the last time His two decades as the New York Yankees shortstop were filled with success Rookie of the Year in 1996 14 All-Star All-Star Game appearances five Gold Gloves and most notably five World Series championships PHIL RIZZUTO Derek Jeter wasn’t the first great Yankees shortstop Phil Rizzuto was nicknamed Scooter and he lived up to the name He scooted along the left side of the infield gobbling up ground balls and spearing line drives at shortstop And he scooted around the bases as he scored 877 runs in 13 seasons ending in 1956
But the Hall of Fame player was even more popular as an announcer He often bragged about scooting from the broadcast booth to beat the traffic before the game ended Among his favorite shticks were calling people huckleberries when they made errors yelling holy cow when something wild happened and speaking about his fear of lightning or his favorite restaurants Yankees fans ate it up On this night even though it had been raining during the day fans filled Yankee Stadium to say goodbye to one of the in modern sports remarkable careers The Many carried banners praising Captain with one sign saying Thanks 2
You with the team’s logo surrounding the 2 for Jeter’s jersey number Another offered Derek Thanks For Being The One We Could Always Turn 2 As had become commonplace during his long career Jeter did not disappoint Playing against the Baltimore Orioles Jeter had a double and two runs batted in RBIs The Yankees were winning 5 2 when he took his position at shortstop in the top of the ninth If that had been it Jeter would have given the fans a typically memorable last game The team’s plan was indeed to remove Jeter allowing for a standing ovation that might have lasted until October Jeter knew that and he
could be seen wiping tears from his eyes during the inning I’ve done a pretty good job controlling my emotions Jeter said I try to hide them I try to trick myself into not feeling those particular emotions Today I wasn’t able to do it But Jeter’s career wasn’t over quite yet Yankees closer David Robertson couldn’t protect the lead Soon the score was 5 5 heading into the bottom of the ninth with Jeter due up third That meant the Yankees faithful would get to see one more at-bat José Pirela led off with a single and pinch runner Antoan Richardson was bunted to second Up stepped Jeter with the ground seeming to shake as everyone in the stands
