Any day now, Derek Jeter will become the first player ever to get 3,000 hits as a New York Yankee and will find himself in stellar company. Only a handful of players—including Ty Cobb, Stan Musial, Hank Aaron, Carl Yastrzemski, Pete Rose, Willie Mays, Cal Ripken Jr.—have managed to reach that milestone with the same team. Free agency now guarantees that fewer players stay for any length of time with the same franchise.
Jeter has been racking up awards and breaking records since being drafted by the Yankees in 1992—11 All Star teams, 5 World Series Championships, 5 Gold Gloves, 4 Silver Sluggers, and 2 Hank Aaron Awards. In 1996, he was named the Rookie of the Year and in 2000 he was named the Most Valuable Player for both the All Star Game and the World Series.
We may know a lot about Jeter’s life on the field, but he has closely guarded his life off the field. Despite being linked with some of the world’s most beautiful women—Mariah Carey, Miss Universe Lara Dutta, singer Joy Enriquez, TV personality Vanessa Minillo, and actresses Jessica Biel, Jessica Alba, and Jordana Brewster—not one woman has ever commented publicly about her time with the Yankee shortstop. (Have they all signed non-disclosure agreements?) His current girlfriend, Minka Kelly, was named Esquire Magazine’s Sexiest Woman Alive in 2010, but in the accompanying interview never mentioned Jeter’s name. Her decision or his?
So picking up The Captain—The Journey of Derek Jeter, by sports columnist Ian O’Connor, we know there won’t be any startling revelations by the shortstop himself. O’Connor says that Jeter declined to be interviewed for the book, but did answer questions at his locker. However, anyone who has ever listened to a Jeter interview knows that he is the master of “nonspeak”—saying a lot without saying anything. O’Connor did interview more than 200 people, Jeter’s teammates, friends, coaches, employers, teachers, admirers, and detractors, the later category actually admirers who were willing to talk about Jeter’s “human flaws.” No surprise that what emerges is a very positive portrait. The worse thing that we learn about Jeter is that he is unforgiving when he feels betrayed. Alex Rodriquez suffered Jeter’s cold shoulder for years after he dismissed Jeter’s talents in an Esquire interview.
O’Connor’s book may be a Valentine, but, if so, one that is well deserved. Jeter’s father, Charles Sanderson Jeter, speaking at a Sports Illustrated banquet where his son received the 2009 Sportsman of the Year Award, said that he is often approached when traveling by people who tell him: “You know, I’m not a Yankee fan. But you know something? Your son has class and plays hard and we really respect what he’s all about.” In an era when many records are being tainted by steroid use, any records Jeter puts up will be for real. “Jeter had long been the living symbol of the clean ballplayer, the one superstar who would have been voted by the fans and his peers as the least likely major leaguer to end up on the wrong side of a steroid bust,” O’Connor writes. “Whenever asked, the shortstop explained that his father was a drug and alcohol abuse counselor who taught children to stay clear of illegal substances.”
Jeter’s life may seem charmed, but he has faced challenges. Like Barack Obama, Derek Jeter is biracial, his father, African-American, his mother, Dorothy, white. His parents met while serving in the army in Germany. “Growing up, Derek and [his sister] Sharlee were sometimes called hurtful names,” O’Connor says. Raising their family in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Charles and Dot were once denied a vacant apartment and were pained to see their children followed by suspicious salespeople. Jeter’s parents “wrapped a protective cocoon” around their children, while encouraging them “to chase their dreams, to not let anyone stop them.”
And Derek had big dreams. A baseball star in high school, he told friends that he would one day play shortstop for the New York Yankees and marry Mariah Carey, his favorite female singer whose posters dominated his bedroom walls. By 1998, Jeter had two World Series rings and, yes, was dating Mariah Carey. While he would not go on to marry the songstress, he had a positive impact on her life. Carey, too, was biracial and had faced discrimination in high school. “When I saw how great [Jeter’s] family was,” Carey would say, “it gave me hope. I realized that I was blaming all the problems of my life on growing up biracial. Derek’s family functioned great as a unit and I had never seen that before.” (Carey’s parents divorced when she was only three).
From early on, Jeter’s life was all about baseball. His father had been a shortstop for Fisk College in the 1960s. But the times were different and the elder Jeter never had the opportunity to display his skills to the scouts who counted. He vowed that his son would have that opportunity. The elder Jeter not only taught his son about winning, he also taught him about losing. After his Little League team lost, Jeter refused to join the handshake line to congratulate the winning team. “Charles got in his son’s face and made a tough love stand,” writes O’Connor. “`It’s time to grab a tennis racket,’ he barked at Derek, ‘since you obviously don’t know how to play a team sport.’” That lesson obviously took hold since Jeter’s sportsmanship, how he handles himself whether winning or losing, has won him the respect of players, managers, and fans. His leadership approach, leading by example and often taking younger players under his wing, led to Yankee Owner George Steinbrenner naming him Yankee captain.
Yet Jeter hates to lose. He has often said that not winning a World’s Series adds up to a losing season. Jeter’s beginning years with the Yankees were golden with the team winning that top prize four out of five years. Having to endure a nine-year drought, several times seeing his team knocked out in the early playoff rounds, was painful for Jeter. He had experienced the excitement that comes with winning in New York—piling on the mound after that last out, pouring Champagne over Steinbrenner’s head, and parading down the Canyon of Heroes—enough times that he knew what he was missing. When the team finally brought home a championship, fittingly in the first year of the new stadium, Jeter could celebrate. “It feels better than I remember it,” the captain said. “It’s been a long time.”
Jeter has repeatedly placed the success of the team above any individual accolades, even as he continues to win awards and break records. When he surpassed Lou Gehrig’s record for the most hits as a Yankee, he took his parent’s advice to “step back, look around, and soak it all in.” The Yankee players and fans hope to see Jeter get that 3,000th hit at home.
In 2009, when O’Connor first told Derek that he would be writing a book about his career, Jeter said, “My career’s not over.” O’Connor explained that his goal was to write about Derek’s career as a Yankee as he was about to become the first member of the “world’s most famous ball team to collect 3,000 hits.” To put that achievement in perspective, think of all the past Yankees—Ruth, DiMaggio, Gehrig, Mantle, Mattingly, Jackson—who can’t lay claim to that record. No matter when or where it happens, we hope that Derek will truly enjoy the moment. Even in his storied career, this record is one to be celebrated.
The Captain—The Journey of Derek Jeter
Ian O’Connor
