How do you sum up 20 seasons of a career that largely shaped the person you are today?
I was 5 when Jeter came into the league. He may have been the first crush I ever remember having.
He was so exciting to watch. I practiced the jump throw in my back yard SO many times. I demanded to play short stop, contrary to my height being ideal for first base. I spent every morning memorizing the Yankees new batting averages. I HAD to check box scores. Our birthdays are two days apart, and he's #2, and in my little OCD brain THAT MEANT SOMETHING.
In short, Derek Jeter made me fall in love with baseball.
That's correct. Derek Jeter is the reason this girl spends her nights scouring box scores, studying pitching motions, looking at graphs on pitch f/x, and would rather have the TV on a sports network than E!. (I may not be a Yankees fan anymore, but Jeter will always be my favorite player)
It's funny, in my 9/11 post I mentioned the 2001 game 4 walk off home run Jeter hit. I was talking about that night with my best friend the other night. How vividly I remember EVERYTHING about that night. What I was doing, the comforter I had, the poster I was drawing on.
I'm pretty sure it's the night I irreversibly fell in love with the sport of baseball.
It was magic, it was exciting, and it was mine.
I mean, before that, I was hooked. But that's the first moment I really remember just being mesmerized by what I was seeing. Enough that 13 years later it's clear as day in my memory.
So when Jeter walks off the field for the last time as a player, my childhood will officially be over.
The New York Yankees will have a new shortstop. There will never be another pinstriped jersey bearing a #2. The guy who I have looked up to for most of my life will not be on my TV 162 times a year.
And I will bawl my eyes out.
As most of you recall, or know me personally, 98% of my emotions are evoked by sports.
I have cried at every Jeter commercial, every article, and every time I have opened my planner and looked at the date, realizing we're one day closer to the end of an era.
Fast forward to tonight, Jeter's final game at Yankee Stadium, and I did cry.
It was strange. Tonight was the first time in 20 years that I remember seeing Jeter visibly nervous, visibly showing any emotion at all. You could tell from every time he bent down when he was on deck. The extra times he stepped out of the batters box to settle down. The times he did that pinch your nose so you don't get choked up thing...
I was pretty teary eyed in the top of the 9th. You just looked and saw Jeter really taking it in. He looked to have the attention span of a 5 year old. Just looking around at everything, trying to soak it all in. I mean how many times in the past 20 years, aside from maybe the "firsts" (first year, first playoffs, first world series, first time in the new stadium) do you really think he stopped and soaked in everything about Yankee stadium?
I bet, like the rest of us, some of it's majesty was lost on monotony.
And tonight, we all got to see him take it in.
Then, the Orioles tied the game and we went to the bottom of the 9th. I texted my best friend, "I really just want a jetes walk-off here."
And we got it. Much like my favorite Jeter walk off memory, it was opposite field, a single instead of a home run this time.
What a storybook ending to a career.
A career that is best summed up by Derek Jeter himself, "There were better players than me, but no one worked harder than me."
RE2PECT,
Farewell Captain.
No comments:
Post a Comment