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Derek Jeter’s best moments with the Yankees – Metro US

Derek Jeter’s best moments with the Yankees

Derek Jeter. (Photo: Getty Images)

Jeffrey Maier home run

The Yankees were trailing the Baltimore Orioles 4-3 in Game 1 of the ALCS when Jeter came up to bat with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning.

He hit a fly ball down the right-field line that looked playable for Orioles outfielder Tony Tarasco, but 11-year-old fan Jeffrey Maier reached over the wall and stole the ball. The call on the field was a home run and stood despite vehement arguing from multiple members of the Orioles. New York would go on to win the game in extra innings, the series and the World Series, their first since 1978.

 

Starting with a bang

After losing Game 3 of the 2000 World Series to give some momentum back to the crosstown rival Mets, Jeter sucked the air out of Shea Stadium with a lead-off home run in Game 4 off Bobby Jones.

The Yankees would score one run in each of the first three innings, which was enough to secure a 3-2 win and take a commanding 3-1 series lead.  They would win it all in Game 5 with Jeter being awarded the World Series MVP after batting .409 with two home runs, two RBI.

 

The flip

He had no business to be there, but it’s just what adds to the mystique around Jeter.

Down 2-0 in the best-of-three ALDS to the Oakland Athletics, the Yankees held a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the seventh with two outs. After Jeremy Giambi singled, Terrence Long ripped a double to right field, which looked destined to score Giambi and tie the game.

The throw from Shane Spencer missed the cut-off man and didn’t have enough steam to reach Jorge Posada covering home, but Jeter came streaking in from nowhere, collected the ball and flipped it to Posada, who tagged Giambi on the leg to end the inning and the threat.

New York would hold on to win that game, win the following two and advance.

 

Mr. November

An inning after Tino Martinez tied Game 4 of the 2001 World Series against Byung-Hyun Kim and the Arizona Diamondbacks, Jeter ended it in the 10th with an opposite-field blast that just cleared the wall.

The homer happened just minutes after the clock struck midnight on November 1, the first-ever World Series game to be played in November. The heroics earned Jeter the nickname “Mr. November,” as the Yankees tied the series at two games apiece.

They would go on to lose the series in seven games.

 

A true gamer

If anyone questioned Jeter’s desire to win, he silenced those doubters on July 1, 2004, against the Boston Red Sox.

The Yankees were 7.5 games up on the Sox at the time of their meeting at Yankee Stadium as the game wound into extra innings. In the top of the 12th, with runners on second and third, Trot Nixon popped a ball up down the left-field line deep into foul territory.

Not only was Jeter able to cover all that ground to make the catch, but he went diving into the stands, bloodying up his face in the process and ending the Red Sox rally. The Yankees won the game in the following inning.

 

Passing Gehrig

On Sept. 11, 2009, Jeter became the Yankees’ all-time hits leader with his 2,722nd career hit when he poked a single down the right-field line in the bottom of the third inning against the Baltimore Orioles’ Chad Moeller.

Lou Gehrig had held the franchise record for 72 years before Jeter came along.

 

3,000

In the final series before a seven-game road trip, Jeter entered a July 9, 2011, game needing two hits to hit the 3,000-hit peak. After a single off David Price in the first inning, Jeter added another chapter to his storybook career by collecting No. 3,000 with a solo home run over the left field wall.

 

A walk-off to say goodbye

Sept. 25, 2014, was the last time Jeter took the field in pinstripes and he made it as memorable as his entire career.

After blowing a 5-2 lead in the top of the ninth, a Jose Pirela single and sacrifice bunt from Brett Gardner set the table perfectly for Jeter, who took the first pitch from Evan Meek into right for a single, scoring pinch-runner Antoan Richardson and walking off the Yankees in style.