Derek Jeter gets warm welcome at his first Old-Timers' Day

Not surprisingly, Derek Jeter, Hall of Famer and first-time Old-Timers’ Day participant, gave pretty much the same answer Derek Jeter the player would have.

What message would he give the current Yankees as they play out the final stretch of games in a disappointing season?

“Win,” Jeter said early Saturday afternoon. “You’re not eliminated, so you go out and you win one game. The message I would give is probably the same message they’re saying to each other in there is you have to take it one day at a time. It’s literally that simple. Win a game.”

The Yankees tried to do that hours later against the Brewers in a game that was delayed nearly three hours because of a dousing thunderstorm that flooded the dugouts and other areas of the Stadium.

Entering the day, the Yankees had a 0.2% chance of making the playoffs, according to FanGraphs, and even with a win Saturday, those odds weren’t going to exponentially improve.  

Jeter, of course, knew that. But his answer spoke to what he has been associated with pretty much from his AL Rookie of the Year season in 1996 until his final game in September 2014: winning.

And no team won more than the 1998 Yankees club Jeter was a part of, capturing the AL East title in a runaway at 114-48 and going 11-2 in the postseason to win an MLB-record (counting the postseason) 125 games.

“I think to every single one of us coming up, he was like the model, what we were trying to strive to achieve,” said Kyle Higashioka, the longest-tenured current player in the organization, whose first spring training with the big-league club came in 2010. “A great leader, great teammate and, first and foremost, a multiple-time World Series champion. That’s pretty much what every single one of us coming up through the minors with the Yankees wanted to be, who you wanted to be. To have him back is great because he means everything to this organization and to the fans.”

That historic 1998 team from 25 years ago was front and center in the 75th Old-Timers’ Day, with other members from the club — including Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, David Cone, Orlando Hernandez, Paul O’Neill, Tino Martinez and David Wells, among others — honored during the pregame festivities.

Not surprisingly, Jeter, participating in his first Old-Timers’ Day, drew the most attention and got the loudest roars during pre-ceremony introductions.

There hasn’t been an actual Old-Timers’ Day game since 2019 and it’s unclear whether it will be brought back at any point.

Does Jeter wish the game was still played? “Nope,” he said with a smile but also quite seriously.

Added Posada, sitting to Jeter’s left on the dais during a news conference that also included Pettitte, Rivera and Joe Torre: “I can’t. I have a bad shoulder. There’s no way I could squat down again. I’m kidding. I could, but I don’t think I could hit the ball. I wouldn’t want to embarrass myself out there.”

As for his status as an Old-Timer and being introduced last to the crowd — much the way Joe DiMaggio always was — Jeter smiled again.

“I’m working on rebranding the name — Old-Timers’ Day is something else,” he said. “When you’re playing, when you’re on the bench and you’re watching the game, you could never see yourself being introduced as an Old-Timer. But man, it’s a special feeling.”

He added: “[It’s] the fans. What makes this organization great is the respect they have for the history. When you have as much success as we were able to have as a group, fans never forget it, regardless of where you are. I run into New Yorkers every day and they say ‘thank you' for the championships that we won. So it is special to be here at Yankee Stadium and introduced at the [event] formerly known as Old-Timers’ Day.”