Derek Sanderson Jeter has become a legend on the baseball field, and a hero off the field. He has touched the hearts of many people throughout his life and will touch many more. He bases his life off of a good set of parents who pushed him as a kid in not only baseball, but to have good sensible morals as a person. He also pushed himself to be a good role model to every person around him. He is a good natured person who surrounds himself with other good people. This is how the reputation of Derek Jeter became what it is today.

Derek Jeter was born on June 26th, 1974 in Peuannock, New Jersey. When Derek’s parents brought him home they had no idea what they were going to name him. Derek’s middle name ended up being Sanderson because it was his grandpa’s name. Rumor’s say that his first name came from a famous hockey player named Derek Sanderson. When Derek was four years of age he and his family moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan because his father was pursuing a Ph.d in psychology at Western Michigan University. Michigan is a lot different from New Jersey, on the hand of weather. The weather is cold for eight months a year making it very hard to play baseball. The weather made it hard for Derek to play baseball all the time so he got interested in basketball and was really good at it, but Derek still liked baseball better. His father thought he should pursue basketball because baseball in Michigan just wasn’t a good fit. Derek’s argument to his dad was he was going to play shortstop for the New York Yankees and New York was warmer. He was in fourth grade when he said this. One week later his fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Shirley Garzilloni, gave the class an assignment and asked them to write an essay about what they wanted to be when they grew up. Derek’s teacher said their goals had to be realistic. Derek thought his goal was as realistic as any goal anyone had. There was one problem; he didn’t want to be embarrassed in front of his class. He didn’t want everyone to think to it was a stupid idea because he really believed he could be the starting shortstop for the New York Yankees. After the first night of the assignment he went to his parents about the problem because he knew they would know what to do. They told him that they would back him up no matter what his goal was. This made Derek feel so much better about himself and he wrote his paper in one hour. The next day he went to class “walking on air”, and when he shared his paper the only reaction was laughter. All of his classmates thought the dream was so unrealistic and that made Derek almost feel like quitting baseball for good, but he remembered his parents said they would help him achieve his goal no matter what. When he remembered this he never quit trying. In fact he tried even harder from then on; to prove them wrong, to show them that he could do it no matter who didn’t believe him.

When he got ready to play little league baseball that year all of his friends were on the best team and he was on a not so good team. He knew that he would have to give 110% so that he could win some games and have some fun. That year he helped his team come in second place and he was picked to the all-star team.

From that point forward he was given many all-star team selections, and before high school he was batting .778. High school was when he was forced to drop basketball and focus on his ultimate dream, to play for the New York Yankees. The first two high school seasons he wasn’t on many college’s “radar”. He only wanted to get better and know the competition in his future, not have all of the fame and publicity. To him, it was a way to lose sight of a dream that he had worked so hard to stand and fight for. After those first two years he couldn’t get away from the media. In his last two years as a high schooler he had a batting average of .500! That got colleges wanting his talent on their team. In those two years he was making the grades in the classroom and he made honor roll all four years he was in high school. His academic success lead him to full time scholarships with division one schools. Before he got to college he earned the 1992 Gatorade high school player of the year award. With this award, he had colleges practically begging him to commit to their school.

Derek wanted to be close to home, so he committed to Michigan University. When he committed he was put into the 1992 MLB draft and he was drafted sixth overall by, yes, his all-time dream, the New York Yankees. At first, he wanted to play at the major league level but then realized he needed a couple of years of minor league baseball. He was a fast riser and won the 1994 Minor League player of the year. He played 29 games in triple A before he made his major league debut on May 19, 1995. From that point, he never looked back. In his first season as a New York Yankee shortstop he batted .314 with ten home runs and seven RBI’s. He also won the 1996 Rookie of the Year award for his outstanding batting average and his defensive rating of 99.6. After that he never stopped hitting or using his glove. He was selected to fourteen all-star teams and had only one all-star MVP, but played as well as any player ever did in all-star games. In fact, according to ESPN, he had the fifth most hits in all-star game history. Although some of the all-time greats never played in all star games, if they had, ESPN predicts that he would have been sixth in all-star hits. To go along with those all-star seasons, he had five gold glove awards for his outstanding fielding at shortstop.

His most outstanding feat was on September 12, 2009 when he got his 2,722nd hit and passed Lou Gehrig on the Yankee’s all-time hit list. After the game he said that he came into the game unknowing he would pass one of the greatest players to ever play for the New York Yankees. Instead of taking the moment for himself he tipped his hat to the fans and showed humility during a time when he could have been a hot shot and celebrated too much. The way he acted during such a moment shows he was raised and taught in the right way. When he was asked how much this meant to him he gave all the praise to the fans and his family, and not once did he say that he was the one who done it all to pass Lou.

In his last game at Yankee Stadium he was shown the respect he has always shown to the fans and he never failed to give it right back. When he walked onto the field to begin the game they had to postpone the game for five and a half minutes before it was even possible to play baseball. By the end of the ovation Derek was crying tears of joy from the way the fans made him feel. That game he went three for four with, here is the big moment, a game-winning RBI to win the game. That hit, added to the fact it was his last game, made this game the most emotional game of his career, in front of his 3,000th hit and passing Lou on the all-time hit list. He answered questions after the game but they were short because of the emotion running through his body during that time. At the end he thanked everyone and said his career has been much more than he could have ever thought to have asked for.

Off the field he has done a lot of good as well. In 2006 he signed with Avon Products Incorporated to create a product for men called Driven. To create the product he put in 3 million dollars of his own money for men he knows will want this product. Here’s the catch, 7% of all of the money they get with the product goes to charity and children’s hospitals.

His biggest accomplishment is the Turn 2 foundation which encourages kids to be healthy, academically successful, to be leaders, and to stay away from drugs and alcohol. This foundation was created in 1996 but really kicked off in 2008 when drugs and alcohol were getting bigger and bigger. He feels he is helping kids get the leadership they need from this program which makes him feel so much better about his career as a person. Since he doesn’t have any kids right now he feels he is interacting with kids and helping them. He feels like he is making connections to help kids for the better.

On July 4th, 2016 he got married to his fiance Hannah Davis and they were married outside. Derek wanted to wait until his baseball career was over so that they could tie the knot between the two. They had been dating for over two years and he proposed to her at a restaurant near Yankee Stadium and his former teammate and Yankee retiree Mariano Rivera was the first person to know about Derek’s engagement and he said,” I’m glad Derek is finally making the move he has always talked about.” Derek plans on baby Jessica on February 9, 2107.
Derek Jeter has been a leader and a role model to many people over his life and the lessons he has taught people have stuck with them their whole lives. He will continue to inspire those who need it the most and he will give be the world something to balance their lives off of. He will always be a legend in my life and in many more lives. This is the life and legend of Derek Sanderson Jeter.