En una helada noche de abril pasado, tuve la fortuna de presenciar uno de los 147 jits de Derek Jeter esta temporada. Fue en el segundo encuentro de una doble cartelera contra los Cachorros de Chicago, que ganaron los Yanquis. El capitán, con su típico swing de adentro hacia afuera, sacó una línea que picó en el jardín derecho.

Anoche, con un batazo muy similar, el futuro inquilino del Salón de la Fama cerró con broche de oro una noche inolvidable, mágica para él y los Bombarderos del Bronx, que tuvo un guión que pareceria que lo escribieron en Hollywood. Una mejor despedida del nuevo Yankee Stadium, inaugurado en 2009, la "casa que él construyó", hubiera sido imposible para Jeter, quien en innumerables ocasiones ha brillado a la hora cero. Con un sencillo que produjo la carrera decisiva en un triunfo 6-5 borró la gran reacción que logró Baltimore para empatar en la parte alta de la novena y concluyó una jornada de leyenda en la que vio acción por última vez como torpedero (en Boston, el fin de semana, jugará, pero no como parador corto). Poco importó que fue el primer partido en la carrera de Jeter en Nueva York en el que los Mulos ya estaban eliminados; la enorme actuación del capitán -aportó para que su equipo empate 2-2, tome ventaja y finalmente triunfe- hizo que el ambiente en el estadio fuera como de postemporada. La siguente parada para Jeter será Cooperstown; en unos años tendrá su placa en el recinto de los inmortales. Y tal vez ingrese de forma unánime. Las muestras de cariño y respeto de todo el mundo del béisbol son la más clara muestra de lo importante que es el más reciente ícono yanqui: un pelotero que ha dejado huella por su profesionalismo, integridad y carácter. Un ganador dentro y fuera del diamante, cuyo ejemplo siguen muchos. Lo de Jeter no son récords ni premios ni grandes estadísticas, aunque tiene muchos de los tres; lo de él son los triunfos y con él los Yanquis siempre han sido ganadores. Ese es el más grande reconocimiento que se le puede hacer. 

A continuación, la crónica, en inglés, de The New York Times, sobre uno de los más emocionantes y emotivos encuentros que se han jugado en el Yankee Stadium:

Por David Waldstein

He almost started crying as he drove himself to Yankee Stadium in the afternoon. He had to turn away from his teammates before the game when they presented him with gifts, so overcome was he by the emotion. In the first inning, he said, he barely knew what was happening, and later, in the top of the ninth, his eyes welled with tears to the point that he worried that he might break down in front of the crowd of 48,613.

But when the time came for Derek Jeter to get a game-winning hit, to add another signature moment to a long list of achievements over his 20-year career, he knew exactly what to do, and seemingly no one doubted that he would.

“Everyone in the dugout and the Stadium knew it was going to happen,” said David Robertson, whose blown save paved the way for one of the most dramatic endings to a game at the new Stadium.

With one out in the bottom of the ninth, Jeter stroked the winning hit and ended his Yankee Stadium career the way he had ended so many games — with both arms raised in celebration. The 6-5 win over the Baltimore Orioles was his 1,627th regular-season victory as a Yankee.

The 3,463rd hit of Jeter’s career sizzled into right field, and Antoan Richardson slid home with the winning run, and the normally stoic Jeter said the ending was almost too much even for him to believe.

“An out-of-body experience is the best way to put it,” said Jeter, who was uncharacteristically expressive after the game.

It was a night when everything seemed to happen specifically to allow Jeter to be Jeter in front of his home fans for the last time. The rain stopped, the Orioles pushed the game to the bottom of the ninth by hitting two home runs, a Yankees runner got to second base, and Jeter came to the plate again with his name ringing in his ears. He then did exactly the kind of thing that had made him so adored by his fans.

Jeter was so overcome with emotion both during and after the game that he shed his usual cautious approach with reporters.

“I don’t know what to tell you,” he said. “Write what you want and put my name at the bottom of it.”

For the record, Jeter went 2 for 5 with a double, three runs batted in and a run scored.

What may have been the best blown save in Yankees history provided him the platform to be a hero once again.

The Yankees were leading, 5-2, heading into the ninth inning, but Adam Jones hit a two-run homer off Robertson, and Steve Pearce hit a bases-empty shot to tie the score. Jeter was at shortstop at the time, and he slumped his head momentarily. But on the bench, his teammates looked at the scoreboard and saw who was batting third in the bottom of the inning.

Soon, they were jumping all over Jeter on the infield as if they had won a big playoff game.

“I went from all-time low to all-time high,” Robertson said.

After the game, Jeter was greeted on the field by his former teammates Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada and Bernie Williams, as well as his longtime manager Joe Torre, and he hugged them all.

When the congratulations were over, and with the Orioles standing in their dugout watching, Jeter walked out to shortstop for a solitary moment of reflection.

“I wanted to take one last view from short,” he said.

When the team goes to Boston for its season-ending series, he said, he will play in one or two games, but only as the designated hitter.

 “I’ve played shortstop my entire career,” he said, “and the last time I wanted to play was tonight.”

Throughout the game the fans chanted his name, including when he hit a run-scoring double off the left-field wall in the first inning. The salutes only grew louder as the game progressed. As the fans stood and cheered in the ninth, mixing in chants of “Thank you, Derek,” Jeter appeared to grow misty-eyed while standing at shortstop, something he had never done.

Hours earlier, there was concern that rain might wreak havoc on the game, but by game time the rain had ended, and a lively sellout crowd — many fans had planned for months to attend Jeter’s final home game — was as much a part of the evening as Jeter himself.

The list of attendees included Mets pitcher Matt Harvey and the Miami Marlins’ owner, Jeffrey Loria. There were tributes and ovations and moments when it seemed as if the Yankees had actually made it to October.

But the game was the first Jeter had played at Yankee Stadium when his team had been eliminated from the postseason. Still, with the large crowd and cool weather, it was reminiscent of the 158 postseason games Jeter had played in.

It was the loudest and most energetic crowd of the season. Without the element of a playoff race, the focus of the game was squarely on Jeter, which he said made him uncomfortable.

But the fans came to celebrate his five World Series titles, his impressive hit total — 3,463, sixth most on baseball’s career list — his 14 All-Star selections and his 2,745 games, all as a Yankee. From the moment Jeter first stepped into the box at the old Yankee Stadium on June 2, 1995, until Thursday night, his 1,391st home game, he has been the darling of Yankees fans.

“You almost feel as if you’re watching your own funeral,” he said. “People are telling you great things, and they’re showing highlights and reflecting. I understand that my baseball career is over with. But people are giving you well wishes like you’re about to die. I’ve appreciated it all, but internally it feels like part of you is dying, and I guess that’s true because the baseball side, it’s over with.”

The game began with consecutive home runs off Hiroki Kuroda, the Yankees’ starter, by the Orioles’ Nick Markakis and Alejandro De Aza. Some of the air left the Stadium, but the crowd’s energy returned in force in the bottom of the inning after Brett Gardner hit a leadoff single.

With the crowd buzzing in anticipation, Jeter stood in the batter’s box and took four pitches from Kevin Gausman, the Orioles’ starter, before ripping a 95-mile-per-hour fastball deep toward left field.

The fans unleashed a collective gasp as they followed the path of the ball, hoping it would clear the fence for another signature Jeter moment. It did not go out, but it hit the wall on the fly, barely two feet from a home run, and Jeter trotted into second base and clapped his hands as Gardner scored ahead of him.

Jeter scampered to third base on a wild pitch and scored on a ground ball to the right side by Brian McCann, making it a 2-2 game.

Jeter arrived at the Stadium in the afternoon after battling what he called a little bit of traffic, which multiplied when he got to his locker, where he was immediately surrounded by perhaps three dozen reporters. Jeter deflected most of their questions, saying he could not anticipate how he would feel until it was all over.

Although Jeter has always been stoic, Manager Joe Girardi said it would be difficult for him to restrain his emotions.

“It will be difficult for me,” Girardi said. “I got a little choked up yesterday after his last at-bat and the way the fans reacted. You start thinking that you’ve been around someone for so long, and he’s not going to be there.”