For me, Derek Jeter is the last superstar in Major League baseball.
I’m sure other players will come along and exceed Jeter’s remarkable career accomplishments. They will have more hits, home runs and a higher batting average. But Jeter’s value to the New York Yankees and the grand old game extends far beyond statistics.
Jeter is an old fashioned superstar. Like Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Stan Musial, and Joe DiMaggio, Jeter played his entire career – 20 seasons – with one team. The hard-hitting shortstop is sixth on the all-time hit list with 3,450. That puts him ahead of such Hall of Famers as Honus Wagner, Willie Mays, Carl Yastrzemski and Eddie Collins.
Jeter has a career batting average of .310 with a few weeks left in this, his last season. In the field, Jeter played a smooth and graceful shortstop and was the heart and soul of the Yankee team for nearly two decades.
Now his career is just about done but Jeter’s impact will continue. In a baseball era marked by steroids, drug abuse, players jumping teams for more money, and gambling – Jeter stood out for his class and dignity, on and off the field.
Sure, Jeter made tens of millions of dollars but he never hurt or soiled the game that enabled his riches. Pete Rose is first on the all-time hit list with 4,256 hits. A gambling scandal has kept Rose out of the baseball Hall of Fame.
“He doesn’t deserve to be in the hall,” said George Yankowski, 91, who lives in The Villages and played during the 1940s with the Philadelphia A’s and Chicago White Sox. “I can’t accept a manager or player betting for or against his team.”
Yankowski is a fan of Jeter. “I like him, and I like the way he plays the game.”
So does Stu Sachs of The Villages Sports Card and Collectibles Club, which holds a show Saturday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Laurel Manor Recreation Center.
“I’m not a Yankee fan but I am a Derek Jeter fan,” Sachs said. “Jeter is a throwback; the kind of athlete you have to admire. He is an example for others to follow.”
Think about it.
Over his two decades in the game, Jeter has seen such star players as Alex Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Jose Conseco, Roger Clemens and Ryan Braun disgrace themselves and the game.
Probably the most controversial thing Jeter, a longtime Yankee captain, ever did was date models, singers and movie stars. His dating list includes Mariah Carey, Scarlett Johansson, Tyra Banks and Jessica Biel. Hey, the guy is only human.
Humanity is what makes Jeter so special. He carried on a Yankee tradition that stretched back to Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Phil Rizzuto, Yogi Berra and Don Mattingly.
The Yankees, for so many decades were America’s team and Jeter became America’s player.
I lost my passion for baseball a long time ago. I grew up with Mantle, Musial, Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente and Johnny Bench. Somehow, over the years, after countless player strikes, owner collusion, $100 million contracts and performance-enhancing drugs, I lost my love of the game.
Jeter, though, brought the old flame back to me. There was something about seeing him in that Yankee uniform on a sunny Sunday afternoon. He stood tall on that patch of green in the middle of a city. Somehow, in those Yankee pinstripes, Jeter made you feel baseball’s enduring magic.
In a few weeks he will be gone and for me, another part of the game I once loved will disappear with him.
Tony Violanti is a Villager and writes for Villages-News.com