Real Reason Yankees Legend is Skipping Old-Timers Game

Derek Jeter won't be at the New York Yankees Old-Timers Game this year, and fans who had hoped to see him play again are disappointed. To his credit, Jeter reportedly has a personal reason for missing the game.

According to Yankees color commentator Suzyn Waldman, Jeter will be attending his daughter's birthday party instead. Waldman told Brandon Tierney and Sal Licata that "they’re having a big party for her" on WFAN Sports Radio this week. Jeter's oldest daughter, Bella Raine, will be turning eight this year on August 17. He and his wife Hannah have four children: daughters Bella Raine, Story Grey and River Rose and son Kaius Green.

Tierney asked whether Jeter could have had the birthday party on a different day, and Waldman responded to the best of her ability.

“At this point, he’s 25 years removed from it and it’s his daughter’s birthday and maybe he doesn’t want to go home and have his daughter crying," Waldman ventured. "I don’t know. I don’t think it has anything to do with that he didn’t want to play a game. I don’t think that at all.”

Earlier this week, fellow WFAN host Boomer Esiason called Jeter "elitist" for skipping the game, and went so far as to call the decision "insulting."

“I just think, to me, he’s the captain, he was the guy that was embraced by the fans and loved by the fans and still is to this very day,” Esiason said on Boomer and Gio. “It just feels a little bit elitist, that’s all.”

Even if he was attending, Jeter likely wouldn't play in the game. At least, that's what he told reporters this time last year.

“They’re not gonna see me hit again. No, I would be afraid I would hurt myself,” Jeter said in 2024, when there wasn't a game. “But that’s not saying the reason there’s no game is because I’m not playing. I don’t make those decisions, contrary to your belief.”

This year's Old-Timers Day will celebrate 25 years since the Yankees 2000 World Series team, and will feature a game for the first time since 2019. Jeter attended the festivities last year, but his absence is notable on this occasion, given that he won World Series MVP in 2000 and is an all-time Yankees icon.

38 former Yankees are expected to play in the Old-Timers Game on August 9 including Clay Bellinger, who will be there for the first time with his son, Cody Bellinger.

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