Derek Jeter

Baseball Player

• Born: June 26, 1974
• Birthplace: Pequannock, New Jersey

Jeter became the New York Yankees’ starting shortstop in 1996 and quickly became a superstar. He was named the team's captain in 2003, and went on to set numerous franchise records over his twenty-year playing career. A fourteen-time All-Star and a reliable performer in big games, Jeter helped the Yankees win five World Series championships. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2020, cementing his legacy as one of the most popular baseball players of all time.

Early Life

Derek Sanderson Jeter was born in Pequannock, New Jersey, in 1974, and grew up in a close-knit, biracial family. His father was African American, and his mother was white. When he was a child, the Jeter family moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan, but he spent summers at his grandparents’ home in New Jersey. He became a devoted fan of the local Major League Baseball (MLB) team, the New York Yankees.

A good student and an excellent shortstop at Central High School in Kalamazoo, Jeter received a baseball scholarship offer from the University of Michigan. However, when he graduated from high school in June 1992, the Yankees made Jeter their first-round choice in the amateur baseball draft, and he decided to sign a professional contract with his favorite team rather than attend college.

Although the Yankees and other teams considered Jeter a prospect with All-Star potential, his first seasons in the minor leagues were trying. In his first professional season, playing for the Yankees’ rookie-league team in Tampa, Florida, Jeter batted only .202 and made numerous errors. He hit better during his second minor-league season, but he made 56 errors in 128 games—a fielding record that no major-league team could tolerate from its starting shortstop.

Jeter’s fielding and hitting steadily improved. In 1994, he batted .344 for three minor-league teams and cut his error total to 25. In May, 1995, he made his major-league debut with the Yankees as a temporary replacement for an injured player. After several games, he was returned to the minors for most of the season, then recalled by the Yankees in September when the minor-league season ended. In fifteen major-league games in 1995, Jeter recorded a .250 batting average, and he showed the Yankees enough promise for the team to make him the starting shortstop for the 1996 season.

Life’s Work

Jeter excelled as the Yankees’ starting shortstop in 1996. He batted .314, won the American League Rookie of the Year Award, and went on to help the Yankees win their first World Series in eighteen years. In three postseason series, Jeter played more like a seasoned veteran than an inexperienced twenty-two-year-old rookie, batting .361 and establishing his reputation as a reliable performer in high-pressure postseason games.

With Jeter at shortstop, the Yankees won the World Series again in 1998, 1999, and 2000. During those three World Series, Jeter batted .368. By that time, Jeter had established himself as one of the best players in the American League—a steady and reliable fielder who hit for a high average, with occasional power, and who ran the bases well—and his good looks and friendly demeanor also helped make him a fan favorite. In 1998, the Yankees set an American League record by winning 114 regular-season games (this was later surpassed by the 2001 Seattle Mariners, with 116), then added 11 more victories during the postseason. Jeter also made the first of many appearances in the All-Star Game. In 1999 Jeter led the league in plate appearances and hits and recorded career highs in hits (219), average (.349), home runs (24), doubles (37), triples (9), runs (134), runs batted in (102), slugging percentage (.552), and on base percentage (.438).

Moreover, during those championship seasons, Jeter became the face of the New York Yankees. On the baseball field, his reputation for class and dignity drew comparisons to a great Yankee of the past, Joe DiMaggio. Jeter displayed an uncanny ability to make smart plays. Typical of his knack for being in the right place at the right time was a play that he made during the 2001 American League Divisional Series against the Oakland Athletics. Late in a game that the Yankees led 1–0, Jeter sprinted from his position at shortstop toward the first-base line to retrieve an errant throw by an outfielder toward home plate. He picked up the ball and quickly flipped it to catcher Jorge Posada, who tagged out an Oakland base runner at home plate, preserving the Yankees’ lead. The Yankees went on to win the game. In a 2009 American League Divisional Series game against the Minnesota Twins, Jeter alertly tagged out a Twins base runner who had overrun second base for the third out of the inning, moments before another runner would have crossed home plate. A game-winning home run in the 2001 World Series, in a game that ended just after midnight on November 1, earned Jeter the nickname “Mr. November.” (Baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson had been known as “Mr. October” for his outstanding postseason play.)

Off the field, Jeter devoted time to community service and to his charity, the Turn 2 Foundation. He also became one of baseball’s highest-paid players. After the 2000 season, Jeter signed a ten-year contract with the Yankees worth more than $180 million. The average annual value made him the third-highest paid player at the time after fellow shortstop Alex Rodriguez and outfielder Manny Ramirez. He continued his strong play after signing the deal. During the 2003 season Jeter's leadership was recognized when Yankees owner George Steinbrenner named him the first team captain since 1995. That offseason, Rodriguez joined the Yankees, but Jeter kept the starting shortstop role despite being ranked the lesser defensive player. Jeter would go on to win Gold Glove awards for defense in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2009, and 2010.

The 2009 baseball season was a memorable one for Jeter. First he broke the record for all-time hits by a shortstop with a double in August, his 2,765th hit. On September 11, he recorded career hit number 2,722, breaking the team record set by Lou Gehrig seven decades earlier. Jeter finished the regular season with a batting average of .334. The Yankees returned to the World Series that October for the first time since a losing effort in 2003. In the team’s six-game World Series victory over the Philadelphia Phillies—the Yankees’ first World Series championship since 2000—Jeter batted .407, lifting his lifetime World Series batting average to .321. In 2009, Jeter won the Silver Slugger Award for the American League’s best-hitting shortstop as well as another Gold Glove award for fielding excellence. Sports Illustrated named Jeter its 2009 Sportsman of the Year.

The following years saw Jeter begin to decline offensively and defensively. Although he was an All-Star again in 2010, his batting average dropped to .270 and many analysts began to predict that he would need to change positions to avoid becoming a defensive liability. After that season he entered free agency for the first time, and ultimately re-signed with the Yankees on a three-year deal. In July 2011 Jeter reached three thousand hits, the first player to do so only with the Yankees. 2012 saw a further resurgence, as he led the league in hits with 216 while batting .316. However, he fractured his ankle in the postseason, and lingering injuries limited him to only seventeen games for the whole 2013 season.

Jeter announced that the 2014 season would be his final year as a player after signing a one-year deal to end his career as a Yankee. In recognition of his achievements and highly respected status, he was honored in his final visit to each opponent's stadium, with heavy media coverage of the "farewell tour." Meanwhile, Jeter continued climbing the record books, reaching one thousand games with multiple hits, breaking the record for games started at shortstop, and reaching 1,900 runs scored. By the end of the season he had reached sixth place for MLB career hits, and he retired as the Yankees' all-time leader in not just hits, but also total games played, stolen bases, doubles, and several other categories. He was honored with a ceremony in his final series at Yankee Stadium, and even was applauded by fans of the Yankees' rival Boston Red Sox during the final games of his career at Fenway Park.

In 2017 Jeter's jersey number 2 was retired by the Yankees. That same year Jeter became part owner and chief executive officer of the MLB's Miami Marlins. His first years in that role coincided with a controversial period for the Marlins, who struggled to field a competitive team and traded away many of their best players or lost them to free agency.

Significance

Jeter emerged as a star player during a storied period in New York Yankee history. He made significant contributions to many championship seasons and earned a place in team history alongside legends such as Babe Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, and Mickey Mantle. He became especially noted for his clutch contributions in the postseason—winning five World Series in the process—and his leadership in an era when few stars played for only one team.

Unlike many superstar athletes, Jeter aroused little controversy throughout his career, being regarded by most fans and fellow players as the utmost professional and building a reputation as a philanthropist. He also became one of the most widely recognized figures in baseball due to his success and wide-ranging endorsement deals, serving as a hero to many young players. His star status even made him a celebrity outside of sports, especially in connection to his highly publicized personal relationships. Jeter's iconic position within baseball was recognized with his election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2020, his first year of eligibility. He narrowly missed out on becoming just the second unanimous selection for that honor (former teammate Mariano Rivera was the first), but his 99.7 percent of votes received still set a record for a position player. The formal induction ceremony took place on September 8, 2021. At that time, the Hall of Fame also added an oral history of Jeter's most famous play, nicknamed the Flip.

Bibliography

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"Derek Jeter." National Baseball Hall of Fame, 2020, baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/jeter-derek. Accessed 6 Mar. 2020.

Jeter, Derek. "Mailbag: Derek Jeter." Players' Tribune. Players' Tribune, 27 Aug. 2015, www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/tribune-mailbag-derek-jeter. Accessed 22 Sept. 2015.

Jeter, Derek, and Jack Curry. The Life You Imagine: Life Lessons for Achieving Your Dreams. Three Rivers, 2000.

Kurkjian, Tim. "Derek Jeter Enter the Hall of Fame—Oral History of the Yankees Shortstop's Greatest Play, The Flip." ESPN, 8 Sept. 2021, www.espn.com/mlb/story/‗/id/32056984/derek-jeter-enters-hall-fame-oral-history-yankees-shortstop-greatest-play-flip. Accessed 5 Oct. 2021.

Moehringer, J. R. "The Final Walk-Off." ESPN. ESPN Internet Ventures, 26 Sept. 2014, www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/‗/id/11583279/derek-jeter-plays-last-game-yankee-stadium. Accessed 22 Sept. 2015.

Olney, Buster. The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty: The Game, the Team, and the Cost of Greatness. Ecco, 2004.

Sherman, Joel. The Birth of a Dynasty: Behind the Pinstripes with the 1996 Yankees. Rodale, 2006.

Verducci, Tom. “2009 Sportsman of the Year: Derek Jeter.” Sports Illustrated, 22 Dec. 2009, pp. 54-67.