Derek Jeter’s reputation was larger than than life when he was with the Yankees. The city of New York held onto his every word, yet the Hall of Fame shortstop had little to say, according to those who covered him closely.
In the fifth episode of “The Show,” Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman discussed what it was like dealing with Jeter during his heyday.
“[Jeter] was very guarded, he didn’t really let you into his life, didn’t love all the publicity, particularly anything negative,” Heyman said of the Yankees’ superstar. “I do think that he was very pleasant, he was available and not every superstar is available. [For] some people, I think it got under their skin that he wouldn’t really give you his honest-to-goodness answers … and he liked things to be sanitized, as we saw.”
However, tensions rose between Heyman and Jeter following the end of his playing career.
“As a player, I didn’t mind [Jeter] at all,” Heyman said. “Later, when he tried for the Marlins and did eventually get the Marlins I ran afoul with him a little bit because I took the other side.
Former New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter giving his acceptance speech at the Baseball Hall of Fame. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
Derek Jeter was one of the few ballplayers who put winning above personal stats, Post columnist Jon Heyman recalled. Jason Szenes“I suggested that [Jorge] Mas should get the team and Jeter of course didn’t like that. I don’t blame him.”
Sherman concurred with his co-host, echoing that, despite being placed on such a big stage, Jeter was “great at hiding in plain sight.”
“[Jeter] was smart and insightful, and there was stuff that did not have to be salacious or back-pagey where he could have taken us deeper inside his thoughts as the most famous athlete in the biggest city in the world,” Sherman said. “He just wouldn’t do it. I admire it because he felt like it’s not that I won’t touch the third rail, I’m not gonna get within a hundred yards of the third rail.”
Jeter’s complete and utter focus on baseball and nothing else was what ultimately contributed to his greatness.
“He was the one player who cared only about winning and not his personal stats,” Heyman added. “That’s really what the game is about, and he understood that.”
Despite their past row, Heyman asserted he wasn’t the sole writer who didn’t vote Jeter into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
“I will go on record, he’s already mad at me on the ownership, but I did vote for him for the Hall of Fame. I thought he was one of the greatest of all-time as a player.”
A documentary on The Captain, named just that, debuted Monday at the Tribeca Film Festival and is set to air on ESPN July 18 as a seven-part series.
