Jeter Is Special

I won’t go into each of the 1,139,102 reasons why Derek Jeter is special. I’ll save them for the book.

I just want to repeat some comments he made last night at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, where Jeter was honored with the Oscar Charleston Award for his MVP-type season.

He took the opportunity to talk about his friend, Buck O’Neil.

"I was a rookie," Jeter recalled. "He went out of his way to introduce himself: 'You don't have to introduce yourself to me. You're Buck O'Neil.' I told him. He always treated me great.

"I'm going to remember him, because I met him on a personal level. But I think anytime you say something about a player, it's going to open people's eyes and they're going to want to learn more about him. That's the biggest tribute you can give him."

Jeter called O’Neil’s rejection for induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame an injustice.

Standing up for a friend and trying to right an injustice:
Reason 1,139,103.