NEW YORK -- Derek Jeter, trying to blink away the tears, and holding a towel over his face, walked slowly around the Yankee Stadium infield Thursday night, his head spinning, trying to digest what just happened.
When he finally reached the dugout, hugging his family, and walking through the tunnel for the final time toward the clubhouse, he finally surrendered, with the emotions oozing out of his body.
In one of the most surreal and remarkable farewells in Yankee history, leave it up to Jeter to deliver the dramatic game-winning hit in the Yankees' 6-5 triumph over the Baltimore Orioles, just minutes after the Yankees had blown a 3-run lead.
"It was sort of an out of body experience, Jeter said. "It was a weird range of emotions. I was just trying not to cry.''
BOX SCORE: Yankees 6, Orioles 5
In one swing of the bat, Jeter slapped his trademark single to right field. Antoan Richardson came scurrying toward home, and there was Jeter jumping up and down as he rounded first base.
His teammates sprinted onto the field, the sellout crowd of 48,613 danced in the aisles, and Jeter was mobbed, giving him a hero's send-off.
When he walked toward the dugout, there were his famous teammates from the glory days, with Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Bernie Williams and Jorge Posada hugging him, along with Hall of Fame manager Joe Torre.
"I've done a pretty good job controlling my emotions,'' Jeter says. "I try to hide them. I try to trick myself into not feeling those particular emotions.
"Today, I wasn't able to do it.''
Jeter, known for his stoicism during his career, says he broke down several times during the game, retreating to the bathroom to cry, with his eyes tearing up in the ninth inning in the field.
"I was honestly out there saying, "Please don't hit it to me,' Jeter says. "I was thinking to myself, "Get me out of here before I do something that cost us the game.
"Funny, how things changed.''
Certainly, the script was completely altered on the fly. The game plan was to remove Jeter from the game in the top of the ninth inning with the Yankees leading 5-2. Yet, before anyone knew it, closer David Robertson coughed up three runs, the last on Steve Pearce's home run.
Never did a blown save look so beautiful.
No comments:
Post a Comment