On a good day, there’s no better place to be than the iconic Yankee Stadium. But if you’re in the park, and you’re having a bad day, it doesn’t matter if you’re Derek Jeter or if you’re President George Bush, you will face the heat of the bleachers. So did the 696-homer man Alex Rodriguez, who struck out in his first three at-bats and started facing the heat of the iconic Bronx.
Naturally, A-Rod was under pressure, and he didn’t know what to do before Captain Clutch came to his rescue. With a calm mind and a perfect read of the situation, Jeter whispered a few words to frenemy A-Rod, which turned out to become a game-winning home run.
Derek Jeter’s magic words helped Alex Rodriguez smash a game-winning homer
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In a podcast called Club30 with former hockey player Henrik Lundqvist, A-Rod narrated the incident from that day. He started by talking about his poor form, and said, “I think I’m having a horrific game. I’m getting booed. It’s my third strikeout. And you know, when you strike out and you make the last out of baseball, like usually, Jeter will bring out my glove. And he knows I’m going through a hard time. So he gives me my glove and my hat, and he lets me kind of sit there for 30 seconds.”
When Jeter walked up his third-baseman in the middle of the innings, as narrated by A-Rod, Jeter said, “Look around. It’s Wednesday afternoon, is a hundred degrees, and there’s 54,000 people watching us play. How lucky are we?”
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Somehow, those magical words changed A-Rod’s poor game, and “boom, that completely changed the paradigm of what I was thinking. Next at bat I come up, and hit a game-winning walk-off home run.”
via Getty
NEW YORK – OCTOBER 20: (L-R) Derek Jeter #2 and Alex Rodriguez #13 of the New York Yankees walk back to the dugout at the end of the top of the fourth inning against the Texas Rangers in Game Five of the ALCS during the 2010 MLB Playoffs at Yankee Stadium on October 20, 2010 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
In the end, after A-Rod smashed the game-changing homer, Jeter stood at the home plate, and said, “See, I told you.'”
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Somehow, and probably magically, Jeter was always the person who said the right thing at the right time, if it was for the team. What do you think about this moment shared between Jeter and A-Rod, despite their long rivalry? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
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