DEREK JETER: THE POT OF GOLD AT THE END OF THE RAINBOW

     It was a night that was jam-packed with emotional tributes.  It was a night when one may have expected the ghosts - the giants of New York Yankees history - Ruth...Gehrig...DiMaggio...and Mantle...just to name a few - to appear from an imaginary corn "field of dreams"...to offer 40-year old Derek Jeter immortality...as the Yankee star he deserves to be...now...and forever.

     

     In a world where some Major League Baseball superstars are accused of using performance enhancing drugs...and some of the top National Football League players are suspended - and arrested - for domestic violence and child abuse...we then have Derek Jeter - an athlete extraordinaire - who has always been given an infinite amount of respect...for he is the ultimate role model for people young and old alike...and a golden boy who oozes with class.  Derek Jeter is known to be so nice...so special...and so naturally tender with compassion, humanity and heart...that even his rivals have got to adore him.

     If the scene at Yankee Stadium last Thursday, September 25th, 2014 was part of a motion picture or television show...nobody would believe that it could happen.  Many would think it was the imagination...the fantasy...of a Hollywood screenwriter.  But Derek Jeter's last at bat at home in the Yankee pinstripes was anything but fantasy - certainly no fairytale - and altogether "2" awesome.  A walk-off single by the Yankees captain to win the game against the Baltimore Orioles was the perfect way for all of us who love Derek to remember him.  Oh we'll remember Derek Jeter for many other wonderful performances on the diamond...both as a superb shortstop and while up at the plate making hit after hit after hit...but the image of Derek's opposite-field single last Thursday night...and the RBI to beat the Orioles by a score of 6 to 5...will stick in our memory banks for years and centuries to come.  It was a picturesque conclusion to a colossal career.  Of today's Yankees...number 2... is clearly...number one.

     It is the romance of baseball.  Let us fondly recall...back to July 9th, 2011...that Derek - doing it in style - belted a home run for his 3000th hit.  Couple that with his walk-off single for his last at bat at Yankee Stadium...and "Captain Clutch" made a storybook ending become reality.  This is one of those moments that every baseball fan should experience...one of those moments we will always treasure.  So let's savor the moment.  For me... nobody can change my mind that the miracle that is Derek Jeter... combined with the miracle of God...didn't offer the fans of the "Bronx Bombers"...exactly what we needed...to end an illustrious career.  After all...it rained in "The Big Apple" - practically all day - but throughout the game last Thursday night...Mother Nature gave Derek...his teammates...and baseball fans from near and far...clear skies.  With the cloudburst of showers before the game...along with simultaneous sunshine as the first pitch neared...the "Earth Mother" painted a ravishing and radiant rainbow of colors...arched over Yankee Stadium.  And the pot of gold at the end of that rainbow...was Derek Jeter.  If that's not romance...then what is?

     Baseball is beautiful.  Baseball is magical.  And players like Derek Jeter have helped to make it that way.  Yankees management need to start building a stadium monument next to those honoring the legends of yesteryear...who from that great big diamond at heaven's gate...were smiling Thursday night.  And if Hollywood does produce the Derek Jeter movie, it'll end with that walk-off single...giving us chills and goosebumps...with the playing of Frank Sinatra's New York, New York.

 

   Derek Jeter made Yankees fans happy for 20 years...and he continued to do so as he took his last swing at Yankee Stadium.  What a thrilling end to a story...for a guy who - on the field...and off the field - could never let us down.

     And that's The Controversy for today.

     I'm Gary B. Duglin.

     "We'll talk again."

The Controversy is a publication of GBD Productions.  Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Controversy is Gary B. Duglin.

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