Derek Jeter played a game at Yankee Stadium for the final time Thursday night, but the performance he delivered will last a very long time. And on a highly emotional night, Jeter delivered two hits, three RBI, including the game-winner, and scored a run in the Yankees 6-5 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.
The 20-year veteran, who is retiring after this season, was serenaded throughout the game with chants of "Der-ek Je-ter" that nearly moved the shortstop to tears as he played in his 1,391st and last game at Yankee Stadium as he contributed to a fairytale send-off.
Jeter gave the Yankees a 1-0 lead in the first with double to left-center, snapped a 2-2 tie with an RBI grounder in the seventh, and with the game tied 5-5 in the bottom of the ninth, he singled to right for a game-winner that sent the crowd into a frenzy.
Jeter was mobbed by his teammates near second-base after his game-ending hit.
He hugged each one before heading toward the dugout where his former 'Core Four' teammates -- Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada, who won five World Series together -- waited to congratulate him.
He then walked out to his shortstop position, and with the crowd still roaring and opposing Orioles players applauding at the railing in front of the visitors' dugout, he acknowledged the crowd and took some time for personal reflection.
"I never dreamed of an ending like this," Jeter said. "I wouldn't have believed it myself."
All-day rain had threatened to spoil the party, but it came to a stop an hour before game time and the grey skies brightened for the 48,000 fans that packed Yankee Stadium for the 40-year-old Jeter's final home performance.
Jeter, the face of the storied club and Major League Baseball over the last two decades, said he had played his last game at shortstop, and would appear as a designated hitter for the final games of the season in Boston against the Red Sox.
"Today I decided I wanted to take something special from Yankee Stadium and New York and it would be playing shortstop," he said. "I wanted to take my last view from shortstop at Yankee Stadium."
Jeter has already ensured he will retire as having played more games, registered more hits and stole more bases of any other Yankee in history.
Jeter choke's back tears as he thanks Yankees fans: https://t.co/bNMyqN1cdF (@ForTheWin)
— USA TODAY Sports (@USATODAYsports) September 26, 2014
The game-winning single through the hole into right field gave him 3,463 career hits, sixth highest in major-league history.
Emotions ran high as fans saluted the 14-time All-Star, who came to symbolize the best in baseball in terms of consistency on the field and the way he conducted himself off it.
Critics have asserted that Jeter, despite his five Gold Gloves for fielding excellence at baseball's arguably most demanding position, was overrated as a shortstop.
They pointed to statistical research that showed he had sub-par range and might have hurt the team during the last couple of seasons by continuing to hit near the top of the order despite fading at the plate.
Others have taken shots at the commercialization of Jeter's farewell tour, with the Yankees marketing every conceivable product they could tie into the campaign.
It did not stop souvenir hunters packing into the roomy Yankees Store behind home plate on Thursday as they purchased everything from a $275 replica game jersey to a $120 hoodie sweatshirt, to a package deal of a Jeter T-shirt, hat, lapel pin, baseball and an 'I Witnessed History' button for $75.
But after all that buying, the sellout crowd still paid him wave after wave of affectionate tribute by breaking into "Thank You Derek" as a late-innings tribute.
"There were a couple of times I almost broke down," the usually stoic Jeter said.
"I was almost thinking of telling Joe (manager Girardi) get me out of here before I cost us this game."
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