TWO WORDS: DEREK JETER

I have a 14-year old baseball player.  Well, he’s more than just a baseball player.  He’s a true talent.  He’s been seen by pro players and college coaches and gotten nothing but rave reviews.  He is a legitimate 5-tool player – a switch hitting shortstop with plus speed, a cannon for an arm. He got incredible range and athleticism and a gamers mentality, the kind of kid who always looks good doing anything on the field.  Baseball has been his life since he was about three years old when he first picked up a bat and without any coaching, swung it like he was born to play.

So on the way home from a weekend tournament, he sat back in his seat and after reading a text from one of his high school buddies and sighed, “I have no life.”  What he meant was this, his friends all went to the football game on Saturday and then to the movies. He didn’t. So what’s a dad to say?  Two words: “Derek Jeter.”

And that’s what I said.  He nodded, and let it sink in and accepted it.  It didn’t mean he is going to be the starting shortstop for the Yankees or that he is going to have 3,200 hits. It didn’t mean penthouse apartments in the Big Apple, supermodels, and more money than you can spend in 10 life times. It meant hard work all your young life.

For my son, the words Derek Jeter mean skipping football games for practice. It means missing the movies to go hit in the cage.  It means school, homework, working out, eating dinner, hitting off the tee in the basement for an hour and getting to practice 30 miles away only to get home in time to go to bed and do it all over again the next day.  It may not seem like a what a high schoolers life should be, but he knows practice makes perfect and it exemplifies the definition of hard work.

There’s a reason why Derek Jeter is my son’s and millions of other’s hero and role model.  He made the same sacrifices. We’ve seen how hard he works to win every day. Derek earned our love, admiration and respect because at 38, he works just as hard as he did at 22 and when pain kicks in, it’s 2 Advil and a glass of water…but the work doesn’t stop.

We’ve all heard Derek’s parents talk about how hard he worked as a kid. We all admire the focus his family has and how important they are in Jeet’s life (Read WHY DEREK JETER IS EPIC FOR 1 GOOD REASON.)   As a person, you can understand that when you set your sights on a career, in baseball, in life, you make sacrifices, sacrifices that seem unfair at times.  But that’s reality and as I tell all my kids, we live in the real world.  Say “Derek Jeter” and you know what it stands for.

I know, this is Bleeding Yankee Blue, where’s the tie-in? Right here; All of our Yankees need to emulate the Captain. They need to start making the sacrifices on and off the field.  They need to hustle, (Hey Robbie Cano, are you listening?) Winning takes work, if it was easy all the pro teams would be doing it. Look, this is simple; with less than two weeks to go to lock down the division, it’s time for the rest of the team to get the memo. It’s time for the Yankees to play like the Yankees every day. Read THE YANKEES NEED TO BE PERFECT NOW.

But back to my son. After driving about 10 miles in silence, the words Derek Jeter sunk in.  I casually mentioned that he’d had a great weekend.  In fact, he had the kind of weekend that most kids will never have.  No, his team didn’t win the tournament, but they showed that all of the hard work paid off.  My boy played his usual stellar baseball and I’m proud of him for that, but there’s one thing I didn’t mention until now;  After playing two games on Saturday (game 1 at 1pm, game 2 started at 9pm,) we had to get up at 5:30 am Sunday to be on our way back to the tournament for an 8:30 game.  That’s right, 5 hours of sleep for a 14-year-old and right back at it.  To top it off, my son was starting.

It was cold when we got to the field.  The other team was well rested. Long story short. My boy  pitched a perfect game.  Not a single batter reached base.  In fact, he was so locked in, he only threw 6 balls.  Perfecto.  Amazing.  Awesome. His teammates were beyond psyched.  Even the opposing teams and fans were giving him high fives. Not only good sportsmanship… respect.  And I got one of those hugs that left both of us fighting back the tears – the kind of hug that teenage boys who are taller than their dads don’t give out in public and you know what? I got it.

So yeah, my son misses the movies, maybe a football game with friends, but in that moment of frustration and having “no life”, there was one thing that happened that Sunday morning…boy wonder did what he worked so hard for but didn’t truly understand it until that perfect game.  He truly understood the definition of that 2 important words… Derek Jeter and I couldn’t be happier.

--Chris Kram, BYB Contributor



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