Truly Blessed!
Derek Jeter's Incredible Journey To Play Shortstop For The New York Yankees
Derek Jeter’s dream growing up was to play shortstop for the New York Yankees. Throughout his life, he held tight to that dream, despite the doubters. And there were plenty of doubters.
Derek was born to an African-American father, Charles Jeter, from Alabama and Irish-German-American mother, Dorothy Connors, from New Jersey. His parents met in Frankfurt, Germany in 1972 during their time in the United States military. They both said being in Germany allowed them to meet and date. If they had met in the United States, perhaps the pressures would have been too much to continue the relationship. We don’t know how it would have turned out, but we do know it worked in Germany.
After their time in the service, Charles and Dorothy moved to Tennessee, where Charles attended Fisk University and played shortstop for the college baseball team. They were married in 1974. A bi-racial couple getting married anywhere in the United States was a courageous step. The 1967 movie Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner had made an impact in America with the story of a black man, Sidney Poitier, falling in love with a white woman, Katharine Houghton, and meeting with her parents, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, to ask for their blessing of a marriage. It was an incredibly controversial movie at the time since interracial marriage was still illegal in 17 states in America. The film was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, winning two, and had a lasting impact.
Charles and Dorothy Jeter lived the life that Sidney Poitier described in the movie, facing racial challenges all along the way. Starting a family meant their children would have to deal with that type of ignorant hatred as well. Derek made his entrance into the world in 1974 and Sharlee followed in 1979. They grew up in Kalamazoo, where Charles moved his family so he could attend Western Michigan University to earn a PhD in Psychology and become a substance abuse counselor. Dorothy landed a great job in the accounting department at The Upjohn Company, a major pharmaceutical company.
But Derek and Sharlee were bi-racial children living in a Midwestern town, where racism would not have been the norm, but certainly would pop up enough to keep the young Jeters aware of their surroundings. As Derek says in his 8-part documentary, The Captain, he faced racism during his time growing up, despite being a very well-liked young man and tremendous athlete. Didn’t matter. The “N” word was launched his way on more than one occasion.
So how does a young man overcome those types of challenges? How does he not become bitter and turn against those representing hate and racism? He had two great parents who taught him and his sister that they could achieve anything in this life if they put their minds to it. Dorothy did not allow them to use the word “can’t.” They had two parents who loved and supported their two children and developed them into good people. They had two parents who were determined to see their children succeed, having them sign a contract each year that outlined acceptable and unacceptable forms of behavior. Derek’s parents were, and remain, a blessing.
During the summers, Derek’s mother would send her two kids to stay with her own mother, Dorothy, in New Jersey. Grandma Dorothy was a big Yankees fan and that love for the Bronx Bombers was passed along to Derek, who had made up his mind that one day he was going to play shortstop for the New York Yankees. Now think of that dream. Think of how hard that would be to attain for anyone, any athlete, regardless of their skills. It’s a pipedream to be sure, but Derek held on to it throughout his time growing up. I even heard about it from my boss at The Upjohn Company, Phil Sheldon, who knew Derek well and said that had been his dream since he was young.
Having the dream is one thing, but achieving it is, well, a dream. But when Derek attended Kalamazoo Central High School, he was growing and developing as an athlete. He was a very good at baseball and basketball player and getting better with each passing year. As I previously wrote, we lived in the Kalamazoo area for four years and I worked with people at The Upjohn Company who knew the Jeter family well. One fellow, Jim Van Sweden, a very good athlete in his own right, told me how young Derek was such a great athlete that when they played softball, Derek was so fast that he covered both right and center field. Nothing could get past him. That was during Derek’s high school years. He was quickly becoming a standout baseball player in high school, playing shortstop.
Now in Derek’s senior year, he batted .508, striking out only once, hit four home runs, stole 12 bases and played stellar defense at shortstop. With that performance, he achieved his personal goal, to be named High School Player of the Year by USA Today.
After his high school graduation, when the 1992 Major League Baseball draft arrived, the Houston Astros had the first pick. Their scout, Hal Newhouser, had watched Jeter and strongly recommended the team select him. But there were concerns he would elect to play in college first and the Astros passed. There were four other teams that could have selected him. They didn’t. The Yankees were next and their scout, Dick Grouch, insisted they select Jeter who he said would one day end up in the Hall of Fame in Coopertown. And guess who the Yankees selected. Derek Jeter! A blessing from above, no question about it.
Derek still wasn’t the shortstop for the Yankees, but he had a real chance of achieving his dream. In his first year in the minors however, he struggled and was ready to quit. Like Mickey Mantle, he talked to his father by phone daily, and was able to endure those early failures to the point that he started to improve in his second year although his numerous errors at shortstop that season were becoming a concern for the team and his teammates.
Another blessing occurred during this time period, when in July of 1990, Yankees owner, George Steinbrenner, was banned by MLB from partaking in the daily operations of the team. Had that not happened, there is a very good chance that Jeter would have been traded to a team to acquire an established player, which was the owner’s standard method of operating his club. Another blessing.
The Yankees general manager, Gene Michael, was in charge and committed to developing minor league talent, Jeter in particular. Even after Derek’s first two years of playing poorly, Michael stuck with the young shortstop, who really blossomed in 1994. Entering the 1995 season, Jeter was rated as the fourth best prospect in baseball. Unfortunately, a right shoulder injury led the Yankees to trade for Tony Fernandez to play shortstop on the big club. But early in the season, Fernandez was hurt and young Derek Jeter was called up on May 29, 1995 to play shortstop for the New York Yankees. Another blessing!
When Fernandez was healthy again, Derek was sent back down to the minors, but called up for the playoff run. He wasn’t on the playoff roster, but gained his first MLB playoff experience from the bench. The next season, Joe Torre was the manager and made the decision to make Derek Jeter his starting shortstop. This time, Derek was determined keep that spot and he did for the next 19 years.
Derek Jeter lived his dream of playing shortstop for the Yankees. And, it’s impossible not to look at all of the events that occurred all along the way and not believe he was truly blessed from above. Any one of a half dozen things could have gone differently and resulted in his not being selected, or kept or actually playing shortstop for the Yankees. But it all went Derek’s way. His dream was fulfilled. Providence!
Over his years, he built a Hall of Fame career, just as Dick Grouch predicted. He became the consistent leader of the team and was named Captain in 2003 by the Yankees owner, an incredible honor. Upon his retirement in 2014, he has to be considered one of the greatest Yankees of all time, or perhaps the greatest Yankee of all time, if you include how he conducted himself off the field as well. He continues to give back, working with his sister, Sharlee, with his Turn2Foundation, which he formed in 1996.
In my view, given Derek’s great performance as shortstop for the Yankees, combined with being such a great son to Charles and Dorothy, brother to Sharlee, devoted husband to Hannah and great father of three daughters, I believe Derek Jeter is the greatest professional American athlete role model ever. If I were raising children today, he would be the man I would have my kids try to emulate.
Derek Jeter is a blessed man!
