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Rays Tales: Jeter at the Trop

 
When he retires, longtime Yankees captain Derek Jeter will have played nearly a full season’s worth of games at the Trop.
When he retires, longtime Yankees captain Derek Jeter will have played nearly a full season’s worth of games at the Trop.
Published Sept. 14, 2014

The Derek Jeter retirement tour comes to the Trop this week, replete with the obligatory gifts and potentially awkward pregame ceremony before Tuesday's game. (And what do you get the man who has everything, and a massive home to keep it? Expect the Rays on Tuesday to give Jeter something Tampa Bay-area-related — a boat? Barely used Trop seats? Intransigent politicians? — and a donation to his charity.) But this is more than a fleeting farewell. Jeter — who will spend a lot of his now free time at that little place he owns over on Tampa's Davis Islands — has played under the slanted roof a lot, more than any other visiting player. Over the 17 years the Rays have been around, Jeter has played nearly a full season. He has hit .278 with eight homers and 53 RBIs in 576 plate appearances over 124 games, with potentially three more to go in what is as certain to be a Hall of Fame career as there can be. All of which got us thinking about where he ranks among the other great players who have played at the Trop, including seven Hall of Famers. (An eighth, LHP Tom Glavine, pitched in the first game at the Trop, a March 27, 1998 exhibition):

Roberto Alomar, 2B

at Trop: 21 games 1998-2003, .313, 2 HRs, 7 RBIs

Wade Boggs, 3B/DH

(For Rays)

at Trop: 115 games 1998-99, .281, 8 HRs, 47 RBIs

Rickey Henderson, OF

at Trop: 18 games, 1998-2002, .213, 3 HR, 4 RBIs

Greg Maddux, RHP

at Trop: 3 games 1998-2007, 2-0, 2.22

Paul Molitor, DH

at Trop: 5 games 1998, .304, 0 HR, 2 RBIs

Cal Ripken, 3B

at Trop: 17 games, 1998-2001, .232, 2 HRs, 13 RBIs

Frank Thomas, DH/1B

at Trop: 35 games 1998-2007, .303, 7 HRs, 29 RBIs

And among some other great players:

Barry Bonds

Miguel Cabrera

Ken Griffey Jr.

Chipper Jones

David Ortiz

Albert Pujols

Manny Ramirez

Ivan Rodriguez

Gary Sheffield

Ichiro Suzuki

And pitchers:

Roger Clemens

Randy Johnson

Pedro Martinez

Mariano Rivera

Curt Schilling

John Smoltz

Got a minute?

Joel Peralta

Best meal you can make?

Dominican stuff, I can cook beef, plantains, stuff like that.

Must-see TV?

The one show I like a lot is Everybody Loves Raymond.

Karaoke song, if you had to?

It wouldn't be anything you would know, it would be bachata music.

Food you hate?

Anything spicy.

Celebrity crush?

I thought of like 10 — Shakira has to be in there.