Excerpt
JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour): It was the fairy tale ending to a career that’s brought universal acclaim and admiration. On his last at bat on his home field at Yankee Stadium, Derek Jeter drove in the winning run against the Baltimore Orioles.
MAN: With a walk-off single, Derek Jeter!
JEFFREY BROWN: Jeter began his career in 1995 and has played 2,745 games, all as a Yankee. He holds the sixth highest hit total in baseball history, won five World Series rings, and was selected as an All-Star 14 times, an incredible record that he discussed at the end of the game.
DEREK JETER, New York Yankees: I would say a little prayer before every game. And I basically just said thank you, because this is all I have ever wanted to do. And not too many people get an opportunity to do it. And it was above and beyond anything I have ever dreamt of.
JEFFREY BROWN: Tributes to his clutch play have poured in throughout his final season. Commercials like this one showed fans, rival players, and celebrities paying their respects. Jeter’s final game will be on Sunday against the Red Sox in Boston.
Quite a night in New York, but also other kinds of continuing drama in the world of sports this week.
We’re joined by Christine Brennan, national sports columnist for USA Today and commentator for ABC News, and Mike Pesca, host of Slate’s daily news and discussion podcast The Gist. He’s also a contributor to NPR.
Well, to Derek Jeter first.
Mike, it’s funny that he’s ending his career in Boston. As a Red Sox fan, I know that he’s destroyed our hopes perhaps more than anyone. And yet he’s respected there and everywhere. Why?
MIKE PESCA, National Public Radio: Yes, because, amidst the morass of immorality that sports is — oh, I was just unintentionally maybe poetic there — but Derek Jeter is just solid. He just is reliable.
And, you know, he’s a little bit boring. That was his advice to Gary Sheffield when he became a Yankee, be boring. But he’s boring in kind of the great ways that fathers will nudge their sons, and say, look at this guy. Look at how he runs it out on every play. Look at how he inspires his teammates.
And, yes, the commercials have gotten a little bit crazy, and the hype about Jeter, just like everything with the Yankees and sports these days, has gone over the top. But, fundamentally, there he is delivering a game-winning hit in the only game he has ever played in Yankee Stadium when the playoffs weren’t a possibility.
So the guy’s a winner and the guy does it the right way, and it’s a necessary tonic, given everything else we’re going to talk about.
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