Jeter Officially SI’s Sportsman of the Year
As we all expected, Derek Jeter was officially named Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year for 2009, the first Yankee to ever receive the honor.
As part of said honor, he did a Q+A with Tom Verducci, the full text of which can be found here.
This is my favorite part:
SI: You received a lot of attention for breaking Lou Gehrig’s record for most hits by a Yankee. With less fanfare, though, you broke Luis Aparicio’s record for most hits by a shortstop. How important was that to you?
DJ: I didn’t even know about that record until two days before. We were in Seattle. A reporter asked me about it. I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ I had no idea. No idea whatsoever. I was unaware of it. But it’s hard to believe, when you think about it.
There’s a lot of good stuff there, including why Jeter would have not known if anyone in his clubhouse was using (or so he says dun dun dun), and how Jeter would one day like to own–not coach or manage, but own–a baseball team.
Because “it’d be fun.”
Hey, isn’t that why we all got into this game in the first place?
One Response on Jeter Officially SI’s Sportsman of the Year
My favorite line:
SI: What do you like best about baseball?
DJ: I just like the game. I like competing. It’s hard to put into words, because it’s all I ever wanted to do. I only wanted to play baseball. I only wanted to play shortstop. I only wanted to play for the Yankees. My whole life. It wasn’t like I wanted to play for another team and ended up in New York. It wasn’t like I wanted to play another position and ended up at short. This has always been the dream of mine: to play shortstop for the New York Yankees. And I get a chance to do it.
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