Derek Jeter is finally ready to enter the Baseball Hall of Fame

COOPERSTOWN, NY – For the gentleness with which Derek Jeter navigated the Baseball Hall of Fame, spending his day here has been a little more treacherous.

But after two delays, the No.2 will finally join the best of the best on Wednesday afternoon when he is inducted into the Hall of Fame in a ceremony at the Clark Sports Center.

“It’s been a long time coming,” the former Yankees shortstop said last week.

A flood of Yankees fans had already started descending on the village on Tuesday afternoon, with many stripes on the picturesque background of Main Street, in addition to Yankees hats and No.2 shirseys. Others were camping along. off the road outside the Cooperstown Country Club, hoping to check out “The Captain” while playing golf before stepping onto the big stage Wednesday.

While this isn’t the madhouse it probably would have been if it had held as originally planned – a July weekend in 2020, with no pandemic going on – fans are awaiting Jeter’s induction. for months, since being elected one less than unanimous in 2020. But Jeter himself had been trying not to let the visions of his day in Cooperstown consume him as he patiently waited – First an extra year, then another month and more as COVID-19 postponed its ceremony.

“As strange as it sounds, I try not to think about it, because I just want to go there and experience it for the first time,” Jeter said. “I went to Mariano [Rivera’s] induction a few years ago. This is the first time I have been to Cooperstown in years. I went there when I was very young.

“So I can’t wait to go, go to the museum, meet all the Hall of Fame members and spend time with them. Then of course the ceremony and the speech. These are things that I try to keep out of my mind because I want to go there without preconceptions of what can happen and I want to experience it and try to take advantage of it.

Thirty-one Hall of Fame members were due to return for Wednesday’s ceremony – including Core Four member Mariano Rivera, who was inducted without delay in 2019 – with Larry Walker, Marvin Miller and Ted Simmons also on the cusp of ” be inducted.

Pieces of Jeter’s career were already on display inside the Hall of Fame museum on Tuesday, telling part of the story of how the New Jersey native arrived in Cooperstown via the Bronx. Included in his exhibit were the cap he wore at Kalamazoo Central High School before being drafted sixth overall by the Yankees in 1992; the jersey he wore in the 1996 World Series, crowning his Rookie of the Year campaign; crampons he wore in the 1998 World Series, the same year he led the league with 127 races; his All-Star Game 2000 bat, one of 14 he was named to; his stick from Game 6 of the 2009 World Series, his last; a career glove that included five gold gloves; the helmet he wore while clubbing his 3,000th homerun hit in 2011; and each of its five World Series rings.

Jeter accomplished all of these feats and more in a legendary 20-year career in which he has become synonymous with one team.

“The most important thing in my career, the most important thing – people [ask] what I wanted to be remembered, I wanted to be remembered as a Yankee, ”said Jeter, who will become the 28th member to be inducted as a Yankee. “That was it. It’s the only team I’ve wanted to play for as long as I can remember. So that’s what I wanted my legacy to be.