Derek Jeter: The Perfect Baseball Player
I remember watching Derek Sanderson Jeter from the get-go. Something was different. He had IT.
On and off the field, Derek Jeter was, well, Perfect.
After a few meaningless games in 1995 and sitting on the bench in the postseason, Derek Jeter really started his baseball career the season after.
Jeter hit a home run on Opening Day in Cleveland off Dennis Martinez on April 2, 1996. Plus, that over-the-shoulder catch on the same day off the bat of Omar Vizquel that looked like Willie Mays at shortstop.
He won Rookie of the Year in 1996. .314 average and 183 hits. And then he proceeded to be unnerved in helping the Yanks to the World Series over Atlanta after being down 0-2. He hit .412 and .417 in the ALDS and ALCS, respectively, that season, and it all seemed so normal for him.
But it wasn’t for us. This was far from normal.
I still wasn’t sure. Not because I was only 17 and young and stupid. But because this couldn’t be real. You see, Don Mattingly was my guy growing up. No one could top #23. This guy Jeter, I mean, this is one good year, right? He can’t be THIS perfect again and again and …
Well, he was this perfect, from the first day to the last day at Fenway Park, where I was sitting in the bleachers on September 28, 2014. Yep, he got a hit in his final at-bat that day, a chopped grounder to third and he ran to first base as hard as ever because well, that was Derek Jeter right to the end. Fenway Park, of all places, gave him repeated standing ovations and Boston legends were there to salute #2. It was quite a job by the rivals. The incredible celebration was probably also helped by the fact that both teams weren’t playoff-bound, which probably hurt Jeter the most.
You see, Derek Jeter had a perfect baseball career and was a perfect baseball player. He never screwed-up on or off the field in New York City, on the biggest stage in the biggest media market playing in the biggest uniform of them all wearing the biggest logo of them all.
He went about his business. Spring
Training games were World Series games. Sure, the stakes were different. But his approach wasn’t.
Maybe that’s how he did it. Maybe that’s how he did The Flip and became Mr.
November. Maybe that’s how he homered off Bobby Jones in Game 4 of the 2000 World Series after the Mets had won Game 3 and had all the momentum even with the Yanks up 2-1 in the Fall Classic. Maybe that’s how he won the All-Star Game and World Series MVP awards in the same year (2000), still the only player to do that. Maybe that’s how he flew into the stands a couple of times near the left field (LEFT FIELD!?!?) and caught the ball.
Maybe it’s how he won five Gold Glove Awards while being called a terrible defensive shortstop by so many. Maybe it’s how he made the second baseman better in the field. Maybe it’s how he carried his team in 2006 and got robbed of an AL MVP because of anti-Yankee bias. Maybe it’s how he went 5-5 in Game 1 of the 2006 ALDS against Detroit with yours truly in the old park.
Maybe it’s how he hit a home run for hit number 3,000 off of David Price at home with the pressure on as always. Oh, and then proceed to get another hit, a tiebreaking single in the 8th inning to give his team a 5-4 win over the Rays on a 5-5 day. Maybe it’s how he got a hit in his last at-bat at Yankee Stadium, the opposite way, of course, a walk-off RBI and a win. Because, of course, he did. -He’s Derek Jeter. 
Maybe it’s how he closed the old Yankee Stadium on the final day against Baltimore, where I sat way up behind home plate crying my eyes out listening to him tell us that there would be more memories across the street. Come on, Derek, more memories?
Really? Like here, the same as they were here?
And of course, maybe they weren’t the same. But as usual, Derek Jeter prepared the same in the new place and BOOM, the Yanks were World Series champs in 2009. Many
remember it most as A-Rod carrying the team to a trophy or Hideki Matsui winning World Series MVP or CC Sabathia leading the pitching staff or the bullpen crushing it led by the greatest of them all, Mariano Rivera.
Remember what Jeter did that year in October?: Twenty-two hits. -Hit .400 against
Minnesota in the ALDS, and .407 in the World Series against Philadelphia. Six RBI. Three HR. That’s all. Pretty normal, right?
I have often heard people say that Jeter would have been nothing outside of being a New York Yankee. So you are saying that if Houston would have taken him or Cincinnati would have taken him, he would have been nothing? I say he would have been Craig Biggio or Barry Larkin at worst. Those two guys are in the Hall of Fame.
Instead, Jeter was a Yankee. He was a Yankee through and through, playing in the big city for his favorite team of his youth, and no one handled it better. He was the leader and captain and made everyone around him better. 
Beautiful girlfriends and everyone wanting a piece of him. Constant media and
pressure. October after October of having to perform in front of the most demanding fan base in sports. The Internet fully coming of age. The start and explosion of social media. Derek Jeter played through all of this. Do you think that anyone could have done this? Do you think Mickey Mantle and Babe Ruth could have handled this in the same era? Do you think every single mid-market guy in MLB could do this? There aren’t many people who could have done this. Derek Jeter did it perfectly and handled himself on and off the field better than anyone.
Five rings. Seven pennants. All the big moments. 3,465 hits, good for 6th all-time (only Rose-Cobb-Aaron-Musial-Speaker have more). Twelve .300 hitting seasons. Eight 200-hit seasons. On and on it goes.
Derek Jeter did it right. The face of the Yanks and face of the game.
And while he didn’t get into the Hall of Fame unanimously as a first-ballot player and there was one person who felt like he didn’t belong, it really doesn’t matter because Derek Jeter was the perfect baseball player instead.
Cya in Cooperstown, Captain. 
