Apart from being a great ball player, Derek Jeter was one of the most disciplined players in Major League Baseball. But there was a time when Jeter had to take a stand for himself during the last years of his professional career.
Almost every baseball fan is well aware of the infamous steroid era in MLB. From Alex Rodriguez to Barry Bonds, MLB found several top players guilty of using PEDs (performance-enhancing drugs) while playing the ballparks. And to date, Derek Jeter remains one of the few players who remained truthful to the game.
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But an ace American sports columnist, Skip Bayless, indirectly accused him of using PEDs to improve his performance. And that too during the last years of Jeter’s MLB career. Although the Yankees legend could have avoided this, he slammed Bayless for the false claim and sent out a sound message.
Derek Jeter shut down Skip Bayless for good
In the 2012 season, Derek Jeter was already a legend of the game. The former Yankees captain had won everything that a baseball player dreams of. Not one or two, but Jeter had won the World Series five times by the 2012 season. Now, the crucial question is that a player who had already achieved the pinnacle in the game, why would he take PEDs?
Bayless’ claim made little sense to anyone. But Jeter had to respond to Bayless’ claim for the sake of his reputation. And he did it in style. The Yankees captain said that he will not get involved with such things.
“What do you want me to say? I ain’t getting involved with this, man. You can say whatever you want to say now. There’s no repercussions. That’s the unfortunate thing, you know what I’m saying?” Jeter said.
As great as Derek Jeter has been, he's not top 5 Yankee. Ruth, Mantle, DiMaggio, Gehrig, Yogi, then Jeter, who never won MVP.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) September 26, 2014
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The MLB Hall of Famer instead asked Skip to test for the same.
“Whenever you have people that anytime you bring something like this to light with guys that are doing things, it’s like now you have everybody questioning everything. That’s the unfortunate thing, Jeter added. Maybe Skip should be tested.”
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Did Derek Jeter do the right thing by bashing Skip for the PEDs claim?