With the 2014 MLB playoffs, comes the end of an era for the game of baseball. America’s pastime is losing an icon with the retirement of Derek Jeter. While many of us college students were busy crawling, spitting up baby food, or simply being born, Jeets was making a name for himself as American League Rookie of the Year in 1996. He batted .310 with 10 home runs and 78 RBIs in his first full season as a New York Yankees shortstop. 

Jeter went on to play for 20 seasons, where he was featured in 14 All-Star games, made 16 playoff appearances and won five World Series titles, three of which were in a row. Jeets won five Gold Glove Awards, five Silver Slugger Awards and finished his career with a .310 average, 3,465 hits -- good enough for sixth all-time -- and 260 home runs. Long story short, the guy was good.    

You could probably make the argument that Derek Jeter has been the face of, not just the Yankees, but Major League baseball as a whole, for the majority of the past two decades. Whether or not you are a baseball fan, or even a sports fan, you know who Derek Jeter is, and it is safe to say that he will be greatly missed.   

Growing up as a baseball player, Jeets was the guy you imitated on the field. You asked for a ball hit up the hole on the left side, on purpose, just so you could try the signature Jeter play -- the backhand range to the jump throw over to first, but you could never quite get it the way he did. Jeter provided a great role model for young athletes as the epitome of class, and what it meant to be a team player. He is well respected by everybody in the sports world, from Michael Jordan, to Carmelo Anthony and, yes, even the Boston Red Sox.   

It is tough to say whether an entire city has ever loved an icon as much as New York City loves Derek Jeter. I have never been to New York, but I know a handful of people from the Midwest who are Yankee fans solely because of Jeter. In a baseball mecca like the Midwest, that is saying a lot. To make it even more impressive, he played only for the Yankees his entire career, something you don’t see very often, anymore, with players looking to go wherever the money is.   

(Jeter’s Final At-Bat)

Derek Jeter stayed loyal to the Yankees, the city of New York and the game of baseball for 20 seasons. He leaves behind a legacy as one of the greatest Yankees, and greatest players, to ever set foot on a baseball field. Even amongst names like Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, Mickie Mantle and Joe DiMaggio, Derek Jeter will always be The Captain.