Derek Jeter is a former professional baseball player known for his Hall of Fame career as a shortstop for the New York Yankees.
Who Is Derek Jeter?
New Jersey-born Derek Jeter was drafted by Major League Baseball's New York Yankees in 1992. He helped the Yankees defeat the Atlanta Braves to win the World Series in 1996, and cemented his place as one of the city's most popular athletes with World Series wins in 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2009. Named team captain in 2003, he became the Yankees' all-time hits leader in 2009, and ranked sixth in MLB history with 3,465 hits by the time he retired in 2014. Jeter went on to launch The Players' Tribune website and become part-owner of the Miami Marlins. He fell one vote short of unanimous election to Baseball's Hall of Fame in 2020.
Early Life and Career
Derek Sanderson Jeter was born on June 26, 1974, in Pequannock, New Jersey. The elder of two children of Dorothy, an accountant, and Charles, a substance-abuse counselor, he moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan, at age 4 so his father could pursue a Ph.D. in psychology from Western Michigan University.
Lanky and athletic, Jeter was talented enough to play basketball at Kalamazoo Central High School, but he was determined to become a Major League Baseball player — specifically, the starting shortstop for the New York Yankees. He batted over .500 in his final two years of high school baseball, striking out just once as a senior. Jeter won several national sports awards, including being named the American High School Coaches Association's 1992 High School Player of the Year, the 1992 Gatorade High School Athlete of the Year and USA Today's High School Player of the Year.
