The Yankee captain was truly one of a kind

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For the past six months, the news has been consistently dominated by one subject. Not the war in Iraq. Not the NFL scandal. All have been competitors with the biggest item of the times, which is Derek Jeter’s retirement from the Yankees. I’m sure there are a few people who will say, “Enough already,” but the Jeter story deserves more comment.

There have been a lot of sports superstars in our past who have captured the headlines, going back to the days of Lou Gehrig. Joe DiMaggio, Michael Jordan, Vince Lombardi and Jackie Robinson are sports icons, but no one, to my recollection, has gotten as much consistent attention as Jeter. Former Yankees star Mariano Rivera had a victory lap around the country and was honored for his talents, but there was no public fixation on his past, present and possible future.

The Jeter story is in a class by itself, for a number of reasons. America is hungry for a legitimate role model in almost any field. We respect the achievements of Bill Gates and the brilliance of Warren Buffet, but there are no posters being sold featuring their images. Bill Clinton has had a great image revival, but he isn’t the object of the media curiosity that he once was.

In the final days of baseball’s regular season, Jeter was saluted in every park in which he played. Crowds of fans of all ages clamored to see him take the field. Even when he struck out, he was rewarded with loud cheers. Despite the fact that the Yankees won’t be a part of the postseason, the team’s final games were packed with people who wanted to salute Jeter and thank him for his achievements.

So what makes Jeter different? We live in a rough-and-tumble society. We don’t see too many public figures who are pleasant, respectful, courteous and soft-spoken, and love what they do. Jeter has all of those qualities and then some. When he speaks about the late George Steinbrenner or Joe Torre, he refers to them as “Mister.” He isn’t a name dropper or full of himself.

Baseball fans have had lots of disappointments over the past 10 years. Big-name players like Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds and Mark McGuire have been big busts, dragged down by allegations of steroid use. And great performers like Hank Aaron no longer attract as much public attention.

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