For whom the bell tolls

Let the death watch begin, metaphorically speaking.

Derek Jeter announced that 2014 will be his last season. Not totally surprising that he did it, but it was the manner in which he did that I found odd. Rather than have a press conference, managed by the Yankees, he posted it on Facebook.

So when I saw this I thought it was one of those elaborate social media hoaxes. Like the one a few weeks back that foretold of a massive snow… Oh, wait a minute.

So now all the New York media is falling over themselves with laudatory columns about what Jeter has meant to New York in particular and baseball in general (or is it the other way around?). Ther ware way too many to list here, so I’ll let you do that at your leisure. I will be a nice guy and list a few out-of-town stories to see how Jeter is perceived out of his nurturing environment.

Boston Globe (paywall) and Herald. You’d expect Boston, as the Yankees’ biggest rival, to be respectful.
Los Angeles Times
Chicago Tribune (via SportsXchange)
The Philadelphia Inquirer glommed on to The Sporting News‘ column on Jeter.
Several publications simply used AP stories, including the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and Detroit Free Press (surprising, since Jeter grew up in Michigan), among others.
Not sure about this piece from the Toronto Star, since it’s not credited.

Since he was considered such a role model, it’s not surprising that most of the books about him were written for younger readers. Look for an increase in sales of some of these as he heads off into the sunset, as well as a more “definitive” bio or memoir once he retires. Among the titles:

First ballot Hall of Famer? Silly question. I never met him, but stories are that he has been a most respectful young man (if you can still say that about someone who will be 40 in a few months). He deserves all the good things that come to him as he will no doubt enjoy the same emotional send-offs received by Mariano Rivera last season.

Mazel tov, Derek. Thanks for the memories.

Among his career highlights, these stand out for me:

His diving catch into the stands against the Red Sox.
His retrieval on an errant throw in a payoff game against the Oakland As that resulted in an out at the plate.
His World Series home run against the Arizona Diamondbacks, giving him the nickname “Mr. November.”
His “Jeffrey Meier” home run against the Baltimore Orioles.
And his 3,000th hit coming off a home run.