Out of my league

I've never had a major league ballpark in my backyard before. We could practically walk to Angel Stadium if we wanted to! A big perk of our current location, for sure.

I don't know if I would have been able to see Derek Jeter play one last time otherwise. He's retiring from baseball after this season. He has been my favorite player since I picked his name out of a lineup when I was 13 – for all the right reasons, of course: he had a cool name, I liked the number 2, he grew up Michigan, he played shortstop. I suppose he turned out to be pretty talented, too.

I made sure to get tickets to his last scheduled game in southern California. So did 40,000 other people. What they say is true: There are Yankee fans wherever you go, and it was a sold-out crowd. We lucked out with some great seats and enjoyed a nice farewell ceremony from the Angels, complete with a custom pinstriped paddle board as a gift to Jeter. Only in California.

The game could not have gone more in our favor. The Yankees swept the Angels 9-2, with a home run by Jeter in the 2nd inning. I was ready to catch the ball with my official Derek Jeter Rookie of the Year glove, circa 1996, but it wasn't meant to be.

I have always been a Yankee fan, and yet I've never been to Yankee Stadium. I have only seen them play when most of the audience is rooting for the home team. Not this night. More than once, the crowd chanted "Der-ek Je-ter!" When he came to bat, they stood. And when he scored, you would have thought we were in the house that Ruth built. It was the game of a lifetime.

Title lyrics – Out of My League, Fitz and the Tantrums