Derek Jeter Day

We just watched the ceremony at Yankee Stadium for Derek Jeter. This will be his last season with The New York Yankees.

What an outstanding baseball career... and the topper of it all for me is his dedication and his love of the game.  There aren't many players on a baseball field today who truly love the game.  By the headlines some of the players make in the newspapers, it's apparent that a lot of ball players think they're the be-all and the end-all of the game. They forget they're part of a team, part of a tradition, and little league players look up to them as if they were the be-all and end-all of the game.

Derek Jeter, in my opinion, is what baseball should be.  He always came across as a gentleman, as a sportsman, as a true lover of The Game.  And baseball, for all its traditions and its camaraderie, is, after all, just a game.

But..... it's the game of this country. It's part of our history, our culture, our red/white/blue personality.  It is Baseball, it is ours, and you can hardly be an American and not love that game.

Derek Jeter's speech today was heart-felt and heart-warming, and for him, I'm sure it was a bit heart-breaking as well.  Derek Jeter is a part of baseball that can't be replaced after he's gone. That man loves the game. Loves the game. Eats its, sleeps it, plays it... he is the game.

For that talent alone, baseball fans should be thanking Jeter for all his years of getting out on that field and picking up a glove, a ball, and a bat. And today, they did.