He almost cried on the drive from lower Manhattan to Yankee Stadium. He retreated to the clubhouse between innings to dab at his moist eyes. He stood at shortstop and breathed in and out and peered at his cleats, more evidence that tears were a millisecond from dripping on his pinstriped uniform.

This was Derek Jeter, the coolest of shortstops, on his last day at the Stadium. And, by Jeter's own admission, he was an emotional mess. As much as Jeter had tried to disguise his feelings and act like Thursday night was just another game, he had failed. Miserably. It wasn't another game. It was the last home game, the last time he would ever report to his office at the Stadium.

Jeter has always been the smile-and-have-some-fun superstar, the player who spoke to young fans in the on-deck circle

In Derek Jeter's final days with the Yankees, moments in which he answered questions about whether he would become emotional or remain stoic when his memorable run at Yankee Stadium ended, Jeter offered a subtle reminder of how he has thrived and survived in New York for so long.

"I don't like to complicate things," Jeter said.

Call it a mandate or a rule, but Jeter lived by that simple sentence for his entire career, never letting any situation become too cumbersome and never letting anyone control what he did or what he said. When you are as talented and as confident as Jeter and you refuse to let any type of chaos engulf you, even the chaos that can exist in Yankeeland, you can march at your own pace. Jeter always marched at his own pace.

After the Yankees were eliminated from postseason

Back in 2007, Derek Jeter told Gene Michael, the Yankees’ super scout and a man who helped him with his footwork as a minor league shortstop, that he planned to become a baseball owner after he retired. Jeter asked Michael, who was 69 years old at the time, if he wanted to be Jeter’s general manager.

“How much longer are you going to keep playing?,” Michael asked.

“Ten years,” Jeter said.

Michael was confused. If Jeter played those 10 more predicted seasons, he would have be active until the end of 2016. If Jeter put together an ownership group and and then was able to find a team to purchase in, say, a quick three years, it would be 2019. By then, Michael would be 81.

“I asked him if he wanted an 81-year old G.M.,” Michael explained.

In the latest episode of JCTV, host Jack Curry speaks with Derek Jeter about his decision to announce his retirement plans, his goals for his post-playing days and his final season with the Yankees.

Follow us on Twitter @JackCurryYES and @YESNetwork for more. 

Even the most ardent Yankees fan wouldn't consider April 8, 1992 an important date in the team's successful history. The Yankees didn't even play a game on that day, which meant it was as benign a day as a franchise could experience. But something memorable did happen on that seemingly sleepy day.

Dick Groch, a Yankees' scout, was busy that day, busy completing his scouting report on a high school shortstop from Kalamazoo, Michigan named Derek Jeter. Almost 22 years later, it is surreal to analyze how accurate Groch was in forecasting the future for a 17-year-old player. Groch filed the report on April 8, 1992, which is why that innocuous day is actually a relevant date in Yankees' history.

When Jeter discusses his decision to retire after the 2014 season at a press conference on Wednesday,

When I collaborated with Derek Jeter on a book in 2000, he let me into his private world a little more than he ever does with reporters. In order to accurately tell Jeter's story in "The Life You Imagine," I told him that he needed to treat me as a co-author and not like the sportswriter from The New York Times, which I was at the time.

"That sounds good to me," Jeter said simply, after I spent five minutes describing why that distinction was important.

For several months, I shadowed Jeter and interviewed him anywhere and everywhere. We did an interview over lunch at an Italian restaurant. At least we tried to do it. Once the fans spotted Jeter, I had no chance to get my questions answered. The autograph seekers won. We did interviews in Jeter's home in Tampa. Those were much more productive,

When Derek Jeter was a rookie shortstop with the Yankees in 1996, the veteran players scrutinized him. They were waiting for Jeter to do something that was immature, something that would require them to scold Jeter. It was all part of the clubhouse culture and was a way for the older players to teach some lessons. Eventually, every young player needed to be reprimanded, even playfully, for something.      

So the veterans waited. They waited for Jeter to wear a garish outfit on the team plane, speak at the wrong time during a team meeting or miss a sign during a game. They studied the new kid on the block. He was 21 years old when the season started. Soon, they thought, he will do something goofy.

"We were waiting for him to make a mistake, like a cop with

TAMPA - Derek Jeter has repeatedly said that playing for the Yankees on Opening Day was an achievable goal following surgery on his left ankle.  But, after Jeter felt some stiffness in the ankle and was removed from Tuesday's starting lineup, general manager Brian Cashman said on Wednesday that Jeter could open the season on the disabled list.

Cashman said Jeter received a cortisone shot in his ankle on Wednesday and won't play for at least a few days. With 12 days left before the season opener against the Red Sox on April 1, Cashman acknowledged that Jeter might run out of time to be fully prepared to play.   

"It's possible he might not be ready," Cashman said.

The Yankees still need to have Jeter play nine innings at shortstop and also play back-to-back games at the

Derek Jeter sat about three feet away from me and we were the only two people on the private plane, which was the perfect setting for an interview. For as long as it took us to travel from Tampa to New York, Jeter couldn’t escape my questions. Actually, that was our plan since we were collaborating on a book more than a decade ago.

I learned a lot about Jeter on that day, about his family and his friends and what motivates him. But, whenever I tried to get Jeter to speak in specifics about the future, he didn’t bite. He just wanted to keep on playing baseball for the Yankees. Discussing specific career goals, the type of chatter that thrills fans and interests sportswriters, didn’t interest Jeter. He was worried about the next game. That’s it.

As Jeter has compiled