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Derek Jeter

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Derek Sanderson Jeter (born June 26, 1974) is a seven-time All-Star shortstop for the New York Yankees and is the team's current captain. He was also part of the Holy Trinity of shortstops (comprising of Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Nomar Garciaparra) in the 1990s and 2000s.

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Early life and career

Derek Jeter was born in Pequannock, New Jersey to Charles and Dorothy Jeter, an Irish American. The family lived in North Arlington, New Jersey until he was four, then moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan. Jeter was a star baseball player at Kalamazoo Central High School, where he also played basketball. In 1992, he was named High School Player of the Year by the American Baseball Coaches Association.

Although he received a baseball scholarship to attend the University of Michigan, he attended just one semester after he was drafted by the New York Yankees in the first round of the 1992 amateur draft. He spent four years in the minor leagues. He started in the Rookie League before advancing to Class A, where he spent two years. In these two years in the minors, Jeter collected various awards, including Most Outstanding Major League Prospect and Best Defensive Shortstop.

In 1995, he advanced from Class A to Class AAA within the season. On May 29, 1995, Jeter debuted in the Major Leagues against the Seattle Mariners.

Professional career

Jeter has been a key player of the Yankees' success since 1995. Jeter is one of four current veterans (the others are Jorge Posada, Bernie Williams, and Mariano Rivera) who came up through the Yankees organization and has played his entire professional career with the Yankees.

Jeter, Nomar Garciaparra and Alex Rodriguez were considered the three top shortstops in the game during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Jeter is the only one of the three to still be at the shortstop position.

Mr. Clutch

Throughout his career, Jeter has been known as one of the best clutch postseason players in baseball history. Since arriving in the majors in 1996, Jeter has participated in the postseason every year, and he was a member of 6 American League Championship and 4 World Series Championship teams. Jeter's personal postseason performance has been a major factor in the Yankees' success. The term "Mr. November" comes from Jeter's accomplishments in the 2001 World Series, which ran into November that year due to the delay of the baseball season caused by the September 11, 2001 attacks. He has also been called "Mr. Intangibles", for all the things he does on and off the field that cannot be quantified. This nickname is frequently used mockingly by non-Yankee fans.[Mr. Intangibles], accessed July 2, 2006

Some of Jeter's most memorable moments have come in postseason play. These include a game-tying disputed home run against Baltimore in Game 1 of the 1996 ALCS; his game-winning, tenth-inning home run off Arizona's Byung-Hyun Kim in Game 4 of the 2001 World Series; as well as one of the most unusual defensive plays in postseason history: With the Yankees down 0 games to 2 versus the Oakland Athletics in the 2001 American League Division Series, and holding on to a 1-0 lead in Game 3 and with an A's runner on first base, Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina served up a high fly ball to deep right field to the A's Terrence Long. 


With Oakland's Jeremy Giambi about to round third, Yankees right fielder Shane Spencer retrieved the ball and threw home.  The throw sailed over the heads of both cut-off men. With Giambi nearing home plate, Jeter ran across the field, and nearing the 1st base line, caught the ball off a bounce and shovel passed it behind himself right to his catcher and best friend on the team Jorge Posada, who promptly tagged the back of Giambi's knee, a fraction of a second before his foot hit home plate. The play later came to be known as 'The Flip'. Derek continued his defensive prowess in the 5th and deciding game when he caught a pop up of the bat of Terrence Long in the 9th inning and then filped backwards into the camera well to win the game.


During the exciting, extra-inning July 1, 2004 game versus the Boston Red Sox, Jeter famously hurtled without abandon into the stands while chasing a pop-up hit by Trot Nixon in the top of the 12th. His forward momentum forced him to keep running and leap into the stands, rather than injure his knees against the two foot high fence on the left field line. He bruised his cheek and required stitches in his chin, but managed to hold onto the ball, much to the amazement of his 3rd baseman, Alex Rodriguez. He was removed from the game after the play, but the Yankees won the game on a dramatic walk-off double by the only man left on the bench, backup catcher John Flaherty, in the bottom of the 13th inning after the Red Sox had gone ahead in the top half of the inning on a Manny Ramirez home run. 


As of 2005, Jeter has a career .306 postseason batting average with 16 home runs and 46 RBIs. He has a record 142 career postseason hits.


Because of Jeter's numerous important hits in high-pressure situations ("in the clutch"), he is sometimes called "Captain Clutch."


Whether the so called "clutch" exist is a highly debated topic. Most sabermetricians reject the idea that certain players do better in important situations than what he would have done usually. In the 2006 book Baseball Between the Numbers written by the Baseball Prospectus team, Nate Silver calculated each player's clutch rating by the difference between a player's real win share against what win share would be expected of him from his conventional, yearly stats. Jeter ends up with a negative rating. Although, of course, it should be noted that the pitching is typically better in the post season than in the regular season (because only the best teams make it to the post season), and so one might expect hitting statistics in general to be comparatively lower in the post season.



Yankee captain



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The Yankees named Jeter the 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 failed to count 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, the star shortstop may in fact be the 13th or 14th Yankees captain.)



Turn 2 Foundation

Jeter began the Turn 2 Foundation, a charity organization, in 1996.  The Foundation was established to help children and teenagers avoid drug and alcohol addiction, and to reward those who show high academic achievement. The organization's name was chosen, besides the baseball reference to a double play, to demonstrate the goal of giving youths a place to "turn to", besides drugs and alcohol.[link]  



World Baseball Classic

Derek was the starting shortstop for the USA team in the first ever World Baseball Classic. Jeter hit well for Team USA, staying as clutch as Yankee fans have known him to be in pressure-filled atmospheres. Jeter hit .450 (9/20) and scored 5 runs in 6 games. Only Ken Griffey, Jr. (.524) and Cuba's Yoandy Garlobo (.480) had a higher batting average with a minimum of 20 at bats. [World Baseball Classic Stats], accessed July 2, 2006 Jeter's exploits earned him recognition as the shortstop selection on the All-Tournament [World Baseball Classic All-Tournament Team], accessed July 2, 2006 



Trivia




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External links





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