One of the hottest stories in all of sports right now is the announced retirement of Yankee great Derek Jeter. Jeter will finish up his 20th season as a shortstop for the New York Yankees this season before giving up baseball for good.
This news wasn’t all that shocking. He’s 39 years old and has had injury troubles in the last couple of seasons. He wants to go out proud and productive, the way a player of his stature and legacy should. The news did get me thinking though. All of a sudden I was reminiscing about my own baseball life, and I came to some realizations. Hanging up the cleats is a very hard thing to do (I couldn’t do it yet, as I felt overwhelmingly compelled to join DU’s club baseball team). If it’s hard for people like me, I can only imagine how hard it is for someone who has been playing professionally for 20 years.
While it won’t be the last time we hear Jeter’s name (goodbye baseball, hello Cooperstown), it sparked another musing. It’s tough to say goodbye to the players we love to watch.
Big-time players are always retiring. Mariano Rivera and Ray Lewis are recent examples of future Hall of Famers leaving their game. It is always grim to see your favorite players leave, but it’s especially hard for us college fans. At most we get four years to follow the collegiate careers of our favorite players. The Yankees are losing their captain, but DU is losing one of theirs as well. David Makowski, defender and co-captain of the hockey team, is graduating this year, taking with him goalie Sam Brittain and possibly others. Men’s basketball will bid farewell to Chris Udofia. Gymnastics says goodbye to Jorie Hall and Moriah Martin. The list goes on. So how do we, as fans, accept that we don’t get to go to their games every week and cheer them on?
Lucky for both us and them, if a player is able to go pro, we do get the privilege to continue watching them. We may, gathered around friends watching a Florida Panthers game sometime in the future, get to boast about how we got to see Sam Brittain dominate the NCHC.
For those who are not able to take the next step, the reality of their departure is much more menacing. All we can really do is look back at their time in the DU uniform fondly, recalling how great it was to get to see them play, and accepting that we will inevitably fall in love with a new batch of Pioneers. Thinking about it can be tough, but it teaches us that we can’t take for granted getting to see our favorite players, professional or collegiate, and that you should never hang up your cleats until you’re absolutely sure you’re ready.