Jeter shocked the game with retirement announcement

Multiple injuries limited Derek Jeter to just 17 games in 2013. But prior to when the 39-year-old Yankees legend announced on Feb. 12, 2014, that his next season would be his last, few had any inkling Jeter was ready for retirement.

“I know it in my heart. The 2014 season will be my last year playing professional baseball,” Jeter wrote in a Facebook post after going through a routine Spring Training workout that morning. “I have gotten the very most out of my life playing baseball, and I have absolutely no regrets.”

Jeter broke his left ankle in Game 1 of the 2012 ALCS vs. the Tigers and missed the first 91 games of the 2013 season while rehabbing. More injuries followed during a year where the Yankees missed the postseason for just the second time in 19 seasons.

“Last year was a tough one for me,” Jeter wrote in his online post. “As I suffered through a bunch of injuries, I realized that some of the things that always came easily to me and were always fun had started to become a struggle. The one thing I always said to myself was that when baseball started to feel more like a job, it would be time to move forward.”

Jeter was celebrated throughout the game during the 2014 season as he hit .256 over 145 games. His 149 hits moved him from ninth to sixth on the all-time list as he finished his career with 3,465.

Jeter appeared in his final game on Sept. 28 against the Red Sox at Fenway Park, singling in his final at-bat against Clay Buchholz in the third inning. It was his 2,747th MLB game – and only the fourth of his career where the Yankees entered the game mathematically eliminated from postseason contention.

“He’s just a role model,” Rays pitcher C.J. Riefenhauser, a Yonkers, N.Y., native, told the Tampa Tribune during the final month of Jeter’s career. “And he’s probably the reason half of the people are even playing baseball.”

Jeter finished his career with 14 All-Star Game selections, five Gold Glove Awards at shortstop and five World Series titles. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2020.

“I’m excited for him,” former Yankees teammate and then-Dodgers manager Don Mattingly told the Associated Press when Jeter announced his retirement. “It’s kind of nice to see him go out on his own terms.”

Craig Muder is the director of communications for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum