NEW YORK - Derek Jeter arrived in the Yankees clubhouse at 4:11 p.m., stepped to his locker immediately to the left of the player entrance, and picked up a manila envelope that was sitting on his leather chair.
He did not open it - who opens his mail with 150 reporters watching? - but placed it atop a cardboard box nearby. This was the last time he would play a game in the Bronx, so of course, we were going to spend the night chronicling his last everything.
His last time putting on the pinstripes. His last time running onto the field. His last time stepping into the batter's box.
His last time getting his fan mail?
Okay, maybe that one isn't quite as significant. Still, it was hard not to wonder: What was in his final package? A phone number was printed in block letters along its side. It rang five times before a woman answered.
'The package? Did he get it?!' she asked.
I told her he did - sort of - and she put her husband on the phone to tell the rest of the story. His name is Steven Bilderain, and he is a gunnery sergeant stationed at Twentynine Palms in California. He grew up a Derek Jeter fan despite his father trying to push him toward the hometown L.A. Dodgers.
But he really became a Jeter fan after he joined the marines, and after he saw the way the Yankees shortstop handled himself after the 9-11 attacks. 'I admired the way he stepped forward and carried he team and the town,' Bilderain said.
So when Bilderain heard that Jeter was retiring, he wanted to do something to honor him. He was stationed at Camp Leatherneck in the Helmand Providence of Afghanistan at the time, and on April 2, he flew a flag above the camp in honor of the Yankees shortstop.
That, it turns out, was the easy part. How would he get the flag to him? His wife and kids tried and failed when the Yankees visited the Angels this season, and when Bilderain made it home this summer, he knew he was running out of time.
So he booked to New York and bought bleacher seats for Thursday night. 'I've always wanted to see Yankee Stadium, and I figured if I could see his last game, that would be even better,' he said. He and Amber took a tour of the stadium in the morning, and at 11:30 a.m., they entered the press gate and made a request.
'You can't see him,' the Yankees official told him, but Bilderain made it clear he wasn't doing this to meet his favorite player. He just wanted to deliver the flag. The official gave him a manilla envelop, Bilderain used a blue Sharpie to write his name and leave his phone number, then he put the flag inside it and sealed it up.
He and Amber were waiting for the night to begin at the Dugout Bar when I called them. There has been a lot of backlash about Jeter's retirement tour, how it's been too long and too commercialized, and some of that's true.
It was easy to forget that, after two decades, he's impacted a lot of people. This was not just Jeter's chance to say goodbye to them, but their chance to say goodbye to him. A marine for California said it was an American flag that flew over Afghanistan, which when you think about it, might be the best gift the shortstop has received.
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Entities 0 Name: Bilderain Count: 5 1 Name: Yankees Count: 5 2 Name: Jeter Count: 3 3 Name: NEW YORK Count: 2 4 Name: Derek Jeter Count: 2 5 Name: California Count: 2 6 Name: Amber Count: 1 7 Name: Afghanistan Count: 1 8 Name: manila Count: 1 9 Name: Helmand Providence of Afghanistan Count: 1 10 Name: American Count: 1 11 Name: Steven Bilderain Count: 1 12 Name: Bronx Count: 1 13 Name: Angels Count: 1 14 Name: L.A. Dodgers Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1stmsTg Title: Jeter readies for final game in Yankee pinstripes Description: When Derek Jeter puts on New York's navy pinstripes Thursday for one final home game, it won't matter to a packed Yankee Stadium that there's no postseason play on the line. Teammates. Friends. Family. Fans. They will all be there for only one reason: to thank the captain.
