Anticipation is building for the upcoming seven-part documentary series “The Captain,” chronicling the life and career of Derek Jeter, and the Hall of Famer addressed his well-known rift with Alex Rodriguez during the series.
In the documentary, Jeter refers to Rodriguez as “not a true friend” when referencing the beginning of the demise of their once close friendship, when an Esquire interview with Rodriguez surfaced and seemed to diminish Jeter’s contributions to his great Yankee teams of the late 1990s and early 2000s.
“Those comments bothered me because, like I said, I’m very, very loyal,” Jeter said, via the New York Post. “As a friend, I’m loyal. I just looked at it as, ‘I wouldn’t have done it.’ And then it was the media. The constant hammer to the nail. They just kept hammering it in. It just became noise, which frustrated me. Just constant noise.
“In my mind, he got his contract, so you’re trying to diminish what I’m doing, maybe to justify why you got paid. When you talk about statistics, mine never compared to Alex’s. I’m not blind. I understand that. But we won! You can say whatever you want about me as a player. That’s fine.”
Jeter always made it known that he prioritized winning over personal accolades, and he had the rings while Rodriguez had the superior talent and the numbers to back it up. But Jeter still felt like the interview with Esquire was a cheap shot at Jeter, who Rodriguez would room with and vice versa when their two teams played each other before the relationship frayed.
“But then it goes back to the trust, the loyalty,” Jeter said “This is how the guy feels. He’s not a true friend, is how I felt. Because I wouldn’t do it to a friend.”
Rodriguez, who back in 2001 told Esquire that Jeter “never had to lead” and that the last Yankee captain was never opponents’ concerns when facing the stacked Bombers lineup, said in the documentary that he apologized after the article came out, but stood by what he said, even if he wasn’t interpreted how he intended it.
“When that came out, I felt really bad about it,” Rodriguez said. “I saw the way it was playing out. The way it was written, I absolutely said exactly what I said. It was a comment that I stand behind today. It was a complete tsunami. It was one of the greatest teams ever. To say that you don’t have to focus on just one player is totally fair. By the way, the same could be said about my team with the Mariners. We had Ken Griffey Jr., Edgar Martinez, Jay Buhner. If someone said that about me, I’d be like, ‘No s–t. Absolutely. You better not just worry about me.’”
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