 Congratulations, by the way, this must be a really happy time for you and your family. So I was thinking about this last night. I saw you do the interviews on the MLB network, and then when you were at the podium at the St. Regis yesterday, throughout your career, you were always about talking about team. It was about the team. You didn't like talking about yourself. Is this uncomfortable these last couple of days? You know what? To be honest with you, the last couple of days have been a whirlwind. So everything's happened so quickly. I mean, you're just sitting around, you're waiting for a phone call, you're anxious, you're nervous. It happens, and then there's so many things going on. But you know, like you said, Michael, I mean, it's always an uncomfortable situation for me to be talking about myself because we're playing, you know, a team game. But now I guess it's okay to talk about it a little bit. Yes, it is. I remember your dad used to tell me, he said, I wish Derek would stop and enjoy the journey rather than just worry about where he's getting to. Well, you got to where you wanted to go. You got five championships. I don't know if the Hall of Fame was ever something that you aspired to. Are you enjoying this journey or will you still need time to separate yourself? You know what, I think it hasn't set in yet. So I think it will when I get a little time by myself because, like I said, everything's happened so quickly these last couple of days and I get a chance I have to go back home tomorrow. So I'm sure tomorrow when I'm sitting around and get a chance to think about it, maybe it will, but maybe it might take until this summer before it actually does. But it's been quite the last 36 hours. You know, being involved in this business and you being there the entire time I've been in the business, it's been kind of a foregone conclusion for so long you were going to get to the Hall of Fame. But for you, when did you start even thinking about that it was a possibility? I tried not to. I know people when I say that to people, they don't believe me, but I really tried not to think about it. I think over the last month or two when people would come up to me and they'd congratulate me and say, whoa, I don't even want to talk about this because you can't just automatically assume that someone's going to put you in the Hall of Fame. That's the highest honor. Speaking of which, Derek, obviously there's been a lot talked about here on Talk Radio and among fans about unanimous. You were one vote shy. Does it make any difference to you? Was it on your mind whatsoever? No, it's very hard to get that many people to agree on anything. So I tend to focus on the votes that I got in order to get into the Hall of Fame. So no, I don't think about that. See, Derek, that's why you were able to achieve what you achieve, because I would be fixated on the one person that didn't vote. I would search the world. I would find out who it was and I'd go, I want to know why. And it doesn't seem like it bothers you at all. Well, I'll leave that to you. So you search the world and find out why and then let me know. You know what? I will. If the last thing I do, I'm going to find out who didn't vote for you because I don't understand it because you had a number of all the things you accomplished in your career. What's the thing you're most proud of? Winning. That's it. Bottom line. You know, that's why you play the game. I was fortunate to play for a long time. I was fortunate to play in one team. The only team I ever wanted to play for. And you're playing to win. And, you know, we won five championships. And then I still think about the ones that sort of slipped away. But, you know, it's it's winning. That's what you play the game for. Is there any moments that you think about? There's a lot of moments, you know, there's a lot of moments that I think about. There's a lot of moments I've had special milestones and during my career. And, you know, the thing is, is you hear Michael's voice for pretty much all of them soon. I'm sorry about that. That's the one downside. No, you don't have to apologize. Forever, I guess we're kind of linked there, Michael. But I'm sorry for you, but I'm happy for me. Yeah, you know, I've been asked that one, too. But I guess it's a little unfair because it's freshest in my mind. But the last game at Yankee Stadium, which ironically meant absolutely nothing because the only game I played where we've been eliminated. But to get a chance to share that last game with the fans who, in New York, which, you know, my mind's greatest fans in the world, but to get a chance to share that my career with them that last game was pretty special. When you had your first season in professional ball and you made, you know, I think 56 errors, did you think this is not gonna happen? I'm just not good enough? I was completely overmatched, yeah. So your confidence starts to waver a little bit and I thought I made a mistake and I should have gone to college first and how am I gonna turn this around? What's gonna happen? But, you know, everyone deals with adversity. It's just how you overcome it. And I think that made me a little bit stronger mentally and I think it helped prepare me for New York. Now, speaking of New York, I've been talking about you the last couple of days and one thing I keep bringing up is I was amazed, you know, watching as closely as I was for your whole career that you never seem to make a misstep. And New York chews people up and spits them out and two of your teammates had troubles and strawberry and good and they found, you know, New York found trouble for them. Do you seem like you were able to always do the right thing, Derek? Was that by design or was it by happenstance? Locke, was it your upbringing? What do you think it was? Well, look, everyone makes mistakes. You know, everyone is faced with difficult situations and I always just tried to surround myself with people that would help keep me out of trouble. And look, I talked about this years ago, Mike going into my second year, Darrell Strawberry sat me down and he told me what to expect and he shared with me some of the mistakes he made. And I've always just relied on other people's experiences and I think that's how you learn both good and bad. So yeah, I think I'd like to think that, you know, a great support group around me that helped me through some of those times. Now, you're thrown right to the wolves, 96, win a championship, 98, 99, you know, so three championships in your first four years, you know, then four in the first five, how much was being around the 95 team, even though you weren't eligible to play? How much was just being around October 95 help you get ready for when you did get a chance to play? Huge, it was huge. Just to see what the playoff atmosphere was like. I mean, you know, especially in New York, I mean, it's a completely different atmosphere. And you know, like you said, I wasn't able to play, but to be able to watch guys and watch how they prepared and see how every single pitch meant so much. I think that really helped me out. Obviously when people look back on your career, so you've had a lot of rivals and people you played against and people always picture the Red Sox, of course. Are there any players, two or three in particular, that when you think of your great foes and people you went up against, do you think about the most? Yeah, I think from, you know, from a hitter's standpoint, obviously the matchups with Pedro, I mean, Pedro Shilling, you know, these guys in Boston and Randy Johnson and Shilling in Arizona, I mean, we, but the toughest one on me was Roy Halliday. And you know, I always said that I thought Pedro had the best stuff and baseball, but Roy was the toughest one for me. So these are some of the matchups that come to mind, you know, just right now. All of your numbers that are gonna be on your plaque, the one that stands out to me, 310 lifetime batting average, 308 and 158 postseason games. So you were not overwhelmed by the big stage. How did you make that happen? Other players, it seems like it speeds up and you seem like you've treated it like a game in May. Because it was like a game in May. It's still the same game, it's baseball. So whether it's, you know, a game in Spring Train or Game 7 in the World Series, you're still playing the same game. And, you know, I always prided myself on being prepared. I think that's how you hear athletes talk about that the game's slowing down. I think it slows down when you're prepared. If you're not, that's when it tends to speed up. So I never wanted to be caught off guard. I wanted to think about situations before they actually happened. And I wasn't afraid to fail. You know, I failed a lot. Michael, you probably see me fail more than anyone. But I failed, I failed a lot. But anytime I was in those situations, I sort of went back into the tank and, you know, relied on some of those moments when I had success and just wasn't afraid to fail. I thought that I had a lot of confidence and I always thought I was going to succeed. You never were nervous in those big situations? I'd butterflies, you know, I always told people if you don't have butterflies, it means you don't care. But I enjoyed them. I mean, those were the moments that you lived for. You were always the leader. That's why you became captain in 2002, I think it was, when you were officially named the captain. Did you feel any responsibility being named the captain as opposed to just always being the leader you were before you were named it? You know, when the boss called me and he had said he wanted to name me the captain, the first thing he said is I don't want you to do anything different. I want you to continue to do and continue to act the way that you've been acting up until this point. So, you know, obviously you have to be vocal sometimes. You don't always do it in a group. Sometimes you do it one-on-one and you have to get to know your teammates, know what buttons to push. But you know, lead by example, that's first and foremost. You have to practice what you preach. I was always fascinated by your relationship with George Steinberg and other people were intimidated. You used to joke around with them. What was that like? How much do you miss them? What do you think he would think about this right now? I like to think he'd be pretty proud. I mean, we had a great relationship and it started with the whole Ohio State, Michigan rivalry. And, you know, boss is someone he would challenge you. You know, he would challenge his best players and if you back down from him, you know, he'd be all over you. But, you know, I've always respected him. I'd like to think he respected me. We both thought the same. It was either when or the season was a failure. And I had that approach, that mindset from day one. Derek, I'm sorry, but if he was here now, you wouldn't have much ammunition, Michigan, against Ohio State. Thanks for bringing that up. I was supposed to be a positive phone call. I'll just put it for the next one. Another guy just retired. He's going to retire tomorrow. Did you ever have any interaction with Eli Manning and from afar, what your thoughts about Eli Manning? I did, you know, I had some interactions. Obviously, I had known his brother a little bit better, but I've touched base with Eli throughout the years and, you know, what a joy to watch. I mean, Eli's someone that, you know, he took the field weekend and week out. Regardless of how he felt, he was fun to watch. He had a great deal of success on a couple of championships, which is not easy to do. And Eli's someone that I've respected for not only how he's played the game on the field, but more importantly, how he's handled himself off the field. And I think all New York Giants football fans are going to miss him. You know, Michael brought up the temptations of New York and you were always be able to stay so clean. Was there any temptations, you know, you lived in the PED era, not that you needed it, but did you ever feel any temptation or any weakness at all to stray from the path that you were on? No, no, I played for one thing. It wasn't for personal numbers, it was to win. And, you know, so that was what's top of mind for me. I mean, I was just as happy hitting a ground ball the second base or move a guy over or delay down a sacrifice bun to hit a home run. So, you know, we played the game to win. And the boss, you know, he recognized that and he rewarded us for that. You know, you love to win so much. I mean, it was all about that for you. Just watching you, I knew that it was about that for you. Even if you got five hits and you lost, you were not happy. You'd be happier 0 for five and a win. So how are you handling the losing as the owner of a team that's being rebuilt and going through a struggle? Yeah, thanks for reminding me of that too. Michael, you're on a real roll with this guy. Good news here, I got to call him more often. Please do give you a weekly. Hey, look, it's frustrating. It is very frustrating. What people have to understand though is, you know, we took over an organization that had been struggling and had been in the postseason in 15 years. And, you know, we got to build an organization the right way. And I think we're making strides in that direction. Ultimately, people or organizations are judged on wins and losses at the major league level, which I understand. And but right now we're building the organization. We're building it the right way. It's frustrating. I preach patience. I don't have any. It's very frustrating in this position because when you're coming from playing on the field and have an opportunity to affect the outcome of a game, you can't do it from a front office ownership position. But we're getting the right people in place and we'll be there sooner rather than later. You know, listening to this interview, listening to you, it frustrates me to a certain point because the way you are is the way all athletes should be. But it seems like this generation of athlete is more about themselves. They're more about the numbers, not thinking about the team, putting themselves out of the team, pointing at the back of their jersey after they score a touchdown or hanging on the rim. When you're dealing with young players and trying to bring them into the organization, do you see that there is a difference between the generations and there aren't as many players that think the way you do? Well, I think you're part of, well, I mean, you can't, I don't think you can't stereotype all athletes and the generation. I also think, you know, now this day and age, everything is, you know, analytics is taking over the game. There's so many different formulas that rate players and it's all about what you do as an individual and that's how people are compensated, it's bottom line. And, you know, I came up in a time where we were compensated for one thing and that was winning and we won and therefore we were all taken very well care of and we had an opportunity to stay with the organization for a long time. But, you know, winning is what you play for and that's why you should play, that's why you should compete. And, you know, I think, you know, people, they say they wanna win, but you have to be willing to make sacrifices in order to do it. The 2000 World Series, the Subway Series, obviously that's a different thing now. Interleague play happens all the time. How special did that feel? Was there something incredibly unique about it at the time? Yeah, I mean, it was all eyes of New York City was on that and the Subway Series. And I've said it before, if we would have lost that series, I think I would have moved out of Manhattan. Because, you know, it would be tough to be walking around streets of Manhattan with all these Yankee fans and we did come out on top. But it's probably one of the most fun series that I played in and fortunately for us, we played a great match team. But fortunately for us, we were able to win it. How's it like being a daddy? It's thanks for asking. See, now you're trying to make up for it. There you are. You just gotta end on a good note. There you go. It is, it's unbelievable. It's an unbelievable feeling. It's something that I would have struggled with during my career because, you know, when you're in your career, it's a very selfish time. But, you know, it's the best feeling that you can possibly have. And, you know, it's ecstatic. I've got two daughters and it's the greatest thing that's happened to them. Awesome. I'm so happy for you. I'm so proud of you. I want to congratulate you. And we were joking about it before. It was my honor to be, you know, just along for the ride. And if people connect me and my voice to your great moments, that's enough for me. And I'm really happy about that association. And I'm proud to say that I got to announce your Hall of Fame career. Well, thank you very much. And I appreciate everything you've done for me. All right. Thank you, Derek. Congratulations. Thanks again. I appreciate it, guys. That's Derek Jeter.