After years of avoiding social media, Yankees legend Derek Jeter recently joined Twitter, in part to promote his upcoming documentary series. A short trailer for “The Captain,” which debuts July 18th on ESPN and ESPN+, was released Tuesday with soundbites from Jeter, his sister Sharlee, slugger-turned-media-mogul Alex Rodriguez and longtime YES announcer Michael Kay. The 30-second teaser covered a surprising amount of ground with Jeter discussing his encounters with racism growing up (the Hall-of-Famer identifies as biracial) along with his well-documented personal life, dating countless celebrities including Jessica Biel, Jessica Alba, Minka Kelly, Adriana Lima, Mariah Carey, Jordana Brewster and Scarlett Johansson.
Jeter’s dating life (he eventually married Sports Illustrated model Hannah Davis, with whom he shares three daughters) fueled New York tabloids for years, and, according to the All-Star shortstop, it could have been a lot worse. “If there were phones back then, my career would have been three years long,” joked Jeter, alluding to the presence of social media and gossip blogs like TMZ and Deadline Hollywood that were still in their infancy during his Yankees heyday in the late 90s and early 2000s. “Their job was to get a headline, and I wasn’t going to give it to them.”
The trailer also alluded to tension between Jeter and A-Rod, a topic of much speculation while the two were teammates from 2004-14. “I approached him and said, ‘Are we good?’” Rodriguez recalled. “He said, ‘Umm, kind of.’”
ESPN’s behind-the-scenes look at Jeter’s 20-year tenure in the Big Apple, emerging as one of the greatest players to ever don Yankee pinstripes, should be enlightening, providing insight into his complex relationship with Rodriguez and the pressure of navigating the most demanding media market in sports with paparazzi hounding him night and day for clues into his personal life.
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