The Best Derek Jeter Site Ever!

I started this site as a tribute to a great baseball player and while Jeter is still a great baseball player, I have my own thoughts as to him being a great person.

If you get bored easily, this article might run a little long for you, but if I'm going to tell you why I don't feel that Jeter is all that great a person it's going to take a few minutes.

Although I've been a baseball fan for well over fifty years, I have never sought out player autographs before but that changed recently. A short while back I was diagnosed with a tumor. This tumor is considered inoperable and for a while I didn't figure that I'd still be here today. The last three MRIs show that it has quit growing for the time being, so it's a little hard to predict the future.

Anyway, going through this experience got me to thinking that I didn't really have anything to leave to my five grand-kids so I decided that I was going to build five small "treasure chests" and fill them with items that my grand-kids would like. Sports autographs seemed like a good idea for some of these items as four of the kids are big sports fans.

What has this got to do with Jeter? Just that I'm beginning to find out that once our "sports heroes" reach a certain point, they no longer worry about their fans and may even take advantage of them.

I know that baseball stars keep pretty busy but stars like Derek Jeter are paid millions of dollars for playing a game, and, as they make a lot more by selling their autographs, I can see why they are not crazy about giving them away except for the fact that the fans are why they make millions to play a game.

But, even their reluctance to give out their autographs is not why I have my doubts about their integrity as a person. My doubts about their integrity stems from the fact that I sent a Derek Jeter card to Mr. Jeter to see if he would autograph it and return it to me so that I could give it back to my grandson. The card belonged to my grandson to start with so now he has a few empty spots in his collection because Mr. Jeter(as well as a couple other "stars") never returned them.

Even if Jeter did not want to autograph the card, he could have stuffed it into the SASE that was included and dropped it in the mail so that Austin would have gotten his card back.

Our superstar baseball player must amass gigantic collections of their own cards at the expense of our kids! Hundreds, or even thousands of starry-eyed kids send in their cards in hopes of getting an autograph and for a millionaire superstar to keep them or even throw them in the trash is in-excusable. The fans are the reason that they are making millions and it would not hurt any of them to take a day now and then to give some of that support back. Especially for the kids!

The younger players are great at returning autographs! It appears that your ego and dis-regard for the fans doesn't start until you've had your name in the papers a few dozen times.

Come on Jeter! Send the kids back their cards even if you are not willing to autograph them.

I recently mailed my Derek Jeter Signature card to Derek asking that he sign it and return it to me.

I know! It might just be the last time that I see that card, but I've heard that Jeter is one of the best when it comes to autographs and figured that it was worth a try.

I included a stamped, self-addressed envelope so I'll be patiently waiting.

Stay tuned! If I get it back, I'll be sure to let you know.

And as long as we're talking about autographs, why not take a few minutes to check out my Baseball Autographs Site?

Picture by:OneTwo1 of the English Wikipedia
Derek Jeter at the New York Yankees vs. Colorado Rockies game on June 16, 2007.

I've got to admit that even though I kind of doubted that Derek would autograph my card, I've been waiting to see that SASE in my mailbox even if it were just my card back but hoping for the autograph.

I think that for every day that goes by, my heart sinks a little lower. The players are really busy at this time of year but I'm afraid that my letter (and my card) will end up in the trash if it lays around too long.

While I realize that the players are really busy and get a lot of fan mail, I also know that if it were not for us fans they would not be in the positions that they are now. Not to make Derek or any other player mad, I kind of feel that taking a little time to answer fan request for autographs shouldn't be too much to ask. Especially when you think of them making millions of dollars partially because of fans like me who are living on a social security check.

And it does seem like the more famous they get, the harder it is to get an autograph request returned.

You'll probably never read this Derek but if you do, please don't think that it is directed at you! It just seems to be a fact anymore.

Still hoping! And will keep you all informed.

Year Age Team Lg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS+ TB SH SF IBB HBP GDP VORP
1995 21 NYY AL 15 48 5 12 4 1 0 7 0 0 3 11 .250 .294 .375 74 18 0 0 0 0 0 0.9
1996 22 NYY AL 157 582 104 183 25 6 10 78 14 7 48 102 .314 .370 .430 101 250 6 9 1 9 13 44.0
1997 23 NYY AL 159 654 116 190 31 7 10 70 23 12 74 125 .291 .370 .405 103 265 8 2 0 10 14 44.1
1998 24 NYY AL 149 626 127 203 25 8 19 84 30 6 57 119 .324 .384 .481 127 301 3 3 1 5 13 71.1
1999 25 NYY AL 158 627 134 219 37 9 24 102 19 8 91 116 .349 .438 .552 153 346 3 6 5 12 12 108.5
2000 26 NYY AL 148 593 119 201 31 4 15 73 22 4 68 99 .339 .416 .481 128 285 3 3 4 12 14 72.7
2001 27 NYY AL 150 614 110 191 35 3 21 74 27 3 56 99 .311 .377 .480 123 295 5 1 3 10 13 63.9
2002 28 NYY AL 157 644 124 191 26 0 18 75 32 3 73 114 .297 .373 .421 111 271 3 3 2 7 14 51.8
2003 29 NYY AL 119 482 87 156 25 3 10 52 11 5 43 88 .324 .393 .450 125 217 3 1 2 13 10 47.9
2004 30 NYY AL 154 643 111 188 44 1 23 78 23 4 46 99 .292 .352 .471 114 303 16 2 1 14 19 52.8
2005 31 NYY AL 159 654 122 202 25 5 19 70 14 5 77 117 .309 .389 .450 125 294 7 3 3 11 15 59.6
2006 32 NYY AL 154 623 118 214 39 3 14 97 34 5 69 102 .343 .417 .483 132 301 7 4 4 12 13 80.5
2007 33 NYY AL 156 639 102 206 39 4 12 73 15 8 56 100 .322 .388 .452 121 289 3 2 3 14 21 53.3
2008 34 NYY AL 138 557 88 179 25 3 11 69 11 5 52 80 .300 .363 .408 103 225 5 4 0 8 22 34.3
Totals: 1973 7986 1461 2521 410 57 205 1000 275 75 811 1371 .316 .386 .458 121 3660 72 43 29 137 193 785.4

If you've made it this far, I'd appreciate it if you would check out Dene's Place to see if there's anything that you might like for yourself or as a gift. It helps me pay the bills!

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to check out my other lenses when you have time.

Much of the information used here has been researched from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.