Derek Sanderson Jeter (born June 26, 1974) is an American Major League Baseball player. Jeter is a seven-time All-Star shortstop and currently the captain of the New York Yankees.

Jeter has spent his entire career with the New York Yankees, starting in 1995 when he was 21 years old. He has won the American League Rookie of the Year Award, the All-Star Game MVP Award , the World Series MVP Award, a Silver Slugger Award and three Gold Glove Awards. His .317 career batting average through the 2006 season ranks him with the 6th highest lifetime batting average of all active baseball players. He has been in the top seven in the American League in both hits and runs scored for nine of the past ten years. So far in the 2000s he is second in the major leagues in hits (927), sixth in runs (551), and fifteenth in batting average (.311).

Derek Jeter was born in Pequannock, New Jersey, to an African-American father, Charles, and a Irish-American mother, Dorothy Jeter. In an interview, Derek Jeter stated that he had African, German, American Indian, and Irish ancestries. The family lived in North Arlington, New Jersey before moving to Kalamazoo, Michigan when he was 4.

Jeter was a star baseball player at Kalamazoo Central High School, where he also played basketball, earning an All-State honorable mention. After batting .557 as a sophomore, Jeter hit .508 (30-59) with 4 HR, 23 RBIs, 21 BB, and only 1 strikeout his junior year. He got on base 63.7 percent of the time.

Jeter collected many awards at season's end, including the Kalamazoo Area B'nai B'rith Award for Scholar Athlete, the 1992 High School Player of the Year by the American Baseball Coaches Association, the 1992 Gatorade High School Player of the year award, and USA Today's High School Player of the Year.

Although Jeter received a baseball scholarship to attend the University of Michigan, he was drafted by the New York Yankees with the 6th overall pick of the 1992 amateur draft and chose to go pro. Jeter has said though that he will eventually go back to college and earn a degree.

Minor league career

Jeter spent 4 years in the minor leagues, beginning in the Rookie League before advancing to Class A. He spent 2 years there (his first year wasn't the best by the look of his stats), collecting various awards, including Most Outstanding Major League Prospect of the South Atlantic League in 1993[3] and Best Defensive BUGG Shortstop. Jeter was also voted by Baseball America as the South Atlantic League's Best Defensive Shortstop, Most Exciting Player and Best Infield Arm.

In 1994 he was named the Minor League Player of the Year by Baseball America, The Sporting News, USA Today Baseball Weekly, and Topps/NAPBL after hitting .344 with 5 HR, 68 RBIs and 50 stolen bases combined at Triple-A Columbus, Double-A Albany, and Class-A Tampa. He was also named the MVP of the Florida State League.

Major league career

Jeter has played a key role in the Yankees' success since 1996. Jeter is one of three current veterans (the others are Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera) who came up through the Yankees organization, and has played his entire professional career with the Yankees.

On May 29, 1995, Jeter made his debut in the Major Leagues against the Seattle Mariners in the Seattle Kingdome. He got his first major league hit the following day off of veteran pitcher Tim Belcher, and started 13 games before being sent back down to the minors.

He returned on Opening Day of the 1996 season as the starting shortstop and hit his first major-league home run on that day. He played his way to a successful rookie season, hitting for a .314 batting average, 10 home runs, and 78 runs batted in and subsequently earning Rookie of the Year honors.

In 1999 Jeter led the AL in hits (219), and was 2nd in the league in batting average (.349) and runs (134).

In 2000, Jeter became the first player ever to win the All-Star Game MVP award and the World Series MVP Award in the same year.

In 2003 Jeter led the major leagues in batting average on balls in play (.380).

The beginning of the 2004 season saw Jeter mired in a slump; on May 25, he was hitting only .189. This included a career-long 0-for-32 skid in April. In June, however, Jeter broke out of his slump. He hit nearly .400 for the month and set a personal best with 9 home runs. He finished the season with a .292 average and 23 home runs, the 2nd most of his career.

In 2005 he was 2nd in the AL in runs (122) and batting average on balls in play (.394), and 3rd in the league in at bats (654) and hits (202).

In 2006 Jeter led the major leagues in highest groundball/flyball ratio (3.23; 313/97) and batting average on balls in play (.394), and tied for the American League lead in steals of third base (12). He was 2nd in the league in batting average (.343) and runs scored (118), 3rd in hits (214), SB success % (87.2), and batting average with runners in scoring position (.381), and 5th in infield hits (26).[4] He finished 2nd in American League MVP voting to Justin Morneau of the Minnesota Twins (320 points to 306 points).
Source : Wikipedia