"A New York Treasure" --Village Voice

Curtain Call

DEREKE JETER

According to this report, 2014 will be Derek Jeter’s final season as a player.  The announcement came on Jeter’s Facebook page.

 

[Painting by Michael Pattison]

46 comments

1 Diane Firstman   ~  Feb 12, 2014 2:39 pm

Jeter and Selig farewell tour t-shirts on sale now.

2 Greg G   ~  Feb 12, 2014 2:42 pm

I will miss Derek a lot. He talked with his play and was horrible to interview, but when you saw him play day in and day out, you respected him. He always treated it like a game, played hard and loved it.

Off the field he dated some of the most beautiful women in the world but was not splashed all over the web or trashy magazines for being a douche.

I think he gets a lot out of the money he makes, and aside from a bitter contract dispute (That the Yanks fueled). He never seemed like the money changed him.

I will miss you Captain. Let's get another ring!

3 Alex Belth   ~  Feb 12, 2014 2:44 pm

After Jeter who on this Yankee team has been with the club the longest? Alex Rodriguez but it feels as if he's not really on the team--or of this world--anymore. After that Gardner, D Rob and Carvelli have been around since 2008. That's a big drop off, huh?

4 rbj   ~  Feb 12, 2014 2:44 pm

Not unexpected. I didn't we wanted to go out after last year, in that manner. But the old gang is gone so go for a curtain call.

5 Sliced Bread   ~  Feb 12, 2014 2:45 pm

a loquacious statement by Jeter standards. Thorough and thoughtful. Nicely done, Jeets.

6 Alex Belth   ~  Feb 12, 2014 2:46 pm

5) He's got good writers working for him I guess.

7 Jon DeRosa   ~  Feb 12, 2014 2:54 pm

Gotta hand it to the Yankees. They sucked in 2008, and they had the Stadium Farewell season to distract us. They sucked in 2013, and the Mariano Farewell tour helped fill the gap. 2014 looks pretty bleak, but what that's over there - it's Derek Jeter's final season to the rescue!

I hope he's healthy. It will be fun to watch him go out swinging away.

8 Sliced Bread   ~  Feb 12, 2014 2:54 pm

6) yeah, maybe.
I just hope he stays healthy and has a good year.

9 seamus   ~  Feb 12, 2014 2:59 pm

I'm sort of glad for this. I didn't want to see Jeter in that situation where the club has to play him though he's declining. Though I'm not convinced he is significantly declining yet. I mean, we'll maybe see this year. In any case, hurrah for the captain! And I guess we won't see 4,000... :(

10 Greg G   ~  Feb 12, 2014 3:00 pm

3) Al- Frightening to think that ARod will be carrying the standard for longest tenure in 2015.

I am not sure who will be the next Captain? It will probably be a while until they annoint one. They might leave that field fallow for a while. It should be a homegrown player and we might have to wait until 2025 to find one.

11 Alex Belth   ~  Feb 12, 2014 3:07 pm

7) Optimism, Sir, optimism!

10) I think stuff like captaincy is silly but I think it should just be someone who merits it. Willie Randolph wasn't from the Yankee farm system and was a fine choice for co-captain.

12 RagingTartabull   ~  Feb 12, 2014 3:09 pm

This obviously isn't too much of a shock. What is a shock, to me at least, is that he's going all in on the fairwell tour thing. I thought for sure this would be some after-the-fact announcement in November.

13 thelarmis   ~  Feb 12, 2014 3:15 pm

Oh, Captain. Congrats, Jeter.

I'm kinda numb. Really difficult to imagine the Yankees - and baseball - without him.

I hope he somehow reaches 3,500 hits this season and gets another ring.

Thanks for everything, Derek.

14 Shaun P.   ~  Feb 12, 2014 3:18 pm

I kinda wondered if this was going to happen. There will be time to reflect on it, but I think Mike Axisa over at RAB has it exactly right - all due respect to Mo, but Jeter is the greatest Yankee a lot of us will ever have seen.

15 Alex Belth   ~  Feb 12, 2014 3:21 pm

13) I will miss Jeter and I imagine this season will combine appreciation for his career with disgust at the sentimental mush that will accompany it. But that's what farewell tours are all about, right? I don't find the Yankees hard to imagine without him, though it will take some getting used to, and certainly don't have any difficulty imagining baseball without him.

He needs 184 hits for 3,500. That ain't happening.

Still, I don't mean to sound like a downer. He is the man, that's for sure.

16 Alex Belth   ~  Feb 12, 2014 3:23 pm

14) I see what you mean, Jeter is the guy that is the "face of the franchise." NO disputing that. But that sort talk of seems beside the point. How do you compare a closer with a shortstop? Can't they both be great?

17 Sliced Bread   ~  Feb 12, 2014 3:37 pm

just heard Sid Caesar has passed away. Not sure if it's official but that's what Larry King is reporting.

18 Alex Belth   ~  Feb 12, 2014 3:40 pm

17) Oh SHIT. A legend.

19 thelarmis   ~  Feb 12, 2014 3:45 pm

[15] don't sound like a downer? you shit all over my post, haha! i kinda figured someone might do that while i was writing it, but c'mon man, it's derek freaking jeter. and i'm a sentimental sort. i thought about not posting a comment, but couldn't keep from it. perhaps i should have...

20 Ara Just Fair   ~  Feb 12, 2014 3:46 pm

Both Mo and Jeter manned his spot from around 1996 and 1997 to 2013 and 2014 respectively. We won't see that consistency in our lifetimes again. That's for Modamn sure.

21 Alex Belth   ~  Feb 12, 2014 3:57 pm

19) No way, I'm not shitting on your post. I appreciate your opinion I just don't share it. It's all good to disagree. You still the man!

22 Greg G   ~  Feb 12, 2014 4:03 pm

14) Mo is almost universally regarded as the best closer ever. Jeter isn't going to get that kind of support for best shortsop.

He might get the vote as biggest fan favorite though.

Some people are blessed with amazing physical abilities, and Jeter has always gotten the most of his. The instincts, passion and smarts in a baseball player might be unparralled. He is like a smart Pete Rose who didn't cheat. :)

23 rbj   ~  Feb 12, 2014 4:22 pm

And when Derek walks off the field for the last time, it'll be the end of single digits for the Yankees.

24 lroibal   ~  Feb 12, 2014 4:32 pm

The list of 40 year old major league short stops is very short.

25 GaryfromChevyChase   ~  Feb 12, 2014 4:46 pm

[22] Okay, we agree that Mo is the GOAT. Doesn't the Captain at least find a place on the Mt Rushmore of SS's? I mean, Honus Wagner, Ernie Banks, Cal Jr. and Jeter, and not nec. in that order.

26 Greg G   ~  Feb 12, 2014 4:55 pm

25) Gary- I love Derek Jeter and he would be my first pick at short of any shortstop dead or alive in their prime. I was just saying the rest of the baseball universe wouldn't rank him #1.

This opens up SS for ARod when he comes back in 2015. Hey! Jeter and ARod played their last games together already.

You think Jeter will miss answering questions about ARod after he retires?

27 Alex Belth   ~  Feb 12, 2014 4:59 pm

25) He's close. Don't forget Robin Yount.

28 monkeypants   ~  Feb 12, 2014 5:02 pm

[22] Well, greatest closer of all time is great, but how valuable is the closer position relative to SS? Jeter's Yankee career is almost certainly the greatest of any Yankee career any of us to see, at least those of us who are not old enough to have seen Mantle (or even earlier greats).

[15] et al. I kind of hate the "farewell tour" business. I was hoping that Jeter pulled a DiMaggio and simply announced at the end of whatever was his last year that it was his last year.

[9] A lot of fans say this, and I know I am in the minority, but I don't understand the sentiment. I mean, I want to see my favorite players play as long as possible, orvided of course that the team is not forced to compromise the chance to win. Thus, I would have loved if Jeter stayed around until he was 45 or 46, even if he were reduced to part time player. So what, so long as he is still effective in the role that he is in (maybe playing 50 games a year at DH, 1B, and occasion middle IF, against LHP). Sort of like watching a great BB player finish his career playing fewer minutes, or a great hockey player finish his career playing only a few shifts a game but still contributing.

Plus, we could watch him pile up some big counting numbers.

Which leads to...

[13][15] In my heart of hearts I never though Jeter would get to 4000+ hits, but it was always fun to hold out hope. I did, however, think that he could play well enough for two or three more seasons, just enough to pile up some very impressive hit totlas for the modern era...maybe getting to the top five and making a go at the top three. But once he lost basically an entire year to injury, any chance of him getting into that rarified company was all but lost.

I did think that he might try to stick it out for two years, which would give him a fair chance to make it to 3500 and maybe pass Speaker. Oh well.

29 seamus   ~  Feb 12, 2014 5:05 pm

This talk does remind me that i'm even more excited now that I was at Jeter's 3,000 hit game. What a memory!

30 Mr OK Jazz Tokyo   ~  Feb 12, 2014 5:10 pm

The Captain and Inate the same age, sucks getting older. I'll miss him!
Will NOT be looking forward for the mushyusic and dramatic YES segments to come. Oh, and what's the over-under on Jeter-ARod comparison articles this year? +850?

31 thelarmis   ~  Feb 12, 2014 5:15 pm

[25] what about Arky Vaughan?! ; )

32 thelarmis   ~  Feb 12, 2014 5:22 pm

[28] exactly. i figured he'd play another 2 or 3 seasons and crack the top 5 or 3 in hits.

he'll pass Molitor the first week of the season. and i'm hoping he'll pass Honus and Yaz. i think he can do it. finishing with 3,425 hits is pretty astonishing.

it's also possible he finishes the season at #8 in runs. he'll certainly be in the top 10, and the 10th to amass 1,900.

33 RagingTartabull   ~  Feb 12, 2014 5:23 pm

I didn't realize Jeter was 99 hits away from passing Wagner for most all time by a Short Stop...so there's something to shoot for

34 monkeypants   ~  Feb 12, 2014 5:28 pm

[32][33] I'm sure players look at their own stats and, near the end of a great career, start thinking about where they can end up on this or that list---depsite what most players say about not caring about such things. I wonder, had Jeter not been injured last year, how long he *might* have considered playing? That is, what goal might he have had in the back of his mind?

And now it would not surorise me that following the injury, Jeter may have readjusted his goal. Maybe he saw Wagner about 100 hits away and thought, I'll shoot for that and call it a career.

35 monkeypants   ~  Feb 12, 2014 5:29 pm

I wonde, too,r if the Yankee brass was in on this months ago, when they agreed to the current one-year extension with Jeter?

36 Greg G   ~  Feb 12, 2014 5:39 pm

34) I see Jeter also thinking that this might be his last chance to get a ring as an everyday player. Injuries catch up with everyone eventually, and 2014 will be enough of a challenge at 40. I don't think Jeter wants to go out as the DH or at 2nd or 3rd base.

28) I am with you on the farewell tour business too. On the one hand you have every reporter asking if this will be your last year until you announce it. After you announce it, you have every reporter asking you about this being your last year and will you miss...and what is next?

Jeter is also lucky to have a palatial home that he will be able to dedicate a wing to his trophies, collectables and cheeseball retirement gifts.

I did like the rocking chair made up of broken bats that Mo got though. I think KC gave him that?

37 seamus   ~  Feb 12, 2014 5:46 pm

[36] Twins gave him the rocking chair. I thought it was a great gift.

38 weeping for brunnhilde   ~  Feb 12, 2014 5:47 pm

Sad (but obviously not terribly unsurprising) news.

Wow.

Who are the Yankees now?

Who will they be?

God, time just marches on, doesn't it?

39 monkeypants   ~  Feb 12, 2014 6:36 pm

[38] 'Tis ever so. Fortunately there is a whole new generation of future Yankees down on the farm, whom we will come to love over the next generation. Right?

40 Mr OK Jazz Tokyo   ~  Feb 12, 2014 7:40 pm

[39] Although your cynicism can be tiresome, the occasional zinger gets through and makes me laugh out loud :)

Tanaka, Gary Sanchez and new Captain Cano will keep the Yankee tradition going!

(What? The Yankees let one of the top-5 players in baseball go and instead spent the money on a 30-yr old center fielder and catcher? Oh..I guess I'll go back to hibernating now...)

41 weeping for brunnhilde   ~  Feb 12, 2014 8:07 pm

[38] I sure hope so.

42 Boatzilla   ~  Feb 12, 2014 10:08 pm

They gotta when one for the gimper* now.

*Gimper = Jeter of 2013

43 Boatzilla   ~  Feb 12, 2014 10:09 pm

Gah. I blew it. "Win one for the gimper." We need a delete or edit button.

This is gonna be a weird year by any account.

44 thelarmis   ~  Feb 12, 2014 11:14 pm

[43] Use the Preview button, down below the typing box, next to the "post comment"...

45 thelarmis   ~  Feb 12, 2014 11:22 pm

does anyone know where i can watch the Derek Jeter 3K special that was on HBO in the summer of 2011? I can't seem to find it anywhere online...

Thanks!

46 Evil Empire   ~  Feb 13, 2014 9:54 pm

We were all so lucky to see Jeter, Mo, Posada, and Andy in pinstripes for so long together. Toss in Bernie and that really is a great core group to build around Great up the middle (offensively anyway), a great starter and the best closer. It's finally over. I hope I get to see Jeter this Summer.

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"This ain't football. We do this every day."
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