After twenty seasons of playing baseball for the New York Yankees, Derek Jeter has finally retired. He leaves us with an impressive resume as a fourteen time all-star, five time World Series champion, and sixth on the all-time hit list with 3,465 base hits. Derek Jeter is a name that for the past twenty seasons has been synonymous with baseball. Throughout his career, he never stepped one foot out of line. Unlike most young players, there was never a negative headline involving his name. When players were caught taking steroids, Jeter was never involved. “The Captain” as he was called, was an outstanding citizen and role model for many young Yankee fans, including myself.
For as long as I can remember, I have always been a Yankee fan. As a child, I would stay up as long as my parents would allow and watch every Yankee game. As the team changed over the years, one thing remained a constant. Derek Jeter was always playing shortstop and batting second. For me Derek Jeter’s retirement has a deeper meaning. It is closing the chapter on a large part of my childhood. The Yankee team does not have a single player left from when I fell in love with the team as a four year old. Although I will remain a diehard fan, the team just is not the same anymore.
When I first started watching the Yankees, I was captivated by the amazing plays that Derek Jeter made on a nightly basis. I found myself outside every single day trying to emulate the fluidity and grace that he played with. I also admired the hard work and hustle that he put forth day in and day out. It is safe to say that I would not have become the baseball player that I became without watching Derek Jeter play. On the Yankees teams that I grew up watching, there were many star players. However, Jeter put himself a step above those players with his humble and respectful personality. There was nobody around the world that had anything bad to say about Derek Jeter as a baseball player or a human being.
Derek Jeter’s career ended in almost too perfect of a way. Winning by three runs going into the bottom of the ninth inning, it looked as though the Yankees had the game won. In fact, Joe Girardi, the Yankee’s manager, was planning on taking Jeter out of the game so he could say his final goodbye. However, three runs later the game was tied heading into the bottom half of the inning. In what seemed at the time almost too fairytale like to be possible, Derek Jeter came up to bat with a chance to win the game. Once again, he delivered the game winning hit with his patented inside-out line drive swing to right field. It was the perfect ending to a flawless career. With his retirement, comes the end of an era for baseball, the Yankees, as well as for myself. Never again will I experience the same feeling I got as watching my childhood Yankees team. I will always be a Yankees fan, but it is not the Yankees team I fell in love with as a young child.
Derek Jeter was the perfect role model for me as well as many other Yankee fans. The MLB needed Derek Jeter, he was the one superstar who never got in trouble and always gave one hundred percent every time he walked out on to the field. Without Derek Jeter, baseball will never be the same again. His final game at Yankee Stadium was compared to a funeral. The fans and players alike were waiting for the agonizing moment that they would have to say goodbye to The Captain one last time. However, quoting Babe Ruth from the movie The Sandlot, “There are heroes, and there are legends. Heroes get remembered, but legends never die”. Derek Jeter is one of these legends; generations from now, the legacy of Derek Jeter will live on.