“He Pulled Me Aside..” – Derek Jeter Recalls His Father’s Brutal Reality Check Which Almost Killed His MLB Dream

Baseball legend Derek Jeter is always known to be the calmest team player. But was he a team player at every point in his life? Surely he was one when his team won, but not so much when he lost.

The former shortstop Derek Jeter now tells people about how failures and losses are inevitable. But at one point in his life, he was not so keen on losing. Losing gracefully is hard because it means accepting that the other team was slightly better. But shaking hands after losing shows sportsmanship. While players of MLB might not shake hands after the game ends, it is standard for games below the professional level to line up and shake hands. 

He needed to learn the fact that losing in a game helps and that it will come no matter what happens. But he needed to learn how to be a team player when he lost a game. He didn’t shake hands when he lost the game. But his father was his coach at the time, and he taught Jeter what he needed to listen to make a change in his life. 

How did Derek Jeter learn the lesson of team spirit from his father?

It is no hidden fact that the former shortstop’s father used to play baseball, and he was quite good at it as well. Therefore, Derek, as a kid, used to request his father to become his coach as he played in the Little League. Somehow, his father agreed and started coaching him. But he noticed that his son was not shaking hands with the other team’s players when his team lost the game. 

Therefore, one day, when the young Derek Jeter straight out refused to shake hands, his father had to take action. In Jeter’s words, “He pulled me aside saying, man, you need to start playing an individual sport.”

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And that hit Jeter that if needed to play a team game, he needed to have team spirit. And if he does not like to shake hands after losing, he should be playing an individual sport. What happened after is history. 

Jeter’s father always used to play catch with him!

No matter how tired his father was when he got home from work, whenever Derek used to ask his father if he wanted to play catch.

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And he never heard a ‘NO’ from him. Jeter saw this. He saw how his father was always there for him. He respects him for it and tries to be like him with his daughters.