" 20 YEARS AGO TODAY A LEGEND WAS BORN! "

"NOW BATTING FOR THE NY YANKEES  SHORTSTOP # 2 DEREK JETER"

On June 1, 1992, the phone rang in Dorothy and Charles Jeter’s house in Kalamazoo, Mich.
“My mom answered it,’’ Derek Jeter told The Post. “She said the Yankees were on the phone and they wanted to talk to me.’’Dick Groch, a scout with the Yankees, recalled the conversation as very simple and made plans to meet with the family the next night. While Jeter said he was surprised the team that his favorite player, Dave Winfield, played for had taken him with the sixth overall pick in the draft, he doesn’t recall what happened after he hung up. “I don’t know what I did,’’ Jeter said. “I really don’t know. Wow, that was 20 years ago?’’

 

THE HOMES: When Derek Jeter was drafted, he was living in his parents’ Kalamazoo home (pictured). He paid $2,100 a month for his first NY apartment in the Continental Towers on East 79th Street. He has moved up in the world, now spending his offseasons at his 31,000-square foot, $7.7M waterfront home in Tampa.

 

THE WOMEN: Jeter spent four years with high school sweetheart Marisa Novara, but ever since he has been nearly as prolific in dating starlets as he has been in collecting hits. It started with a relationship with Mariah Carey (pictured) and most recently he dated Minka Kelly. In between, he was tied to the likes of Jessica Alba (below right), Jessica Biel, former Miss Universe Lara Duta, Vanessa Minnillo and former Tiger Woods mistress Rachel Uchitel..

Everyone knows what has transpired in those 20 years. Jeter remembers signing for $700,000 with another $125,000 for college on June 27. “The day after my birthday,’’ Jeter said. From there Jeter went from a skinny high school shortstop with a questionable swing to the 1996 Rookie of the Year winner, a five-time World Series winner and a spot at the table with Yankees icons Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio.
“Twenty years, that seems like a long time ago,’’ Jeter said. According to some in the Yankees’ organization, they believed Jeter would go to the Astros with the first pick. Instead, Houston took Phil Nevin. Groch, who signed Jeter and now works for the Brewers, made a speech at a pre-draft meeting in Tampa that is part of Yankees lore.Concerned Jeter would accept a scholarship to Michigan and play for his beloved Wolverines, Groch was asked how serious Jeter was about going to Ann Arbor.

Then the scout delivered an impassioned message to his bosses. “He’s not going to Michigan. He’s going to Cooperstown,’’ Groch said to his superiors in an emotional voice. Recalling that this week, Groch said it wasn’t a stretch. “If you get the opportunity to get one of those type players you get excited about it,’’ Groch said. How long is 20 years in the baseball business? “We went to dinner the day after he was drafted and we talked everything but baseball,’’ Groch said of dinner with the Jeter family. “He had representation and that bogged things down because in those days it was faxes back and forth, but it got done.’’

The Money:
1992: $800K signing bonus 1996: 1 year, $130K 1997: 1 year, $550K 1998: 1 year, $750K 1999: 1 year, $5M, 2000: 1 year, $10M, 2001-10: 10 years, $189M, 2011-13: 3 years, $51M

WE AT URBAN M.E.S.S. MAGAZINE SALUTE THIS TRUE YANKEE HERO!

source:nypost/urbanmessmag