In American history there have been many great African American athletes. Many of these African American athletes have made history. One of these athletes, such as Jackie Robinson, who was the first African American to play in an unsegregated baseball team. The man who is today a great baseball player is by the name of Derek Jeter.

Derek Sanderson Jeter was born on June 26, 1974 in Pequannock, New Jersey. He had grew up being a Yankee fan. A little later in his life Derek had moved to Kalamazoo,  Michigan where by the age  5 Derek was on the T-ball team. Then during the summer Derek would come back to New Jersey and visit his grandparents while also attending some of the Yankee games. Then by the time he was in high school Derek had showed his talent in baseball and by his senior year batted a .831 slugging percentage and was on base for 63.7 percent of the time. By the end of high school he had been named USA’s Today High School Player of the Year.

Then in June of 1992 he was drafted as the sixth overall pick to the New York Yankees in te First-Year overall draft. He was the first high school player drafted to the Yankees that year. After that draft pick Derek had showed that the Yankees had made the rigt pick because from 1994- the present Jeter has accomplished many awards. These accomplishments are 1996 AL Rookie of the Year Award, 1996 Topps Rookie All-Star team, 10-time AL All-Star,  2000 All-Star Game MVP, 2000 World Series MVP, 4-Time AL Golden Glove, 4-Time AL Silver Slugger Award Winner, 1998 AL Runs Scored Leader,  1999 AL Hits Leader, 2-Time AL Singles Leader, (3) 20-Home Runs Seasons, (1) 100 RBI’s Seasons,(12) 100 Runs Scored Seasons,(7) 200 Hits Seasons, and 5 World Series wins with the New York Yankees.

Derek Jeter inspires me in many ways. First, he inspires me to become a good athlete. What I  mean by this is that has been playing in the Major League since his debut and in my opinion one of the best baseball players of all time. Also i think he uses his strength without anyone’s help at times.  Second, I think that he has put his heart into the sport of baseball but like any one would say “If you put your mind into the sport you may exceed.” I follow this quote in any sport that I play if its baseball, basketball, or football if you keep on practicing you can be one of tje greatest sports player of all time.

There are also many other ways that he inspires me too. Such as, how he is a team player and does not act like he is self-centered. He works as a team and leads the team as his position as team captain. As he played on the Yankees since his Major League Baseball debut he has helped the Yankees secure 5 more World Series wins which put the Yankees to their 27th with the latest in 2009 beating the Philadelphia Phillies 7-3. This in my opinion was a great game and the Yankees proved that they still can play and win in the World Series.

Derek Jeter was one of the few African Americans who has changed the game and brought it to a whole new level of competition to the MLB world. If you ever go down the line there have been so many African American baseball players and you can track them down all the way back to Jackie Robinson. I think that Jackie Robinson can be many baseball players heroes because if it were not for him I don’t think that there would be an unsegregated baseball league.