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Derek Jeter – All-Time Yankee Hit Leader
By Brian | September 12, 2009 | Share on Facebook
Been There. Seen That. Got the T-shirt.
No, seriously, I got the t-shirt. But more on that later.
First, I need to describe one of those Yankee Stadium moments. As I told a New York Post reporter earlier this week (who, by the way, never put it in an article…), every time you buy a ticket to a game in Yankee Stadium, there’s a chance that you’re going to see something magical. Over the years, I’ve seen milestones (including Derek Jeter’s 2,000th hit), special accomplishments (including A-Rod hitting three homeruns in a game) and other surprises (including Roger Clemmens’ announcement that he was returning to the Yankees). I’ve accidentally wound up at both Ron Guidry Day and Bob Sheppard Day. And that’s not to mention the special games I intentionally bought tickets for – Old Timers’ Day, playoff games, World Series games – you name it.
Last night was, literally, a perfect storm at Yankee Stadium. It was raining all day, to the point where I thought there was no way they were even going to play the game. As it turned out, they had a rain delay of roughly ninety minutes, which allowed the excited crowd to get, well…let’s call it “lubricated” before the game began. Then, there was an emotional tribute to the anniversary of 9/11/01, including the dedication of the USS New York, a ship that will be launched into military service in November, which contains 7.5 tons of steel recovered from the World Trade Center site. And then finally, the game began.
I’m told they were saying on television that the stadium had a playoff atmosphere that night. They were right. In the first inning, the rain was still falling pretty hard, and everyone was extremely pumped up. Derek Jeter came to bat in the bottom of the first and struck out, but everytime he swung the bat, ten thousand flashbulbs went off. And when he made contact (foul balls), the place collectively gasped.
The Yankees put a few hits together, so he led off the third inning as well. And that was when it happened. A line-drive single down the right field line, past the Orioles’ diving first baseman and into history.
The Yankees, having obviously discussed this ahead of time, poured out of the dugout and hugged him, one at a time. Not a single handshake in the bunch – all hugs. He is their teammate and their captain, and you could see the respect and admiration they all have for him personally. You could also tell that they recognized the enormity of what he had just accomplished. After all, Lou Gehrig held this record for more than seventy years, and given the way players jump between teams today, Jeter may well hold it forever.
I could go on and on, but it’s probably easier just to show you the video I shot of the whole thing:
Congratulations to Derek Jeter, the all-time Yankee hit leader. Glad I was there to see it happen!
Oh, yeah – about that T-shirt…
Minutes after he broke the record, the Yankees were running advertisements on the stadium scoreboard that T-shirts and pennants commemorating the event were now available in the Yankee Stadium stores. My friend and I laughed about it at first, but two innings later, decided to go check it out. I was going to buy a T-shirt for myself and a pennant for each of my kids, but when we got there, I found that they were almost out of extra-large T-shirts (they had plenty of small and 2XL shirts, but neither of those would fit me) and they were completely out of pennants. I picked up a couple of commemorative 8×10 photos of Jeter for the kids and set out to find the end of a very, very long line to pay for it all (it took a full inning to finally pay). During my search for the end of the line, I passed a guy who was holding at least fifty pennants, at which point I realized that the Yankees had not put any kind of “maximum – 5 items per person” limit on these items, so people were scooping them up for sale on eBay or whatever after the game. Shame on that guy and others like him, and shame on the Yankees for not taking the steps necessary to ensure everyone who wanted one of these items could get one.
Topics: Sports Talk | 3 Comments »
And, if it makes you feel any better, the smallest “2722” shirt they had at the stadium was an adult small – too big for my 9-year old. I’m sure places like Modell’s and the like will have them in smaller sizes in short order, of course…
Anyway, thanks for stopping by & leaving a comment. Enjoy the October baseball! ;-)
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