***
Derek Jeter – Made in NY
(Gatorade)
Derek Jeter – RE2PECT (Nike)
^^^
Night’s Hero: Who Else?
Derek Jeter, in Fitting Farewell to
Yankee Stadium, Drives In Winning Run
By DAVID WALDSTEIN
SEPT. 25, 2014
One Last Celebration
He almost started crying as
he drove himself to Yankee Stadium in the afternoon. He had to turn away from
his teammates before the game when they presented him with gifts, so overcome
was he by the emotion. In the first inning, he said, he barely knew what was
happening, and later, in the top of the ninth, his eyes welled with tears to
the point that he worried that he might break down in front of the crowd of
48,613.
But when the time came for
Derek Jeter to get a game-winning hit, to add another signature moment to a
long list of achievements over his 20-year career, he knew exactly what to do,
and seemingly no one doubted that he would.
“Everyone in the dugout and
the Stadium knew it was going to happen,” said David Robertson, whose blown
save paved the way for one of the most dramatic endings to a game at the new
Stadium.
With one out in the bottom of
the ninth, Jeter stroked the winning hit and ended his Yankee Stadium career
the way he had ended so many games — with both arms raised in celebration. The
6-5 win over the Baltimore Orioles was his 1,627th regular-season victory as a
Yankee.
The 3,463rd hit of Jeter’s
career sizzled into right field, and Antoan Richardson slid home with the
winning run, and the normally stoic Jeter said the ending was almost too much
even for him to believe.
“An out-of-body experience is
the best way to put it,” said Jeter, who was uncharacteristically expressive
after the game.
It was a night when
everything seemed to happen specifically to allow Jeter to be Jeter in front of
his home fans for the last time. The rain stopped, the Orioles pushed the game
to the bottom of the ninth by hitting two home runs, a Yankees runner got to
second base, and Jeter came to the plate again with his name ringing in his
ears. He then did exactly the kind of thing that had made him so adored by his
fans.
Jeter was so overcome with
emotion both during and after the game that he shed his usual cautious approach
with reporters.
“I don’t know what to tell
you,” he said. “Write what you want and put my name at the bottom of it.”
For the record, Jeter went 2
for 5 with a double, three runs batted in and a run scored.
What may have been the best
blown save in Yankees history provided him the platform to be a hero once
again.
The Yankees were leading,
5-2, heading into the ninth inning, but Adam Jones hit a two-run homer off
Robertson, and Steve Pearce hit a bases-empty shot to tie the score. Jeter was
at shortstop at the time, and he slumped his head momentarily. But on the
bench, his teammates looked at the scoreboard and saw who was batting third in
the bottom of the inning.
Soon, they were jumping all
over Jeter on the infield as if they had won a big playoff game.
“I went from all-time low to
all-time high,” Robertson said.
After the game, Jeter was
greeted on the field by his former teammates Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte,
Jorge Posada and Bernie Williams, as well as his longtime manager Joe Torre,
and he hugged them all.
When the congratulations were
over, and with the Orioles standing in their dugout watching, Jeter walked out
to shortstop for a solitary moment of reflection.
“I wanted to take one last
view from short,” he said.
When the team goes to Boston for its
season-ending series, he said, he will play in one or two games, but only as
the designated hitter.
“I’ve played shortstop my entire career,” he
said, “and the last time I wanted to play was tonight.”
Throughout the game the fans
chanted his name, including when he hit a run-scoring double off the left-field
wall in the first inning. The salutes only grew louder as the game progressed.
As the fans stood and cheered in the ninth, mixing in chants of “Thank you,
Derek,” Jeter appeared to grow misty-eyed while standing at shortstop,
something he had never done.
Hours earlier, there was
concern that rain might wreak havoc on the game, but by game time the rain had
ended, and a lively sellout crowd — many fans had planned for months to attend
Jeter’s final home game — was as much a part of the evening as Jeter himself.
The list of attendees
included Mets pitcher Matt Harvey and the Miami Marlins’ owner, Jeffrey Loria.
There were tributes and ovations and moments when it seemed as if the Yankees
had actually made it to October.
But the game was the first
Jeter had played at Yankee Stadium when his team had been eliminated from the postseason.
Still, with the large crowd and cool weather, it was reminiscent of the 158
postseason games Jeter had played in.
It was the loudest and most
energetic crowd of the season. Without the element of a playoff race, the focus
of the game was squarely on Jeter, which he said made him uncomfortable.
But the fans came to
celebrate his five World Series titles, his impressive hit total — 3,463, sixth
most on baseball’s career list — his 14 All-Star selections and his 2,745
games, all as a Yankee. From the moment Jeter first stepped into the box at the
old Yankee Stadium on June 2, 1995, until Thursday night, his 1,391st home
game, he has been the darling of Yankees fans.
“You almost feel as if you’re
watching your own funeral,” he said. “People are telling you great things, and
they’re showing highlights and reflecting. I understand that my baseball career
is over with. But people are giving you well wishes like you’re about to die.
I’ve appreciated it all, but internally it feels like part of you is dying, and
I guess that’s true because the baseball side, it’s over with.”
The game began with
consecutive home runs off Hiroki Kuroda, the Yankees’ starter, by the Orioles’
Nick Markakis and Alejandro De Aza. Some of the air left the Stadium, but the
crowd’s energy returned in force in the bottom of the inning after Brett
Gardner hit a leadoff single.
With the crowd buzzing in
anticipation, Jeter stood in the batter’s box and took four pitches from Kevin
Gausman, the Orioles’ starter, before ripping a 95-mile-per-hour fastball deep
toward left field.
The fans unleashed a
collective gasp as they followed the path of the ball, hoping it would clear
the fence for another signature Jeter moment. It did not go out, but it hit the
wall on the fly, barely two feet from a home run, and Jeter trotted into second
base and clapped his hands as Gardner
scored ahead of him.
Jeter scampered to third base
on a wild pitch and scored on a ground ball to the right side by Brian McCann,
making it a 2-2 game.
Jeter arrived at the Stadium
in the afternoon after battling what he called a little bit of traffic, which
multiplied when he got to his locker, where he was immediately surrounded by
perhaps three dozen reporters. Jeter deflected most of their questions, saying
he could not anticipate how he would feel until it was all over.
Although Jeter has always
been stoic, Manager Joe Girardi said it would be difficult for him to restrain
his emotions.
“It will be difficult for
me,” Girardi said. “I got a little choked up yesterday after his last at-bat
and the way the fans reacted. You start thinking that you’ve been around
someone for so long, and he’s not going to be there.”
***
No comments:
Post a Comment