NEW YORK ? Not often does the universe hold true to its promise and grant us the perfect day. Not often does a baseball game on a sparkling Saturday afternoon feel as if it?s stitched together humanity somehow.
Derek Jeter, naturally, was the focal point ? and goodness, not only did he slip back in time and embrace his inner clutchness, he surpassed all expectations by slugging a home run to become the 28th player in major league history to reach the vaunted 3,000-hit plateau.
The lunacy surrounding Jeter had been stifling, because beyond no Yankee ever crossing into such rarified territory, this particular homegrown Yankee had lately been wildly mocked for all the things he supposedly could no longer do at the grizzled age of 37.
But just as the clock struck 2 p.m. in the Bronx, after receiving a prolonged standing ovation from a swaying, camera-toting sold-out crowd that made it feel as if the Stadium was about to come unglued from its axis, and as players from both dugouts perched on the top steps, eager to bear witness, No. 2 for the Yankees ripped a down-and-in 3-2, third-inning curveball from the bullet-throwing David Price into the left field stands.
It was Jeter?s second hit of the day ? a hard single to left in the first inning on another 3-2, 97-mph pitch had made everyone in the house rub their goose bumps ? and it sent into motion a chain of events that reminded us how sports can transcend.
Straight out of a Hollywood setting, as the ball sailed into the seats, there charged the Captain around first base, the emotion he had bottled tight finally starting to leak. Tampa Bay first baseman Casey Kotchman tipped his cap, and up there in a suite cheered the Hollywood actress girlfriend, Minka Kelly, and some of the quintessential American family that raised such an admirable son.
As Jeter flew across home plate, his teammates pounced, Jorge Posada putting his longtime friend in a tight, teary hug. Many of the Rays applauded, prompting Jeter to gesture at Price and the Tampa infielders in typically classy acknowledgment because, as Jeter would say later, he felt bad the game had been halted. Johnny Damon did all he could not to rush across the field and dog-pile on his former teammate like old times; the crowd?s countless curtain calls came in a rush.
Here were moments so absorbing, so touching, children danced and adults wept.
And as the well-deserved hosannas spread, it grew clear that out in the left field bleachers, amidst the sun-drenched madness, there rose a companion story that matched Jeter?s milestone for sheer feel-good astonishment.
The home run ball that Jeter whacked for career hit No. 3,000 surely would garner six, maybe even seven figures on the open market. Collectors salivated. Sotheby?s waited.
Christian Lopez, a 23-year-old cell phone salesman from Highland Mills, N.Y., didn?t flinch. He didn?t flinch when his dad, Raul, bumbled the ball after it bounced off a grass area, and he didn?t flinch when, from Section 236, Row 1, Seat 19, after dropping his phone, the ball magically landed in his grasp. Raul, his Joe DiMaggio No. 5 throwback jersey getting pulled at from all sides, quickly leaped atop Christian as he cradled his treasure, a father protecting his son.
Within seconds Yankee security had swooped, prepared for some hard bargaining, but Lopez wouldn?t hear of it. He handed over the ball, naturally, because, he said, ?it was the right thing to do,? and ?it was Derek Jeter.?
?Jeter?s an icon. He deserves this, he?s worked so hard for it,? Lopez told me. ?I?m not going to take something away from him. I?ve watched him my whole life and he?s always stood for doing things the right way. He plays the game the way it should be played and he treats fans the way they should be treated, always with respect. What kind of guy would I be to deny him something he has earned??
That day?s tickets, Christian said, were a birthday present from his girlfriend Tara Johnson. Like so many in this economy, he?s ?just trying to get by right now,? but he?d always been taught morality trumps money. The Yankees rewarded Lopez? honorable and magnanimous act by giving him four suite tickets to every game as long as the season continues, along with some signed paraphernalia and a meeting with Jeter.
?I just wanted to watch history,? Lopez said with a shrug, not quite understanding all the fuss or why humans with lesser standards were calling him a fool.
?I have it. Feels like all the rest of them,? Jeter said hours later, when someone asked if the ball was now in his possession. He was sitting in the press room, eyes still slightly glazed, confessing to the media that he?d been untruthful in previous days and then grinning wide, as if he had enjoyed being slightly naughty for once.
Seems the suffocating pressure that stalked his every at-bat this season really had begun to rattle Jeter. The circus personified by the ubiquitous HBO documentary crew marking the chase made him uncomfortable; the negativity surrounding his place in the lineup and on the field ? Drop him down! Move him to left! went the chorus ? was an obvious drag.
How to silence the disbelievers? Besides collecting his 3,000th hit in a manner nobody predicted ? well, one man did, and more on him in a moment, for it was his foresight that led to this perfect day ? Jeter went a staggering 5-for-5, including a game-winning single that squeezed through the infield in the eighth inning of the Yankees? 5-4 victory. Simply, it was impossible to take the eyes off him, for in a cocoon where greater men have wilted, he was by leaps and bounds the best player on the field.
"If I would have tried to have written it and given it to someone, I wouldn't have even bought it quite honestly,? Jeter said of the imaginary script that seemed to have been passed around by the baseball gods. ?It was just one of those special days.
?I've been lying for a long time, telling you guys there was no pressure. There was a lot of pressure to do it here. So I have been lying to you for quite some time.?
Better than advertised from the moment the Yankees signed him in 1992 out of Kalamazoo Central High School, Jeter has mirrored all he has accomplished on the field by the way he lives his life off it. Sure, there?s The Flip, The Dive, the starry November nights, the five World Series rings, the 12 All-Star games and now this. Those aren?t the lone reasons kids ? even grown kids like Christian Lopez ? idolize Jeter.
Never is there an inning where he doesn?t hustle. Never does he want a day off, for fear he might be replaced. Never has there been a scandal where he?s sullied the only uniform he?s ever worn. Despite his uber-famous, bachelor lifestyle, he adeptly sidesteps controversy and, as fellow 3,000 hit-member George Brett noted, Jeter keeps his nose clean in an era when it?s really hard to keep the nose clean.
?My parents wouldn?t let me get out of line,? Jeter once said, as if that was reason enough to live a decent and humble life.
It?s a well-told tale how Jeter informed his family in the second grade that when he grew up, he was going to play shortstop for the Yankees. Lesser told but more important is the story of the handwritten contracts Charles and Dorothy Jeter required Derek and his younger sister Sharlee to sign before every school year, with clauses covering grades, sports, extracurricular activities and the consequences of bad behavior. (No. 6 read ? Trouble At School. We Want To Know About It From You.)
Raised by a black father from Alabama who has a Ph.D. in sociology and worked as a substance abuse counselor and a white mother from New Jersey, Jeter grew up believing he was blessed to straddle the best of both worlds. Charles was at Saturday?s game, but Dorothy and Sharlee had a previous engagement ? the christening of Sharlee?s daughter. As always, Jeter said he felt his father?s presence during every at-bat.
Fidgeting as usual with his gloves, Jeter skipped the banter he often shares with fans as he waits in the on-deck circle. Sometimes he?ll ask them what sort of pitch he should expect but on this day, in the first inning, his grin was tight, the cameras moving in close on his furrowed face.
And then the dam broke. Hit No. 2,999 wasn?t a slow dribbler or a bleeder down the third-base line. It was a clean single through the left side, causing old timers to hark back to Jeter?s first big-league hit, a similar single off Seattle?s Tim Belcher in front of a sparse Kingdome crowd in 1995.
"This is my job. It's the only thing I've done, the only position I've played," Jeter said. "I'm proud of that. I'm proud I'm still playing."
Though he?s weathering a turbulent summer and his worst offensive season ever in his 16-year career, Jeter has never lacked for gigantic intestines. Guts aren?t intangibles. Guts are what define his longevity, his consistency and, especially, his greatness when the moments and the spotlights are at their brightest.
Never a home run hitter, he drove Price?s full count, off-speed pitch deep into the seats, into the cauldron where a Yankee fan would eventually surface with the ball and do something extraordinary with it. Jeter later doubled to left field in his third at-bat, collected his fourth hit in the sixth and snapped a 4-4 tie in the eighth with a single up the gut. He was caught stealing to end that inning, proving perfection has its limits.
?This is the only team I've wanted to play for, and to be the only one to do something like this, I don't know if I can describe it,? Jeter said.
Dick Groch, the scout who long ago watched a tall but thin-as-a-weed kid play ball in damp Michigan fields, turned to his wife Saturday as the bottom of the third inning approached and said he could sense a home run. Nineteen years ago it was Groch who famously predicted a curious truth.
As the Yankees? front office mulled over whom they?d select with the sixth overall pick in the 1992 draft, scouting director Bill Livesey was said to have asked, ?Isn?t Jeter going to the University of Michigan?? Groch fired back: "The only place he's going is to Cooperstown."
All these years later, here came the universe offering up the kind of day that would reaffirm another certain truth: Sometimes the people who play sports and the people who watch the people who play sports really are something special.
Deveney: Captain Comeback: Jeter adds to legend, silences critics in historic effort
One-team wonders: Others who got 3,000 all with one team
Slideshow: Jeter Through the Years | Career timeline
Defining a career: Five memorable moments
Witrado: What comes next for aging star?
McNeal: Could be first unanimous Hall selection
Place in history: Where he stands among other Yankee greats
Needed rest: Pulls out of All-Star Game
More milestones: A-Rod, Rivera, Thome also bearing down on history
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