Derek Sanderson Jeter, born on June 26, 1974, in New Jersey, is an iconic American baseball player renowned for his tenure as a shortstop for the New York Yankees.
Having started his baseball journey in Michigan, his prowess was evident by high school.
The Yankees drafted him in 1992 and despite early challenges in the minor leagues, he rose to prominence, earning accolades like Minor League Player of the Year in 1994.
By 1996, he was the Yankees’ leading shortstop, clinching multiple World Series titles.
His remarkable career featured awards such as the AL MVP, Gold Glove and Silver Slugger.
Retiring in 2014 with 3,464 hits, Jeter later became the Miami Marlins’ CEO, a position he relinquished in 2022.
In 2020, he received an almost unanimous induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Below are some of the best quotes by Derek Jeter.
Best Derek Jeter Quotes
You’ve got to make adjustments as you get older. ~ Derek Jeter.
I’m not one to sit around and be satisfied about something. I can always get better. ~ Derek Jeter.
Sportswriters are what make sports great and fun to watch. ~ Derek Jeter.
As long as I’m having fun I’m going to play. ~ Derek Jeter.
The first thing to know about playing baseball in Michigan is, Michigan’s really cold. ~ Derek Jeter.
It doesn’t take any talent to play hard. ~ Derek Jeter.
The Yankees have twenty-five heroes. ~ Derek Jeter.
Good teams make the playoffs, hot teams win the playoffs. ~ Derek Jeter.
Work hard, love what you do, put your best foot forward and never forget the kid in you. ~ Derek Jeter.
I think when things linger, that’s when they become a distraction. I don’t want any distractions. ~ Derek Jeter.
It doesn’t seem like the season really gets under way until you have your home opener. ~ Derek Jeter.
Surround yourself with good people. People who are going to be honest with you and look out for your best interests. ~ Derek Jeter.
I can have fun anywhere, as long as I’m with good people. But in the offseason, I like to go somewhere warm, a nice spot in the Caribbean. ~ Derek Jeter.
Our fans don’t want to see us win the Wild Card. They want to see us win the division. ~ Derek Jeter.
The longer you wait to decide what you want to do, the more time you’re wasting. It’s up to you to want something so badly that your passion shows through in your actions. Your actions, not your words, will do the shouting for you. ~ Derek Jeter.
I can see how people work out to feel better. ~ Derek Jeter.
So many people are insanely busy nowadays, and it’s easy to say, ‘Ah, I’ll workout tomorrow.’ But you have to set aside a time and stick to that schedule. ~ Derek Jeter.
Famous Derek Jeter Quotes
I attribute much of my success in New York to my ability to understand and avoid unnecessary distractions. ~ Derek Jeter.
You have to be confident, if you’re not confident you might as well go home. ~ Derek Jeter.
I get nervous watching teammates. I get nervous for them. Late in the game, pressure situation, I’m nervous for them. ~ Derek Jeter.
Handle yourself like a professional on the field and you have one goal-and that’s to win. ~ Derek Jeter.
I think sometimes people need to get used to an idea. ~ Derek Jeter.
I will never brag about myself, but my family, I can go on forever. ~ Derek Jeter.
I love it when people doubt me. It makes me work harder to prove them wrong. ~ Derek Jeter.
I always take criticism as a challenge. It’s the way I’ve always looked at it. ~ Derek Jeter.
Obviously, you’re known for what you do. But you still want to be known as a good person. You’re a person a lot longer before and after you’re a professional athlete. ~ Derek Jeter.
Ultimate Derek Jeter Quotes
The last thing you want to do is finish playing or doing anything and wish you would have worked harder. ~ Derek Jeter.
You have to take the good with the bad. Some players only talk to the press when they are doing good. When you’re doing bad you shouldn’t shy away from them and when doing good, don’t run up to them. ~ Derek Jeter.
When I was younger, I was always taught not to make excuses. ~ Derek Jeter.
A lot of teams, I think, are just happy to make the post-season. Here, you have to win. ~ Derek Jeter.
If you play well on the field, everything will take care of itself. ~ Derek Jeter.
My grandmother asks me to race down the street, I’m going to try to beat her. And I’ll probably enjoy it. Competitive to a fault, sometimes. ~ Derek Jeter.
I’ve hung out and dated people I’ve never even met before. ~ Derek Jeter.
The great thing about being a Yankee is that you’re always a Yankee. ~ Derek Jeter.
Defense usually doesn’t make many headlines, but it goes a long way towards winning baseball games. There are a number of ways to make an impact during the course of a game, and playing solid, sound defense is one of them. ~ Derek Jeter.
I went to school on Senior Skip Day. ~ Derek Jeter.
Popular Derek Jeter Quotes
The only legacy I want is to be thought of as a winner. ~ Derek Jeter.
You know what I want to do? Wake up one weekend and not have to go anywhere and do nothing. ~ Derek Jeter.
My dad had been shortstop when he was in college, and you know, when you’re a kid, you want to be just like your dad. ~ Derek Jeter.
Athletics keeps us healthy, gets us up and running around. It also gives you an opportunity to meet a lot of different people, which is very important. ~ Derek Jeter.
Nine games? It’s too long. ~ Derek Jeter.
It’s never over. You don’t want to be in the position to be down four runs in the ninth inning, but it’s not over until the last out. ~ Derek Jeter.
My office is at Yankee stadium. Yes, dreams do come true. ~ Derek Jeter.
You can’t be sensitive, because you’re going to get criticized. I don’t care who you are, you’re going to get criticized. ~ Derek Jeter.
One of the best things about being a Yankee is that you have guys like Whitey Ford, Phil Rizzuto, Ron Guidry and Reggie Jackson wandering around the locker room offering you advice. ~ Derek Jeter.
It took him 75 steps to get from third to home. I thought we were going to have to go out there and help him. A lot of players start thinking double then maybe wind up with a triple because the outfielder slips. ~ Derek Jeter.
Winning is one of the most special moments. Every time I take the field it’s a special moment. The fans are the ones that make it special. Because that’s what we do it for. ~ Derek Jeter.
Top Derek Jeter Quotes
I try to sign for as many kids as possible. Kids come first, and I’ll always sign for a kid before an adult. ~ Derek Jeter.
I just think that your private life is private. What I do is obviously public, I get that. I get the fact that people are interested. I’m interested in a lot of people as well. I’ve just chosen to stay as private as possible. ~ Derek Jeter.
I’m a New Yorker now, and believe me, there’s no comparison between the Big Apple and Kalamazoo, no similarity at all. New York City’s hectic, always in fast-forward, and Kalamazoo’s more laid-back, smaller, slower. ~ Derek Jeter.
The big difference for me is that, as I get older, I find it’s a lot easier to stay in shape than it is to get back in shape. ~ Derek Jeter.
Yankee Stadium is my favorite stadium; I’m not going to lie to you. There’s a certain feel you get in Yankee Stadium. ~ Derek Jeter.
Everyone fears rejection. ~ Derek Jeter.
That’s how you win – pitching and defense. ~ Derek Jeter.
You’re playing a game, whether it’s Little League or Game 7 of the Word Series. It’s impossible to do well unless you’re having a good time. People talk about pressure. Yeah, there’s pressure. But I just look at it as fun. ~ Derek Jeter.
What kind of influence did my parents have on my life? Well, they had the most influence. These are the people who are closest to me. My parents are very positive people. They’ve been supportive. They’re always there. ~ Derek Jeter.
Great Derek Jeter Quotes
I play in New York, man. Criticism is part of the game. You take criticism as a challenge. ~ Derek Jeter.
If you’re going to play at all, you’re out to win. Baseball, board games, playing Jeopardy, I hate to lose. ~ Derek Jeter.
I think everyone is ticklish. You just gotta find the right spots. ~ Derek Jeter.
During the off-season, I go to the movies almost every day. ~ Derek Jeter.
You forget about it whether it was 15-2 or 3-2. It’s still a loss. It doesn’t matter what the score was if we win tomorrow. ~ Derek Jeter.
The one thing I always said to myself was that when baseball started to feel more like a job, it would be time to move forward. ~ Derek Jeter.
I want to own a team one day. You know, that’s my next goal. ~ Derek Jeter.
I go into every game thinking I’m going to be the hero. I have to, or I wouldn’t enjoy it. ~ Derek Jeter.
We just want to win. That’s the bottom line. I think a lot of times people may become content with one championship or a little bit of success, but we don’t really reflect on what we’ve done in the past. We focus on the present. ~ Derek Jeter.
Wise Derek Jeter Quotes
I think it comes easy to work hard. I was always taught, don’t short-change yourself. Keep working to get better. ~ Derek Jeter.
When you put a lot of hard work into one goal and you achieve it, that’s a really good feeling. ~ Derek Jeter.
I’m not perfect; no one is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes. I think you try to learn from those mistakes. ~ Derek Jeter.
Sneak out when things go good. It bothers me when people have good games and stand in front of their locker waiting for the media, then they have bad games and sneak out the back. ~ Derek Jeter.
If I put my name on something, I’m going to be involved. I’m not just going to put my name on it and not pay attention. ~ Derek Jeter.
My parents always felt if I worked hard enough I could make any dream come true. ~ Derek Jeter.
If you’re going to win games, you’re going to have to come up with the big hits. That’s the bottom line. ~ Derek Jeter.
My heroes, my dreams, and my future lay in Yankee Stadium. And they can’t take that away from me. ~ Derek Jeter.
I try to stay as private as possible; I know that’s difficult, especially playing here in New York, but I make an attempt at it. ~ Derek Jeter.
Inspiring Derek Jeter Quotes
My best vacation is somewhere I could hide, somewhere warm and not a lot of people around. ~ Derek Jeter.
There’s responsibility, but there’s also accountability. You have to be accountable for your actions. You have to stand at your locker when things are going bad. ~ Derek Jeter.
You don’t just accidentally show up in the World Series. ~ Derek Jeter.
I have the greatest job in the world. Only one person can have it. You have shortstops on other teams – I’m not knocking other teams – but there’s only one shortstop on the Yankees. ~ Derek Jeter.
I think there’s something wrong with me – I like to win in everything I do, regardless of what it is. You want to race down the street, I want to beat you. If we’re playing checkers, I want to win. You beat me, it’s going to bother me. I just enjoy competition. ~ Derek Jeter.
I want to play every day. This year will be absolutely no different. ~ Derek Jeter.
There may be people who have more talent than you, but there’s no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do – and I believe that. ~ Derek Jeter.
Your image isn’t your character. Character is what you are as a person. ~ Derek Jeter.
When it was time for parent-teacher conferences, I remember that I was always embarrassed about what my parents would hear about me! ~ Derek Jeter.
I looked up to my parents because they were very successful in what they wanted to do. I was lucky; I didn’t have to look far for role models. ~ Derek Jeter.
I always try to take from past performances. You never try to get too high or too low. Just play every game, just treat every game like it’s the same. ~ Derek Jeter.
Inspirational Derek Jeter Quotes
You gotta have fun. Regardless of how you look at it, we’re playing a game. It’s a business, it’s our job, but I don’t think you can do well unless you’re having fun. ~ Derek Jeter.
In order to lead people, you have to get to know them. ~ Derek Jeter.
The Yankees have strict rules. You can have a mustache but no other facial hair. ~ Derek Jeter.
I like to dance and sing when there’s no one around, but, if I’m out, I’m really shy about it. So it takes a lot to get me going, but I enjoy being around music. ~ Derek Jeter.
I never think about my own stats, as long as I’m contributing to the team. ~ Derek Jeter.
God, I hope I wear this jersey forever. ~ Derek Jeter.
The draft is a crapshoot, so I’ve been very fortunate to be drafted by the Yankees, and to have spent my whole career here. ~ Derek Jeter.
So these were the 92 top Derek Jeter quotes on winning, success, baseball and business.
If you like these quotes and sayings, then you can also read my other posts on Langston Hughes quotes and Elie Wiesel quotes.
