Throughout his 20 years as the face of the most successful franchise in American sports, Derek Jeter had the constant knack of being in the right place at the right time and in his final game in baseball's cathedral, The Captain found himself in a very familiar spot.
After Brett Gardner bunted the game-winning run in Antoan Richardson to second base, the stage was set for the man who has always had a flair for the dramatics. In vintage Jeter style, he took the first pitch to the opposite field for a walkoff single that set the Yankee Stadium crowd into a frenzy the Bronx had not seen in nearly a half-decade.
But this forever-etched-in-stone moment almost never came to be. With the Yankees holding on to a 5-2 lead over this season's American League Eastern Division Champion and rival Baltimore Orioles, the Stadium crowd nearly overtook Jeter's emotions, which he has been known to never show. The chants of "THANK-YOU-DEREK" and "DEREK-JETER" reigned down from the nearly fifty-thousand in attendance as Jeter tipped his cap and fought back tears.
Yankee closer David Robertson surrendered a two-run home run to Adam Jones and after striking out Nelson Cruz for the second out, Jeter's career at The Stadium was an out away from being complete. How was Joe Girardi going to handle this? Was he going to remove him from the game early like he did a year earlier in Mariano Rivera's final game? Was Jeter going to finish the game? Would Jeter make the final putout?
But before I could stop asking myself just how it would end, Jeter's former teammate Steve Pearce hit a Robertson-offering into the left-centerfield seats tying the game at five.
I had no idea what to think. When the ball off Pearce's bat cleared the wall I yelled some choice words but if I knew what was to come, I may have cheered like an Oriole fan. It ended up being undoubtedly my favorite Yankee blown save of all-time.
After Richardson slid safely into home plate beating Nick Markakis' throw, the cameras cut to an elated Jeter in mid-air with limbs spread in every direction in jubilation. My all-time favorite athlete....who's been playing baseball in the Bronx for two-thirds of my 30 years on this earth....hit a game-winning base hit in the bottom of the ninth in his final home game.
Baseball is a game that has created heroes like Francisco Cabrera, Aaron Boone and Bobby Thomson. It's a sport where the script is never written, but it always seemed to come down to Jeter and more often than not, he delivered.
It's moments like Jeter's farewell single that make baseball such a beautiful game. When you watch a tight football game, all eyes are on Peyton Manning or Tom Brady to lead his team downfield to the game-winning score. In the NBA, everyone in the arena knows LeBron James or Kevin Durant is going to have the ball in his hands with the clock winding down for the last shot. In baseball, it could be any of the nine guys that's turn is up in the batting order.
How I did not cry is a mystery to myself. Maybe it's because Jeter remained stoic in a time where the sports world finally expected him to let his emotional guard down. Maybe it's because I was in the middle of the MLB Network control room surrounded by co-workers. Right now, I don't know. I don't care to know.
What I do know is this is the perfect bookend to a career full of amazing, unscripted memories that came at the most dramatic moments. Whether it was coming out of nowhere to relay an overthrown ball to home plate, hitting a walkoff home run as the clock struck midnight on a Halloween night or taking one of the game's top left-handed starters deep over the wall for his 3,000th career hit, Derek Jeter never stopped giving us jaw-dropping moments.
Was he the best player we've ever seen play? Certainly not. But was he the closest thing to a perfect ballplayer and model athlete? You better believe it.
Goodbye, Derek....and thank you for everything.
