Home > Derek Jeter

He was born in Pequannock, New Jersey and named after Boston Bruins hockey player Derek Sanderson. His father, Charles, is black; his mother, Dorothy, is white. He grew up in Kalamazoo, and was reportedly voted "most likely to play shortstop for the New York Yankees" in junior high. Jeter was named 1992 High School Player of the Year by the American Baseball Coaches Association. He had a baseball scholarship to Michigan but the New York Yankees drafted him in the first round of the amateur draft. Jeter left the Wolverines behind to follow his dream.

Growing up, he had wondered whether the Yankees would have any one-digit uniform numbers left, as so many of them had been retired. But his hope that he could get to wear a Yankee uniform with a single digit was realized, and he got the number 2. He has worn that number from the beginning, and many believe it will be retired in his honor when he finishes his career.

He earned a taste of the big leagues on May 29, 1995 replacing an injured Tony Fernandez, only a month before turning 21. He showed enough talent to replace Fernandez, and inherited his starting spot in 1996. It didn't take long for the Yankee faithful to take to DJ, as he earned rookie of the year by having a solid all around year in which he hit .314. He saved his best for the postseason, where he batted .361 in 15 playoff games en route to the Yankees' first world title in 18 years. His postseason was highlighted, in a way, by a home run in the League Championship Series, a home run that was very famously deflected by 12-year-old Jeffrey Maier who reached over the wall (and technically onto the field of play) and stole the ball from Baltimore OriolesBaseball teams For the 1901-02 American League team known as the Baltimore Orioles see New York Yankees. There were also a 19th-century National League team and a 20th-century minor league team named the Baltimore Orioles . For the bird the team is named outfielder Tony Tarasco. Replays clearly showed fan interference, but it was nonetheless ruled a home run.

His sterling rookie season gained the young shortstop instant fame, his matinee idol looks quickly gained him even more. A highly eligible bachelor in New York, his love life became a hot topic among the press, most memorably a long affair with pop star Mariah CareyMariah Carey (born March 27, 1970) is a pop music singer, gifted with a voice capable of spanning five octaves. She is the only female artist to have a #1 song on the US charts in every year of the 1990s, the most Hot 100 #1's of any female artist in hist. Despite the media's influence, he continued to produce. In the Yankees' 1998 campaign, in which they won 114 games, he batted .324. Also in 1998, he led the American LeagueThe American League (or formally the American League of Professional Baseball Clubs is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball in the United States of America and Canada. It developed from a minor league, the Western League, that aspired to in runs scored, with 127. Putting together his best year defensively as well, he earned his first all-star appearances and 3rd place in MVP voting.

While his 1998 was great, his 1999 was (statistically) better as he reached career highs in average, home runs, RBIs, and walks, leading the AL in hits with 219. This merely earned him 6th place honors though in MVP voting. 2000 made up for the misses in MVP award voting, as he won all-star MVP honors, and then World SeriesIn baseball, the World Series is the championship series of Major League Baseball in North America, played in October after the end of the regular season between the pennant winner of the American League and the pennant winner of the National League. MVP honors as the Yankees took care of the Mets in the Subway Series. He continues to put up similar seasons as he did what he's always done in 2001 and 2002, hit solidly for average and for power, steal bases, and play steady defense.

The best example of his defense took place on October 13, 2001, during the 3rd game of the ALDS. The Yankees trailed in the Series 2 games to 0 to the Oakland AthleticsThe Oakland Athletics are a Major League Baseball team based in Oakland, California. They are in the Western Division of the American League. The team is often called the A's . Founded 1893, as the Indianapolis, Indiana franchise in the minor Western Leag, and led 1-0 in the 7th inning. With a runner on first, Terrence Long hit a double down the right-field line. The Yankee rightfielder, Shane Spencer, threw home, to try to stop the tying run from scoring. The throw went over the cutoff man, firstbase man Tino MartinezConstantino "Tino" Martinez (born December 7, 1967 in Tampa, Florida) is a first baseman in Major League Baseball for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Martinez was the 1st round draft pick for the Seattle Mariners in 1988. He began his major league career in 199. Jeter cut the ball off, and flipped the ball sidearm to catcher Jorge PosadaJorge Posada [hor-HAY po-SA-da] (born August 17, 1971 in Santurce, Puerto Rico) is a catcher and switch-hitter batter who plays for the New York Yankees. He was drafted by the Yankees in the 24th round of the 1990 amateur draft and made his debut in the 1, certainly saving the run. The Yankees went on to win the series. Jeter earned the nickname "Mr. November" after hitting a game winning home run in Game 4 of the 2001 World Series, the first Major League game to be played in the month of November, due to the September 11th attacks.

After having some strong postseasons early in his career, he has cooled off drastically. Most recently, he hit at a team-worst .566 OPS clip in one of the most important series of his life, the 4-3 reverse sweep by the Boston Red Sox. In the 2001 World Series he was the worst hitting fielder on either team, hitting a .100 for the 6 game loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks, led by Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson

These heroics, as well as his off the field leadership, led to the Yankees naming him their 11th captain in Yankees history on June 3, 2003. (However, Howard W. Rosenberg, the foremost historian on baseball captains and author of the 2003 book Cap Anson 1: When Captaining a Team Meant Something: Leadership in Baseball's Early Years, has found that the count of Yankee captains is deficient Hall of Famer Clark Griffith, the 1903-05 captain, and Kid Elberfeld, the 1906-09 one, with 1913 Manager Frank Chance a strong circumstantial candidate to have been captain that year as well. Therefore, Jeter may in fact be the 13th or 14th Yankees captain.)