Oh What a Night it Was, It Really Was
The night was a final confirmation of things we already knew.
Jeter wasn’t just on winning teams, he was the winner who helped drive those teams. And while his pal Johnny Damon might have been captain caveman for a while, Jeter proved he was always Captain Clutch.
It cemented the love between Jeter and Yankees fans forever everywhere more than any monument. As he walked off that night holding dirt from the shortstop hole in his hand, the fans just knew this love affair was going to go on forever.
They looked ahead to Jeter’s immediate emeritus status and how he was going to be the father of the next generation. He would follow in the footsteps of so many Yankees legends to help raise the next group of Baby Bombers.
He was going to be in Spring Training every year, a captain’s lunch always on the menu. Fans would see him at the Stadium throughout each season, and his ubiquitous presence would be an umbrella providing comfort through good times and bad.
Have the Yankees to go through a rebuild? That’s okay because they can look at the owner’s box to see Jeter standing there, the patron saint of winning, and gain hope for a new shining city on the hill.
Alex Rodriguez, meanwhile, had a wholly different but utterly appropriate ending.