This may not come as much of a surprise, but Miami Marlins co-owner Derek Jeter still is a fan of the New York Yankees.
Jeter made his name as a player in The Bronx, but he has since taken over the Marlins, and his tenure hasn’t exactly started off swimmingly. He held an absolute fire sale this offseason, trading away National League MVP Giancarlo Stanton, as well as Dee Gordon, Marcell Ozuna and Christian Yellich.
In other words, all of their “star power.”
What was made worse was the dramatically low returns the Marlins got in exchange for most of those players, particularly in the case of Stanton, who was traded to Jeter’s former team and in turn spurred a fair amount of criticism and conspiracy theories.
Conspiracies aside, Jeter appeared on “CBS Evening News with Jeff Glor,” on Tuesday and acknowledged that he does, in fact, still root for the Yankees.
Here’s the transcript of the exchange, via CBS Sports:
JEFF GLOR: You still a Yankee fan?
DEREK JETER: I am. Yeah, I– just not if we’re playin’ ’em. Right? I mean, this is an organization where I owe everything to. And– you know, I have a great relationship with the Steinbrenner family, I will continue to do so. You know, Hal has been very helpful and said he’s there if any advice that I may need. But it’s– it’s– yeah, it’s– it’ll be strange when we play the Yankees, because there hasn’t been a day in my life that I’ve rooted against ’em.
JEFF GLOR: And you will this year.
DEREK JETER: You have to root for your own team. (Laughing)
Given all that Jeter has given to the Yankees and vice versa, it certainly is reasonable that he feels that way. But especially after the way the Stanton trade went down, he is walking a very thin line in terms of how he is perceived publicly.
In an apparent effort to try and help that image, Last week Jeter said he probably won’t go to Yankee Stadium for the two games the Marlins play in New York this season in order to avoid “awkwardness.”
