Tags
" J.R. Moehringer, "Derek Jeter Plays Last Game at Yankee Stadium", "Hub Fans Bid Kid ADieu", baseball, Boston Red Sox, Derek Jeter, Fenway Park, John Updike, New York Yankees, Ted Williams, Yankee Stadium
On September 28, 1960, for his final at bat in Fenway Park, Ted Williams hit a home run in the 8th inning of a game the Sox eventually won. Fifty-four years later, for his final at bat at Yankee Stadium, Derek Jeter hit a single, driving in the winning run for the Yankees in the bottom of the 9th.
Neither of those at bats could change disappointing seasons for the Sox or the Yankees.
Yet both of those at bats will long be remembered.
John Updike, a Pulitzer Prize winning novelist, described what happened in Fenway in his superb Hub Fans Bids Kid Adieu. If you’ve never read this piece, you’re in for a treat. If you have read it and chose to reread it, you’re also in for a treat.
And although there has been massive coverage of Derek Jeter’s final Yankee Stadium at bat and retirement in general, I offer an equally wonderful and worthy essay about Jeter, The Final Walk Off, written by another Pulitzer Prize winning author, J.R. Moehringer, that was published just a few days ago by ESPN.
