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?

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Deadspin’s sister site Gawker is saying that Derek Jeter is rumored to be Sports Illustrated’s 2009 Sportsman of the Year.

The fun part about things like this is that, depending on the way you look at things, Jeter might not even be the sportsman of the year on his own team (me? I’m a fan of giving the award to the entire team, but that’s another story).

The Yankee Captain earned his fifth World Series ring in 2009 and broke the record for all time hits as a Yankee, though he’s still about two seasons away from hit number 3000.

We’ll see soon enough if the rumor is confirmed, but as it is, enjoy your Thanksgiving leftovers and enjoy the weekend.

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