franchisees in baseball history.
Now for the sentimental part of it all. I watched another video Derek did after the game talking about the feelings of it all. He said during the top half of the first inning he was on the verge of breakdown and actually thought "please don't hit it to me." The emotion of taking the field for the last time caught up to him and he "really thought he was going to break down." Then he said again in the last inning knowing this was the last time he would run out onto the field at Yankee Stadium it caught up to him again. Baseball is a game and I would even go as far to say it's a kids game. By the numbers only a fraction of a fraction of kids who play as children get the opportunity to play at the professional level. For that very select handful they get to continue to play the game as a grown up and that is the ultimate child's dream. So when it comes to an end it is very hard. It is very hard because you've spent your whole life playing a game you loved so much as a child and the memories are countless.
I was only ever a Varsity level High School baseball player at my best but remember my last game like I played in it yesterday. After watching Jeter wrap it up last night I remember how emotional it is when it hits you that this is it. I'll never play another game of competitive baseball again. For me it was in the summer of 1999 and the Goshen High School Redskins made a run in the Sectional tournament and actually came out as the Sectional Champions! That alone was a crowning moment for us, but we got the opportunity to move on to the Regional championship with the winner of that game playing in Semi-State. We were two games away from the Indiana State finals! It wasn't our day in the Regional finals, we played a Ft. Wayne Northrop team who was very good. Statistically they were better than we were. We were, however, a team of young men who had played this game together for about 13 years. We started together in Goshen Little League at 5 and 6 years old. We stayed together and played Freshman, Junior Varsity and Varsity baseball together. We were as tight a team as I have ever played on or coached. We had Northrop, we were winning, playing an excellent team game but in the end it was their day and not ours and for almost every one of us that was the last baseball game we ever played. I remember standing on the top step of that dug out in Warsaw Indiana and feeling the weight of my last game being over, it was heavy.
Like I said before baseball is a game and it's fun! Standing in the sun wearing the uniform, smelling fresh cut grass, smelling pine tar, the sound of metal cleats clicking on concrete, the feeling of steeping up the plate or running out to your position are great feelings that you keep long after your days are done.
So thanks Derek Jeter for being an excellent ambassador for the sport that I love. Thanks for taking me down memory lane and congratulations on a Hall of Fame career.
