Derek Jeter Addresses The Gift Basket Rumor In Rare "Tell All" Interview

NY Mag – Jeter is still in many ways that self-­serious kid, though he’s now full of adult opinions. Yet he recognized early in his Yankees career that opacity was a shield and an asset. Jeter’s blandness with the press isn’t from a lack of intelligence. “It’s exactly the opposite,” says David Cone, a Yankees teammate of Jeter’s for six seasons. “It’s a very defined approach to control the message.” He learned that often the best way to deflate a story is to ignore it. ThePost once claimed that after sleeping with women, Jeter would leave a gift basket of signed memorabilia in the car taking the “conquest” home. He’s avoided commenting on the item for three years. But he’s still annoyed. “Like I’m giving them signed baseballs and pictures of myself on the way out! Who comes up with a story like that?” He laughs, incredulous. “It said the reason people found out was because I gave the same girl the same basket and I had forgotten I’d given her one—like there are so many people coming through I forgot!” Even if Jeter were cheesy enough to have handed out souvenirs, he’s far too careful to have made that kind of mistake.

I’d qualify this as a must read if you’re a Yankees fan or a Jeter fan at all. I put “Tell All” in quotes because he still dodges a lot of questions in classic Jeter fashion. Not like he said “Fuck Alex Rodriguez I hate that scumbag” or anything like that. But its a photography project where Jeets is allowing this guy to follow him around off the field and chronicle his last year in baseball, so you’re definitely getting more of a look behind the curtain than ever. And no better example than him finally opening up about the gift bag rumor.

Jeter giving out gift baskets to chicks he fucked is the second best New York sports rumor/urban legend ever. The first is Yeah Jeets. So DJ is already holding down the Gold and Silver on the podium. In my heart of hearts, and in my mind, if you ask me if there’s any validity to the Yeah Jeets story, I say no. It started out as an Arod story, somehow morphed into a Jeter story, and now its just a funny urban legend that cracks me up. (FYI, I could see it being true for Arod.) But the gift baskets – thats a different story. I genuinely think that he did that. I still do, even after this quote. I don’t think Jeter was giving out actual baskets of goodies like the fucking Easter Bunny. I don’t think chicks were walking out of there with a basket stuffed with that fake green straw grass. But I do absolutely think Jeets would flip a signed ball or a signed card or something to that effect to the latest chick he stuffed. Maybe it wasn’t every time. I don’t think there was like a set standard of gift basket items that each chick got. Like 1 ball if you blow me, a signed rookie card if we bang, and a signed bat if we do anal. But I definitely believe that on their way out of St. Jetersburg, Derek Jeter 100% has given out memorabilia as he kicked bitches out of his place.

And he can cut the fucking shit with the “like there are so many people coming through I forgot!” garbage. It is entirely possible that with the pussy parade Jeter was trotting in and out of there that he forgot to hook some floozy up with some Captain swag.