September 28, 2014: Derek Jeter's Last Major League Game

Left to right: Jim Rice, Mookie Betts,

David Ortiz, Derek Jeter and Carl Yastrzemski

September 28, 2014: The New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox, 9-5 at Fenway Park. Michael Pineda outpitches Clay Buchholz. With the game scoreless in the top of the 3rd, Francisco Cervelli leads off with a walk. Chris Young strikes out, but Jose Pirela singles, and Buchholz moves the runners over with a wild pitch. Ichiro Suzuki triples the runners home.

Derek Jeter, the designated hitter on this day -- Stephen Drew is the shortstop -- hits a ground ball to 3rd base. Garin Cecchini fields it, but Jeter beats the throw, and Ichiro scores, to make it 3-0 Yankees.
It is Jeter's 3,465th career hit (which included 544 doubles, 66 triples and 260 home runs), and his 1,311th run batted in. Only Pete Rose, Ty Cobb, Hank Aaron, Stan Musial and Tris Speaker have more career hits -- meaning Jeter had more hits than all but 2 living people (Rose and the since-deceased Aaron), and more hits than anyone born after April 14, 1941 (when Rose was born).

Girardi sends Brian McCann -- perhaps the slowest runner on the team, but whose bat will fill the DH slot -- in to pinch-run, and the Fenway crowd, which despises the Yankees and has long maintained that Jeter and his teammates "suck," gives him a standing ovation as he leaves a major league field for the last time. It is 46 years to the day after Mickey Mantle played his last game for the Yankees, also at Fenway.

Three days earlier, on September 25, Jeter had made his last plate appearance at Yankee Stadium, singling in the winning run in the bottom of the 9th inning, to win, 6-5, after the Yankees had blown a 5-2 top-of-the-9th lead over the Baltimore Orioles. That game, unlike the finale on the 28th, is in regular rotation on the YES Network series Yankees Classics.

Mantle had played in more games, 2,401, and in more seasons, 18, than anyone in Yankee history. Jeter broke both of those records: 2,747 games and 20 seasons. (Mariano Rivera played a 19th season, but not a 20th; and, as a pitcher, appeared in far fewer games.) I didn't get to see Mantle play, but I saw Jeter play many times. I even got to see him hit a home run at Fenway Park, in a 13-3 Yankee demolition of the Red Sox on July 30, 1999. Great memory.

My in-person memories of Mantle are limited to Old-Timers Days, and an appearance (in a suit rather than a uniform) on Phil Rizzuto Day. And while I saw Joe DiMaggio a few times at Yankee Stadium, it was only in a suit, never a uniform, although his 1995 Opening Day first ball ceremony meant that, at the least, I got to see Joe DiMaggio throw a baseball. Which is more than I can say for Mantle. And I never got to see Babe Ruth or Lou Gehrig, who died long before I was born.

But I've seen plenty of legends in person, at various ballparks and at the Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony. So I've had some luck -- if not, as Gehrig would say, become the luckiest man on the face of the Earth.

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September 28, 2014 was a Sunday. These other Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Mets beat the Houston Astros, 8-3 at Citi Field.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

* The Washington Nationals beat the Miami Marlins, 1-0 at Nationals Park in Washington. Jordan Zimmerman pitched a no-hitter, coming within a 5th-inning walk of Justin Bour, and a 7th-inning dropped 3rd strike on a strikeout of Garrett Jones, of pitching a perfect game. He struck out 10.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 1-0 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. How many Oriole pitchers does it take to pitch a 5-hit shutout? Apparently, 6, with starter Miguel González going just 5 innings.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 7-2 at Progressive Field in Cleveland.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-1 at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Minnesota Twins, 3-0 at Comerica Park in Detroit. David Price (7 1/3rd innings) and 2 relievers combined for a 4-hit shutout.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Chicago White Sox, 6-4 at U.S. Cellular Field (now Guaranteed Rate Field) in Chicago.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-2 at Miller Park (now American Family Field) in Milwaukee.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Texas Rangers, 4-0 at Globe Life Park (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Sonny Gray pitched a 6-hit shutout.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 1-0 at Chase Field in Phoenix. Josh Collmenter pitched 8 innings, and Evan Marshall finished the 3-hit shutout.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Colorado Rockies, 10-5 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the San Francisco Giants, 9-3 at AT&T Park (now Oracle Park) in San Francisco.

* The Seattle Mariners beat the Los Angeles Angels, 4-1 at Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) in Seattle.

And it was an NFL Sunday. These games were played:

* The New York Jets lost to the Detroit Lions, 24-17 at MetLife Stadium at the Meadowlands.

* The Baltimore Ravens beat the Carolina Panthers, 38-10 at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.

* The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 27-24 at Heinz Field (now Acrisure Stadium) in Pittsburgh.

* The Indianapolis Colts beat the Tennessee Titans, 41-17 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

* The Green Bay Packers beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Bears, 38-17 at the new Soldier Field in Chicago.

* The Minnesota Vikings beat the Atlanta Falcons 41-28 at TCF Bank Stadium (now Huntington Bank Stadium) in Minneapolis.

* The Dallas Cowboys beat the New Orleans Saints, 38-17 at AT&T Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. This was hours after the A's-Rangers game in the same sports complex, but parking was almost certainly still a mess.

* The Houston Texans beat the Buffalo Bills, 23-17 at NRG Stadium (as Reliant Stadium was then known) in Houston.

* The San Diego Chargers beat the Jacksonville Jaguars, 33-14 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego.

* The San Francisco 49ers beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 26-21 at Levi's Stadium in the San Francisco suburb of Santa Clara, California.

* The Miami Dolphins beat the Oakland Raiders, 38-14 at the Oakland Coliseum.

* The preceding Thursday, the New York Giants beat the Washington Redskins, 45-14 at FedEx Field (now Northwest Stadium) in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The night after these games, on Monday Night Football, the Kansas City Chiefs beat the New England Patriots, 41-14 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

* And the Arizona Cardinals, the Cincinnati Bengals, the Cleveland Browns, the Denver Broncos, the St. Louis Rams and the Seattle Seahawks had a bye week.