Goodbye To The Captain! Derek Jeter Calls It A Career

He is the last active member of the dynasty teams of the late 1990's. He is the captain of the New York Yankees. After the 2014 season, Derek Jeter is calling it a career. Jeter debuted on May 29th 1995 and played every single game in his big league career with the same team, the Yankees. And what a career its been.

During his 19 years in the big leagues, he is a career .319 hitter, with 3316 hits (10th all time at this moment), 256 career homers and 1,216 RBI's to go along with 348 stolen bases. Jeter's best year came in 1999 when he finished the year leading the league with 219 hits, 24 homers, 102 RBI's and a .349 batting average. Jeter was a bigtime winner, walking away with, at the moment, 5 world series titles, over 3,000 hits, including the most hits ever by a Yankee player. In fact, Jeter ranks first in Yankees history in games played, at-bats, hits and stolen bases. He won the 1996 AL Rookie of the Year and would be eligible for the 2020 Hall of Fame ballot, which he is almost a lock for.

Jeter will go down in history as one of the top ten greatest Yankees ever, and in my book is the greatest shortstop of my generation. There are a few things that really set Jeter apart from other big name players in the game of baseball. No superstar in sports is more accessible than Jeter, who is available by his locker before and after almost every game, mainly to take pressure off teammates. When Jeter was interviewed, he was never able to be baited into saying something that will linger as a story. He does not raise his voice, rarely shows irritation and never goes off the record. He was also always there to make younger guys feel welcome. Jeter wasn't a brash star, he knew his role, knew it very well, and played that role to perfection. That's what sets him apart from other players in not just baseball, but in all sports.

Jeter had solid offensive numbers during his career, he never had the numbers that really jump out at you like say Nomar or A-Rod, but he was always consistent. Also think about this, during his career, Jeter played in the playoffs 16 times, in a total of 33 series. He hit 20 home runs, drove in 61 runs and hit .301 lifetime in the postseason. And of all of that, Jeter played in seven World Series, with 3 homers 9 RBI's and a .321 career hitter in the Series alone!

Jeter has had so many memorable plays, like the Leadoff homer against Bobby Jones in Game 4 of the 2000 World Series, the 1996 home run against Baltimore (Jeffrey Maier homer), the flip play against the Oakland A's during the 2001 playoffs, and the one play that stands out to most fans is him launching himself into the crowd in 2004 to make a catch in the 12 inning against the Red Sox. The guy was a hard nose player who would do anything he had to do to win a baseball game.

There is a good chance that Jeter will be honored at every opposing ballpark, just like Mariano Rivera got last year. The big question for Jeter is to how well he is going to play coming off the injuries he has suffered through the last few years. It would be a great ending for a great player for Jeter to go out with a good year. Regardless of what happens, personally I'm pulling for a good year from Jeter and he stays healthy, but whatever happens Jeter is going out on top as the greatest shortstop of this generation and one of the greatest shortstops ever!