Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Text from Derek Jeter’s Speech on Derek Jeter Day


Hey all and Happy Tuesday afternoon. In case you missed it over the weekend, and shame on you if you did while turning in your Yankees fandom cards at the door, the New York Yankees retired their final single digit number in their franchise’s storied history when Derek Jeter saw his #2 retired inside Monument Park. Jeter was never a huge talker during his playing career and he hasn’t been much for words since heading into retirement aside from the occasional blog post on the Players Tribune but he did address the Yankees crowd before Sunday’s second game of a double-header with the Houston Astros. Here is what Jeter had to say in his own words.

“First of all, I just want to say happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there, especially my mom, my grandmother, my sister and my wife, who is very soon going to be a mother. So happy Mother's Day.

What do you say on a day like this? You know, I'll start with thank you to George Steinbrenner and the Steinbrenner family for giving me the opportunity to play my entire career for the only team I ever wanted to play for.

I want to thank my managers, coaches, teammates, support staff, those of you that are here today and those of you who aren't for being with me along that the entire journey.

I want to thank my family for their love, support, honesty and more importantly their presence at everything I did both on and off the field.

And the fans — wow — I want to thank you guys for pushing me, challenging me, for making me accountable, more importantly for embracing me since day one.

You know, I was asked recently by someone, they said if you could trade places with one person, who would it be? And I say this very humbly, there isn't a person or player I would trade places with that's playing now or ever. And the reason why I say that is because I got a chance to play for a first-class organization and in front of the greatest fans in the history of sports.


You know, you play here in New York for 20 years, you know I learned that time flies, memories fade, but family is forever, and I'll be eternally grateful to be a part of the Yankees' family. So I can't thank you guys enough. Thank you very much.”

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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)