Jeter's Legendary Era Ends in the Bronx Tonight

Everyone knew this day would come when he announced his retirement back in March during Spring Training. But now that the day has finally come, there's a sense of near emptiness set to fill the hearts of Yankee fans throughout the stadium as Derek Jeter is ready to play his final game in the Bronx when the Yankees take on the Orioles tonight at 7:05pm.

Twenty baseball seasons later, 3,461 hits in 2,743 games with a career slash line of .310/.377/.440, 260 career home-runs and 1,307 RBI's later. Then you toss in the career moments; the five World Series Rings, 14 all-star selections, Mr. November, 'the flip', 'the dive', "3,000 with an exclamation point," and than you remind yourself that he did it all with one team, in front of one city - a feat unheard of in professional sports today; two decades playing for one-team - one uniform.

He's led the Bronx Bombers to sixteen post-season appearances during his illustrious career. Batting .308/.374/.465 with 20 home-runs, and 61 RBI's. He's the only player in baseball history with 200 post-season hits. When the pressure was always at it's highest pinnacle under the bright lights of the World Series, it was Derek Jeter who shined the brightest - batting .231 and notching 50 of those 200 hits in seven world series appearances.

But, and this is BIG BUT for you Mr. Keith Olbermann - it's not all about the numbers and the consistent success that Jeter has brought to the Bronx over the past twenty years. Instead, it's how he wen't about his success and how he did it 'clean'.

Craig Carton of CBS New York said it best;

"Why not enjoy the fact that there's a baseball player who we can all look up to who did it right. Who didn't put drugs in his body and it represented everything great about baseball and about being a professional athlete. We are living in times right now where men are beating their wives and attacking their children and drugging themselves beyond recognition. Here's a guy [Derek Jeter] that did it the right way.

When Jeter took over for the Yankees as there everyday shortstop in 1996, it was he who revitalized the old 'Yankee way' that led the Yankees to past greatness. He wasn't a home-run slugger like Babe Ruth, Lou Gherig, or Mickey Mantle, he didn't have the speed of Roger Marris or Joe DiMaggio, but Jeter did what Jeter did best - He stayed consistent, for twenty years.

It was the Derek Jeter consistency at the plate and on defense that revitalized the the New York Yankees and put them back on top of the World in 1996, and it was the constancy in his life-style that kept the winning alive throughout his career.

In a time when baseball wen't through it's darkest era, 'the steroid era'- when we saw an asterisk placed next to Barry Bonds name as the all-time Home-Run leader and the Biogenesis scandal, it was Derek Jeter who stayed the course, stayed clean, and reminded everyone that not every great player needed an injection to be great.

When the social media era became a global phenomenon, it was Derek Jeter who maintained a modern life, never buying into selfies, tweets, or selfish online self-promotions.

Of all the great New York sports figures, none have come close to being a big as Derek Jeter. Not even Eli Manning and his two Super Bowl rings, not Mark Messier and the '94 Stanley Cup Rangers, not even Carmelo Anthony, Patrick Ewing, or Walt Frasier. When you think of professional sports in New York, the first name that comes to mind is "Number 2. Derek Jeter. Number 2."

But don't get me wrong. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that Jeter was the most dominate player in the game. I mean truth be told he never won a Regular-Season MVP like other short-stops such as Cal Ripken Jr did, but instead he played the game to win the winningest prize - the World Series.

"He'd taken a ball-club and given it a direction. He'd taken a city and given it a focus. It was about baseball. It was always about the baseball." - Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports.