Shortstop Derek Jeter, entering his 20th season with the Yankees, announced Wednesday on his official Facebook fan page that 2014 would be his final year playing professional baseball.
A Major League Baseball executive confirmed Wednesday that Jeter informed the Yankees’ principal owner, Hal Steinbrenner, of his plans to retire.
In a statement that he began by saying thank you, Jeter wrote: “I’ve experienced so many defining moments in my career: winning the World Series as a rookie shortstop, being named the Yankees captain, closing the old and opening the new Yankee Stadium. Through it all I’ve never stopped chasing the next one. I want to finally stop the chase and take in the world.”
Jeter, a 13-time All-Star, has won five World Series rings and was the Series’ most valuable player against the Mets in 2000. He is the Yankees’ career hits leader with 3,316. He broke the record Lou Gehrig held for more than 70 years, when he got his 2,722nd hit in September 2009.
In a statement posted on Twitter, Bud Selig, the commissioner of baseball, said, “In the 21-plus years in which I have served as commissioner, Major League Baseball has had no finer ambassador than Derek Jeter.”
He added, “Derek is the kind of person that generations have emulated proudly, and he remains an exemplary face of our sport.”
Jeter, who turns 40 in June, will enter the 2014 season with a .312 career batting average. He missed all but 17 games last season with assorted injuries, after never really coming back from a broken left ankle sustained in Game 1 of the 2012 American League Championship Series with the Detroit Tigers.
In 1996, Jeter established the Turn 2 Foundation to support activities to keep young people away from drugs and alcohol.
In his statement, he added: “There are many things I want to do in business and in philanthropic work, in addition to focusing more on my personal life and starting a family of my own. And I want the ability to move at my own pace, see the world and finally have a summer vacation.
“But before that, I want to soak in every moment of every day this year, so I can remember it for the rest of my life. And most importantly, I want to help the Yankees reach our goal of winning another championship.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/13/sp...14-season.html
