NEW YORK — Years after retiring from the Yankees, Derek Jeter wanted to make a big swing.
The Hall of Fame shortstop explained why he decided to reflect on his famous private MLB career through a new ESPN documentary series, ‘The Captain,’ after the premiere of the first episode at the Tribeca Festival in New York. .
“It started around Hall of Fame,” Jeter, who is part of the Hall of Baseball’s Class of 2020, said onstage during a talk Sunday at the BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center.
“I was like, ‘I want to capture this. I want to capture this so I can have it in the future, share it with my girls when they’re older, because they probably won’t believe most of my career’ , the father-of-three continued, “It turned into a bigger project.”
Directed by Randy Wilkins, the seven-part documentary explores Jeter’s 20 seasons with the Yankees and the challenges he faced along the way.
The first episode features Jeter’s youth, the day he was drafted by the Yankees in 1992, and how he overcame his early minor league struggles to qualify for the majors.
Jeter, who became the Yankees’ team captain in 2003, says he sat through about 30 hours of interviews for the documentary, allowing him to look back on his career in a way he never hadn’t before.
“One thing that I always had a really hard time in my career (was) I never had a chance to reflect on anything that I’ve done, because it’s always, ‘What is the next?’ It might be a character flaw, but I think that’s probably why I’m here,” Jeter, 47, said.
The first episode also covers Jeter’s experience growing up in a biracial family in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
“I’m a little biased, but I think I have the best parents in the world,” said Jeter, wearing a tan suit for Sunday’s conference. “They are here today. My sister too. We were very close growing up, and we were close because we went through some things. You come together whenever you face adversity, but family is what shapes who you are as a person.
Oscar-winning filmmaker Spike Lee, who produced the series, said at Sunday’s event that Jeter originally asked him to direct the series, but he was already working on another project. Lee recommended his longtime collaborator Wilkins, whom he had taught at NYU graduate film school.
Wilkins did 90 interviews for “The Captain,” including with Jeter’s family and former teammates like Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada, Bernie Williams and Alex Rodriguez.
“I’m proud that Derek opened up to me, that he was vulnerable with me, that he was vulnerable with the world,” Wilkins said during Sunday’s event.
Jeter won five championships with the Yankees, including in 2000 when he was the World Series MVP. His 3,465 hits are the most in team history and sixth in MLB history. His #2 was retired by the team in 2017.
Former Jeter manager Joe Torre and longtime teammate CC Sabathia were among the audience at Sunday’s event, where many Yankees fans wearing Jeter t-shirts or No. 2 jerseys stripes also filled the auditorium.
The crowd even broke into a “DER-EK JET-ER” chant after he took the stage.
Jeter became the Miami Marlins’ CEO in 2017 and held a stake in the team until he parted ways with the organization in February. He said there have been “very few days” he’s had to put down roots against the Yankees in his life, mentioning the Marlins clinched a 2020 playoff berth at Yankee Stadium.
“I never rooted externally against the New York Yankees,” Jeter said. “And I’m glad to know that I will never have to pick on them again.”
‘The Captain’ is ESPN’s latest documentary series covering a big-name athlete, with others including ‘The Last Dance’, which focuses on Michael Jordan in 2020, and ‘The Man in the Arena’ about Tom Brady, who has was created last year.
The first episode of “The Captain” airs July 18 on ESPN and the ESPN+ streaming service, with subsequent installments set to drop every Thursday.
