In case you've been living under a rock and didn't know that Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees is retiring at the end of this season, let me be the first to tell you (of course, if you've been living under a rock for over 20 years, you may not even know who Derek Jeter is, so stop reading this now and go take a shower!). Jeter has had a storybook career full of personal and team accomplishments and free from scandal, gossip, or inappropriate tweets. Look up "All-American boy" in the dictionary, and there is a picture of Derek Jeter.
Much has been hyped about Derek Jeter's retirement; not only because he announced it about six months ago and has had a whole season to milk it wherever he goes (he has received numerous retirement gifts at each city the Yankees have visited), but because Derek Jeter is pretty great. Yankees fans idolize him, and even us Yankees dis-likers who have followed his career ("hate" is too strong a word, reserved for liver and onions, dental work, and my first marriage) have to admit that he's a pretty cool dude.
Born in New Jersey and raised in Michigan by a substance-abuse counselor father and accountant mother, Derek was drafted by the Yankees in 1992 and has exclusively worn pinstripes ever since. Among his accomplishments (I can't include all seven hundred of them) are 14 All-Star game appearances, five World Series championships, the AL Rookie of the Year award in 1996, and over 3,460 career hits (sixth in the all-time hits list). He has had many "storybook" moments, like when he hit his 3000th hit for a home run and had a walk-off single in his last game at Yankee Stadium. He is also very philanthropic, starting the Turn 2 Foundation to help teens with substance abuse. His jersey number, 2, will most likely be retired by the Yankees in the near future, leaving no more single-digit numbers for future Yankees players to use.
Off the field, this "golden boy" had cameo appearances in a handful of TV shows and movies (my favorite was in the movie "The Other Guys"), and he endorsed many different products from the typical ones like Gatorade and Nike to more interesting ones like his own "Driven"cologne by AVON. And I'm sure he's not done - we will surely be seeing Derek Jeter's pretty face on TV for decades to come. I'm OK with that, as long as he has a self-deprecating sense of humor and doesn't come across as having no personality.
How "great" is Jeter's legacy? It depends on whom you ask. Some say he's better than Babe Ruth, while others say he was just an OK shortstop who happened to play for a long time. While Omar Vizquel will always be my favorite defensive shortstop, I will always admire Derek Jeter for his offensive talent, his leadership as the Yankees' captain, and for his ability to keep his nose clean and scandal-free in New York, which can be a tough city to live and work in if you're a celebrity.
So now that Derek Jeter has played his final game at Yankee Stadium ("the house that Derek built"), let's get excited about playoff baseball - WITHOUT the Yankees! :-)
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