By Leighton Schneider

On Thursday, Sept. 25, Derek Jeter will step onto the field at Yankee Stadium for the final time in his illustrious career. It will mark the end of a childhood for college-aged students. Many of my friends at Fordham and back home in Connecticut feel the same as I.

We have all known this day was coming since he announced that he would be retiring in early February, even if we did not want to think about it.

This day is so important to me that I bugged my father for five months about getting tickets to this game before he realized that this was a moment we could not miss.

With just over a week until he plays his last game, I have been thinking about Jeter’s accomplishments and how he shaped my childhood by making me a New York Yankees fan.

No athlete has had a bigger impact on my life than Derek Jeter.

The way he handles himself on and off the field shows his true character, which is hard to find in this day and age with the rampant use of steroids in baseball, racist owners and general managers in basketball and domestic abuse in football.

Going back 20 years, I cannot think of a time Derek Jeter had any negative off-the-field press. He has been a role model for Little Leaguers around the world since he began playing for the Yankees and will remain one now and for years to come.

My room has been covered in Yankees posters and signs since I can remember. Growing up, my first Yankees jersey was Jeter’s number two pinstripe jersey.

I still have a sign in the corner of my room that reads “2 Derek Jeter Drive” and I have multiple Derek Jeter rookie cards.

If you tried to make a list of the top three or top five plays of Derek Jeter’s career and compared it with other Yankees fans, there is no doubt in my mind there would be a large variety of answers.

There are three plays that stand out in my mind more than any other though; two from the 2001 season and one from 10 years later.

First, “The Flip.” Derek Jeter’s legacy of being great had already been developing for the previous six years. In Game Three of the American League Division Series in Oct. 2001 against Oakland, Derek Jeter made a remarkable assist on a play that preserved the Yankees 1-0 lead in the bottom of the seventh inning. Right fielder Shane Spencer missed first baseman Tino Martinez on a throw while Oakland’s Giambi rounded third base. This is where Jeter came into the picture, charging out from his position at short stop he picked up the bouncing ball before tossing it to catcher Jorge Posada.

Second is “Mr. November.” Later that same postseason, Jeter was given a nickname that will live on. Due to the 9/11 attacks, the end of the baseball season was pushed back from late October to early November.

During Game Four of the World Series against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Derek Jeter was given this nickname after hitting a game-winning homerun in the bottom of the tenth inning, alluding to Reggie Jackson’s legendary nickname, “Mr. October.”

The final play was a long time in the making. It happened on July 9, 2011, against the Tampa Bay Rays. His 3 thousands hit came as a game-winning home run against Tampa’s star pitcher David Price. The reason this play stands out in my mind is that Jeter was the first Yankee in the franchise’s 110-year history to reach 3 thousand hits. Even with all of the great players who have put on the Yankee uniform, no player had joined the 3,000 hit club.

When Derek Jeter walks off the field on Sept. 25, Yankee fans will lose the greatest player in the team’s history.

I know that it will be an emotional moment, even more than when Mariano Rivera was taken out last season. The final member of the Core Four will retire. This date will live on forever as the end of an era.

Thank you, Captain.

Leighton Schneider is the Multimedia Editor for The Fordham Ram.