By Domenic Konareski
Derek Jeter is one of the most polarizing players in baseball history and an undisputed great amongst Yankees fans. The old Yankee Stadium may have been ‘The House That Ruth Built,’ but at the same time it was also ‘The House That Jeter Maintained.’ Before Jeter was known in the Bronx though, he had to go through the ranks of minor league baseball and the grind that it was.
Being drafted 6th overall by New York in the 1992 MLB Draft, Derek Jeter would move up through Rookie and Single-A ball fairly quickly, finding himself with the Double-AA Albany-Colonie Yankees in 1994 after a mid-season call-up from Tampa to make his AA debut on June 25th.
Jeter didn’t spend much time at the Double-AA level, playing just 34 games before his eventual call up to Triple-AAA with the rest being history. Frankly, the best way to put it, throwing out all professional journalistic standards, is the fact that Derek Jeter tore the cover off the ball while with Albany. In those 34 Double-AA games, Jeter slashed .349/.439/.492 with a .931 OPS, while hitting 3 home runs and showing off his speed for 7 doubles and a triple.
As Jeter continued to stay hot with Albany, the Yankees would head into West Haven to play at Yale Field (now known as George H.W. Bush Field), to face the New Haven Ravens. Many people connect the Yale baseball stadium to New Haven, as it is just roughly 100-feet away from the West Haven-New Haven line, but it does technically reside on the West Haven side with an official address of 252 Derby Ave, West Haven.
As Jeter arrived at the historic Yale field, the Ravens were in the midst of their first season of baseball and were a hit around town. Meanwhile, his A-C Yankees had announced just a month prior that the team would be rebranding and relocating to Connecticut as the Norwich Navigators after the 1994 season.
Jeter’s time with the Albany Yankees would be the only time he would come to West Haven and faced the Ravens in 1994. The A-C Yankees never played any home or away games against the New Haven Ravens until that three-game series in late July – In fact, his final game against New Haven would ultimately be a career changer for the future Yankees’ captain.
Derek Jeter would play his final game as a Double-AA caliber player in West Haven against the Ravens. The game took place on July 31, 1994, with it being the final game of a three-game series that started on July 29.
Databases do not showcase minor league box scores prior to 2015, with box scores 2014 and older coming via team archives and fans who still game their game programs. It is unclear if Jeter played in the first two games of the series, although it is extremely likely that he did, considering he had just three off-days when the A-C Yankees began the series.
The full game box scores may not be widely known, but when is known and confirmed is that Jeter would go 2-for-5 against the Ravens on that last day of July baseball in that final game of the series.
Overall, that July 31st game would be the last time Jeter played in West Haven, but he would face off against the Ravens one more time. On a rehab assignment in May of 2003, after recovering from a dislocated left shoulder sustained on Opening Day, Jeter would put up a 4-for-9 line across two games. Jeter’s final at-bat being a bases-loaded double that drove in the go-ahead runs for the Trenton Thunder in what was a home game for the Yankees affiliate.
With Jeter playing ball in West Haven, it has him part of an elite list of baseball stars to step on the Westie diamond. Jeter is in the same group as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, *Mickey Mantle, Bob Feller, Satchel Paige, Yogi Berra and Willie Mays, when it comes to players who have played in West Haven.
*Mickey Mantle did an exhibition home run derby during the West Haven Yankees 1972 season in part of a promotional night.
Derek Jeter’s name is honored in the lower concourse of Yale Field, which has a section that showcases the names and years of key players to play a game at the field over the years.
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