The Life of Derek Jeter: Before a World Champion

The Life of Derek Jeter: Before a World Champion

"Derek Jeter, a professional ballplayer for the Yankees..." are the exact words Derek Jeter, himself, used in his eighth-grade yearbook (Jeter xvi). For as long as he could remember, Jeter has longed to be a New York Yankee. Fifteen years after predicting he would be a professional ballplayer for the Yankees, Derek Jeter is now more than a Yankee. Jeter isn't only a Yankee; he is a family guy and a World Champion. His career started when he was five years old, and everything has evolved from there. Sports fans know what life for Derek Jeter is now, but what was life like before he became a world champion, superstar, and captain of the New York Yankees.

Derek Jeter's life is started and baseball is about to be changed forever. On June 26, 1974, Charles and Dorothy Jeter gave birth to one of the greatest athletes today, Derek Jeter, in Pequannock, New Jersey (Biography par 1). Charles, being caucasian, and Dorothy, being African American, gave Derek his tan complexion. For the next four years Jeter lived in New Jersey within 30 miles of Yankee Stadium (Biography par 1). Not knowing at the time that he would end up back in New York as a Yankee, Jeter's family moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan where Derek was able to start playing baseball at the age of five, and would spend the summers with his grandma in New Jersey (Biography par 1). She persuaded him to be a Yankee fan by taking him to multiple games during the summer at Yankee Stadium. Soon, Jeter would come to idolize Dave Winfield (Biography par 1), who played outfield for the Yankees from 1981 to 1988 (Winfield), and was later inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Now that Jeter has been exposed to baseball and Yankee Stadium, his love for baseball would grow.

Jeter would soon find himself in high school. As a freshman, Jeter went to try out for the junior varsity team on the first day of baseball tryouts. While the team was warming up Marv Signeski, the varsity coach, came up to Jeter and said, " Son, varsity tryouts are in another two hours" (Jeter 49). After implying that he obviously thought Jeter was able to play above the junior varsity level, Signeski had been mistaken. After Noticing Jeter's arm strength, according to Jeter, Signeski thought that Derek was a junior or a senior (49). Later, he would go on to play junior varsity for two-thirds of the season before the varsity coach moved him to the varsity team. In his sophomore year, Jeter tried out for the varsity squad and made it. His junior year was an exceptional year and he hit .557 (57.7% of the time he was able to get a hit) (Biography par 3). This shows that he could hit the ball very well. He was also able to back his batting average up with a power swing. Jeter hit seven home runs his junior year (Biography par 3). Showing he could not only hit, but he could hit the long ball too. Jeter's senior year was an even more amazing year statistically. According to his website, in his senior year, Derek had an amazing .637 on base percentage (63.7% of the time he was able to reach base safely, but not on an error) (par 3). Being on base so much doesn't come from just hitting the ball. Jeter also got on base 21 times just by walking (Biography par 3). Jeter was noticeably a patient hitter. Showing patience and amazing hand-eye coordination, Derek struck out just one time in his whole senior year in 23 games. Following up his junior year in the power category, Jeter hit just four home runs and had 23 runs batted in (RBI's) with a batting average of .508, but his slugging percentage (the total number of bases reached by safe hits, divided by total at-bats) was an amazing .831 (Biography par 3). So, for every at bat, Jeter averaged .831 bases. After having an amazing senior year Jeter won the following awards by various programs: "High School Player of the Year" by The American Baseball Coaches Association, "Gatorade High School Athlete of the Year," USA Today's "High School Player of the Year" (Biography par 3). In June of 1992 was the Major League Baseball draft. As the sixth overall pick of the draft, the New York Yankees selected Derek Jeter. Jeter was the first high school player selected in the draft in that particular year. After a superb high school career, Jeter is on his way to the big leagues.

After being drafted in the first round, Derek Jeter would be asked to arrive in Tampa, Florida for camp within the next couple of days. According to Jeter, being the family guy that he is, he asked if he could stay at home for an extra week to spend time with his family and girlfriend before he left (27). The Yankees organization said no and Jeter headed to Tampa for camp. He was the last one to get to camp, so he had to have a room by himself. He wouldn't play his first minor league game for the Class A Tampa Rookie League team until 1993. The start wasn't so well for Jeter when he was in the minors. According to Jeter, in his book The Life You Imagine, he failed to get a hit in his first 14 at-bats, and as the only one in the entire draft to get an $800,000 signing bonus, he felt that the other players were "scrutinizing" him because he was playing so poorly (29). Jeter was able to rebound and ended up with above average statistics. He had a batting average of .295, which was good enough to be the eleventh best in the league (Biography par 5). That is not the only category that Jeter excelled in. He also finished