What Derek Jeter Means to me

There’s a famous saying that goes, “All good things must come to an end.” I don’t know who said and frankly it’s not very important. Although I’d grown up a Yankees fan I don’t remember anything before the 1995 season. My memories of that year was going to my first Yankees game and the Yankees losing to the Mariners in the ALDS. The following year the Yankees won their first World Series of my lifetime anchored by rookie shortstop Derek Jeter.

Although Jeter was never my favorite Yankee I now realize he means more to me than any Yankee I’ve ever rooted for. Today Jeter announced he was going to retire at the end of the season and I got very emotional. I wasn’t just emotional that I’d be losing Jeter but I realized I was losing a part of my childhood. I think I always felt that as long as Jeter played a part of the 10-year-old boy that watched him as a rookie still existed.

Jeter symbolizes the beginning of what I remember as a Yankees fan. Along with Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada, Bernie Williams and Andy Pettitte, Jeter represented a core of home grown Yankees that I cheered for day-in and day-out for six to seven months each year. From 1996 to 2000 I was one of the luckiest baseball fans in the world. I saw my team win four championships in five years. It was a magical time that I hoped would never end. I grew up knowing nothing except championships and I expected it every year.

Slowly those five players started to leave the Yankees. Pettitte was first, followed by Bernie then Posada. I was lucky enough to see Pettitte return to the Yankees twice, once from the Astros and once from retirement. But as the number of these core Yankees dwindled a part of me was always OK with it because we at least still had Jeter. No matter what Jeter wasn’t going anywhere. After Posada’s retirement Pettitte, Rivera and Jeter were the only remaining stalwarts of a dynasty that had long ago diminished.

Yankees fans knew Rivera’s and Pettitte’s days were numbered and in 2013 both players retired for good. Although Pettitte was my favorite Yankee at the time I was OK with it, I believed it was their time, and once again we still had Jeter. Everything was going to be OK because we still had Jeter. I believed Jeter’s competitive nature would drive him to play another three or four years, at minimum. And I was happy with that.

Then today I received a notification on my phone saying Jeter would be retiring at the end of the season. I likened the sentiment to something my dad said to me and my mom the day our family dog had died, “We all knew this day was coming but it doesn’t make it any easier when it does.” It’s true, we did know this day had to come at some point. But no one knew it would be today. No one knew it would be this soon.

In reality though, it’s not too soon. Just because Jeter plays as hard as he did when he was 21, he’s not. He’s 39, soon to be 40. It makes me realize that part of my childhood is coming to an end. It’s an era that went by too quickly. As long as I had Jeter, I could hold onto that 10-year-old Yankee fan inside me that knew nothing about loss, who cheered his heart out for the Yankees.

Derek Jeter is retiring from baseball and the New York Yankees. It’s a sad day for me. I’ll miss Jeter and the Yankees that I grew up loving. But baseball will continue. The Yankees will field a team in 2015 without Jeter helming shortstop. Derek Jeter was a good thing for the Yankees and for me. It will be tough to see him go but all good things must come to an end.