I love Derek Jeter. Derek Jeter is the Yankee of my generation. I spent countless house with him from 1998-2014. But the specter hanging over this documentary - AND EVERY DOCUMENTARY FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE - is of course Michael Jordan’s The Last Dance. As in, after reviewing his own doc Jeter probably should’ve known how brutally it would be compared to Jordan's masterpiece and just shelved it.
It’s not Jeter’s fault - unlike the Jordan doc, in which it turned out nobody knew anything about what was happening during this years so it was all a big reveal, it turns out that Jeter may be the first ever sports superstar whose every moment was recorded on live tv. Every day for 20 years he as either in the sports pages or the back pages, with no letup. Couple that with Jeter being the Michael Jordan of talking without saying anything and it’s a bit of an uphill climb from there.
- When you think of The Last Dance, you think Michael Jordan. When I think of the Jeter doc - the name of which I can’t remember and literally can’t bother taking three seconds to look up - you think of the Yankees. I love going through all the glory dynasty years, and obviously Jeter’s in the middle of all of it, but I pretty much just wanted all Yankees all the time and nothing else.
- When Jordan would speak of slights and revenge and vindictiveness - even at their pettiest - it all seemed Shakespearean; it was intoxicating to watch. You thought you were watching Titans and Gods. When Jeter mentions his own competitiveness and remembrances of slights past, you just kinda roll your eyes. Not that it’s not true, but it just doesn’t have that impact or interest like when Jordan does it.
- The A-Rod thing. I mean, does Jeter not feel like an idiot for perpetuating this drama, all this nonsense all for one tiny moment A-Rod made…THAT WAS ABSOLUTELY 100% TRUE?!?!?!? I've always felt Jeter willfully let the whole A-Rod nonsense go only waaaaaay longer than it needed to, and to the point I think he liked how it made him look. Incredibly, even tho he’s buried that hatchet and “forgiven” A-Rod, you can still sense it onscreen when they’re together. At some point A-Rod's gotta snap "eff you, I can only beg for forgiveness publicly so many times already".
So yeah I loved it because I love the Yankees and Jeter’s many great years and memorable moments, but of course it was exactly what you’d expect it to be from Jeter. The final episode stuff with his wife’s difficult births was somewhat interesting - for him - but in the end Jeter is just who he is, and as much as I’ll always love him I’m not sure anybody was really clamoring for ten hours or whatever with him.
Which is a shame because when he wants to be funny Jeter can actually be funny!!!!
BONUS XMASTIME FOR YOU PEOPLE, YOU'RE WELCOME!
This is the very first mention of Jeter on Xmastime, from May of 2006:
1) I went to Yankee Stadium the other night with Rrthur (yes ladies, THAT Rrthur). Is there anything better than going to a baseball game? The food, the open air, the bright colors of the field, everything's perfect. EXCEPT. What the fuck is up with the between-innings ROARING sound system - I wanna kick back, relax, talk to my buddy while the teams switch on the field and I'm barraged with this sound system that is apparently powered by jet engines. Are they scared that if there's not constant action on the field, I'll leave? christ -IT'S BASEBALL - nothing EVER happens on the field!!!!! And then during big moments I've got the scoreboard screaming at me to get up and MAKE SOME NOISE!! GET EXCITED!!!!!! Jesus. Dude, I'm fucking excited already - Im at the damn game! I know the bases are loaded and Jeter's up, I'm not reading "The Bridges of Madison County" in the goddam stands. I know you're trying to distract me from the fact that I just paid $9 for a hot dog, but enough already.
SUPER-DUPER BONUS XMASTIME FOR YOU PEOPLE, YOU'RE WELCOME!
The first photo with Jeter on Xmastime. Of course it's with A-Rod 🤣
"...whoa whoa WHOA....slow down!...which one, Alba or Biel??!"
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