Derek Jeter: The Yankee Kid

By Jack O'Connell

An easy to read children's book chronicling the exciting career of Derek Jeter.

Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Arcade, Good Books, Sports Publishing, and Yucca imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. Our list includes biographies on well-known historical figures like Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, and Alexander Graham Bell, as well as villains from history, such as Heinrich Himmler, John Wayne Gacy, and O. J. Simpson. We have also published survivor stories of World War II, memoirs about overcoming adversity, first-hand tales of adventure, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sports Publishing
• Release date: Jan 5, 2012
• ISBN: 9781613214749

Jack O'Connell

Jack O’Connell (b. 1959) is the author of five critically acclaimed, New York Times bestselling crime novels. Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, O’Connell’s earliest reading was the dime novel paperbacks and pulp fiction sold in his corner drug store, whose hard-boiled attitude he carried over to his own writing. He has cited his hometown’s bleak, crumbling infrastructure as an influence on Quinsigamond, the fictional city where his first four novels were set, and whose decaying industrial landscape served as a backdrop for strange thrillers which earned O’Connell the nickname of a “cyberpunk Dashiell Hammett.” O’Connell’s most recent novel was The Resurrectionist (2008). A former student at Worcester’s College of the Holy Cross, he now teaches there, not far from where he and his family live just outside of his hometown.

Book preview

George Steinbrenner III, the principal owner of the New York Yankees, is no stranger to championships. In the 25 years he has run the Yankees, they have won six American League pennants and four World Series. He has made it clear over the years that even though he wants to win, when it comes to postchampionship celebrating, there shall be no spraying champagne on the owner.

In previous years, Steinbrenner was able to remain dry during such celebrations because players didn’t want to risk making him mad. But after the Yankees won the World Series in 1998 to complete a record-setting season, Steinbrenner was drenched in the visitor's clubhouse at San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium.

It wasn’t difficult to find the person responsible. Derek Jeter, the fun-loving shortstop, crept up behind Steinbrenner while he was being interviewed on television and poured a bottle over his boss’s head.

Yeah, I know who did it, Steinbrenner said. It was that Jeter kid. He knows he’s not supposed to, but he did it anyway. And, you know, he’s the only one I’d let get away with it. The way he has played for me, he can do whatever he wants.’

Derek’s relationship with Steinbrenner is similar to his relationship with almost everybody, playful and respectful. In his first three seasons in the major leagues, Derek Jeter has become one of the game’s most popular players. Fans both young and old have quickly come to recognize and appreciate Derek’s ability.

Derek has been an integral part of a Yankees renaissance in the 1990s. He was born less than an hour away from Yankee Stadium, grew up dreaming of playing for the Yankees and turned that dream into reality by starring on two World Series championship Yankees teams before his 25th birthday.

It will be difficult for the Yankees to improve upon their 1998 season. Including postseason play the Yankees won 125 games and lost just 50. Their 114 regular-season victories established an American League record and were only two shy of the major-league mark set by the Chicago Cubs in 1906. The Yankees swept the Texas Rangers in three games in the Division Series, defeated the Cleveland Indians, four games to two, in the American League Championship Series and captured the World Series with a four-game sweep of the San Diego Padres.