Jeter believes! Says Boss belongs in Hall
HIS NO. 2 jersey will be retired in Monument Park among the other Yankee greats next spring, and when his name eventually appears on the Hall of Fame ballot, Derek Jeter will be a lock for Cooperstown and could be the player who receives the highest percentage of votes from baseball writers.
But Jeter spoke about another Yankee’s Hall of Fame credentials Wednesday before his Turn 2 Foundation holiday event at Chelsea Piers, saying late Yankee owner George Steinbrenner should already have his plaque in Cooperstown. Steinbrenner did not get elected to the Hall of Fame by the Eras (formerly Veterans) Committee on Sunday, while former baseball commissioner Bud Selig and baseball executive John Schuerholz did and will be enshrined next summer.
“Do I think (Steinbrenner) should be (in the Hall of Fame)? Of course. I think he’s arguably one of the greatest owners in all of sports,” Jeter said as he met with 200 elementary students at Chelsea Piers holding a red velvet bag full of presents from Santa Claus. “Why he’s not, you have (to ask) some guys that vote.”
All 200 students were given presents sponsored by the Yankees and Haddad Brands. Eleven-hundred presents were handed out to students in the Turn 2 program, including Air Jordan backpacks, books, hats and Yankees teddy bears which were assembled by students in the Turn 2 leadership program last Thursday at Yankees Stadium during a gift wrapping party.
Jeter, 42, retired following the 2014 season after winning five World Series rings with the Bombers, racking up 3,465 hits and accumulating countless baseball accolades. Now he will get his place in the sun, or more specifically, Monument Park beyond the center field wall at Yankee Stadium.
“It’s pretty special. My dream was always to play shortstop for the Yankees. Everything that came along with it wasn’t a part of the dream,” said Jeter. “When I first came up in ’96, my goal was to just stay here as long as possible. I never thought about having a number retired. It’s kind of hard to believe. What is it going to be like? I have no idea.”
The Yankee captain said he won’t prepare any speeches ahead of the date — May 14, Mother’s Day — and he joked that he hasn’t paid attention to what some of his Core Four teammates have said during their respective speeches when their numbers were retired.
“I wasn’t listening to what they were saying out there, because we were usually messing around,” said Jeter, referring to Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera being honored in the past. “I don’t want to be prepared for it. I just want to enjoy it. It’s a special day that they have it on Mother’s Day, which is big for me.”
Jeter said he would occasionally visit the old Yankee Stadium’s Monument Park as well as the one at the new Stadium while he was a player, and that throughout his career, he tried to learn as much about the organization’s history, especially listening to late Hall of Famer Yogi Berra.
“I wasn’t thinking about me being out there (during Monument Park visits). You take in the history. I’ve spent some time out there. What will it mean? A lot of history. I had a pretty close relationship with Yogi, and to have an opportunity to listen to a lot of the stories he told me about a lot of those players that are out there,” said Jeter. “I’ve always been sort of a sponge for knowledge.”
Ten, 20, or 50 years from now, Jeter said he hopes to be remembered as a player who had respect for every aspect of America’s pastime.