♪ They say I'm crazy. ♪
♪ I really don't care. ♪
♪ That's my prerogative. ♪
Buddy. - What's going on, man?
- How you doing, buddy?
Great to see you, Derek.
Hi, everybody! Welcome!
How you doing?
Hey!
Dude, I'm your surprise.
I'm the surprise interviewer tonight.
- I see, I see.
I was expecting Shaq.
- Yeah, it was gonna be Shaq.
- This just ... - If you want,
I'm always.... - ... completely changes -
this changes the dynamics a little bit.
- I'm always subbing in for Shaq.
Whenever he can't make it they call me.
- So before we start let me just give you
a little background here with Jimmy.
I hosted "Saturday Night Live" in 2001,
and Jimmy went out of his way
to make sure that I felt comfortable,
which is very hard to do
when you're talking about "Saturday Night Live."
And when you got the late-night show you actually found out
while you were at my golf tournament in Tampa.
So, my family feels responsible for all of your success.
- Oh my, oh please!
Where is your ... where's your mom? 'Cause she's....
I mean, I love you but she's the only reason I'm doing this.
- She's over there. - Where's mom?
I love you, Doro- Hey!
I love you!
You don't call, you don't write.
You don't send cards.
Oh, you did actually, yeah. Yeah, you did.
Ah, she loves me. I'm her favorite child.
I'm gonna talk to you. I'm gonna ask you questions.
I'll pretend ... you want me to? I can do Shaq.
I can ask you questions like....
- O.K., yeah. Go.
- I play basketball, you play baseball.
What's the difference between basketball and baseball?
All right.
Do you remember? I did....
I gotta say, Turn 2 Foundation's been around....
This is the 22nd year?
- Twenty-two years, yes. - Holy moly, dude.
And I was at that golf tournament years ago back in Tampa.
Do you remember that?
- I do. How could I forget?
Yes.
- I mean, I kind of forgot a little bit.
You know you have a problem when John Daly's like,
"Jimmy, you got to go to sleep.
Jimmy, Jimmy, you've had enough."
But no the best is....
Dude, do you remember this?
This is the greatest.
I play the golf tournament with these guys,
they were really nice guys.
They were called BeavEx.
It was like Fed X, but it was a Florida thing
called BeaverEx or Beav- - Yes, yes, yes.
But they found out they.... - I'm very interested
to see where he takes this story, 'cause I know the truth.
- No, I know it's a family thing and I wouldn't even dare.
But they found out that I like Jägermeister.
And so I started doing shots at the first hole.
But by the end ... my handicap was so bad
that I ended up winning the tournament
and you had to present me with the trophy.
Do you remember that?
- Well, that's sort of tradition with my tournament.
There's so many people that lie
about their handicaps, and golf is supposed to be-
- I did not lie! - Golf's supposed to be
a gentleman's sport. - I'm actually bad.
I didn't lie at all.
- You lied, Jimmy. I mean, that's the bottom line.
So yes, I painfully presented you with a trophy.
- Dude, I have photos of it.
Your face is so mad that I won that thing.
I'm just out of it. I'm like, "Whatever, man."
Didn't you ... did you send security to come wake me up?
- I did.
You know, I told this story when I was on your show.
It was the morning after the golf tournament,
and Jimmy was supposed to make his flight.
I mean, this was an early-morning flight,
and no one could find Jimmy.
So, ultimately, someone called your mother,
and your mother tried to track you down.
And he was late, so he's running through the airport.
I shouldn't say this now,
but he looked like O.J. Simpson in the old Hertz commercial.
- I was. I was jumping over your bags and stuff.
- Running through, yeah, jumping and you made it.
- You were awake and looking good, and everyone....
Sharlee was there, and I was just like,
"Dude, I'm sorry."
I think a security guard came in my room and woke me up.
Said, "Dude."
- You know, like I said, I've known Jimmy for a long time.
But when you see him on his show
he has a lot of energy.
This is him all the time.
This is not an act.
This is Jimmy Fallon.
- No, we always have, I mean....
You know, I've been following you, I've been a fan,
'cause you're just such a good guy, man,
and awesome. And I've been to every single one
of your milestones at Yankee Stadium.
And I know you used to see me every now and then,
and I always said, like, "I never want to get in your head
'cause I want you to stay...."
I mean, you're the best, you're a legend.
You come out and I want you to be tough,
and I want you to be Derek Jeter, and be....
You just walk out and you're cool.
And then you go out and you're awesome, you hit homers.
I go, "Don't ever look at me if I'm there in the front row."
But every now and then I would be sitting there with Lorne
and you would come over and just ... you'd give us a nod
or something like that.
And I go, "That's pretty cool, that's awesome."
And then you'd hit homers.
But I was there for every one of your....
Everything you ever did that was good, I was there for it.
So you owe me something.
I want more than this. I want another trophy tonight.
But I was at every ... did I ever distract you at all?
- No it was never a distraction, Jimmy.
But if ... I encourage everyone, when they get home tonight,
to look at any milestone moments
that I may have had at Yankee Stadium,
and you'll always see Jimmy back in the front row
not exactly knowing what to do with his hands.
So he's always ... he's jumping up, clapping
before he's supposed to clap, and he's excited and....
- I was trying to distract the pitcher for you, man!
I was trying to help you out!
I said, "Hey man, a walk's as good as a hit.
You know what I'm saying?"
You would come out, and I'd be like,
"What's up, cool?"
And then when you turned around I'd be like,
"Derek!"
I would scream and lose my voice just for you.
I sat through the rain for you.
Everything, I mean, I really felt like I raised you and....
- And then ... yeah.
- Really, I'm proud of you.
- And then you went.... - I'm proud of you, son.
How is basketball
different than baseball? - Hold up, I never brought....
I never brought this up.
And then you went and filmed a movie as a Red Sox fan.
And it hurt. - When you got paid
as much money as I did, you see why I did it.
It was pretty good.
I gotta say, even though you're at Miami,
you're still helping the Yankees.
Thanks for Giancarlo by the way.
Still helping the Yankees out.
No, no problem.
Oh, you know what?
Oh, I have a funny story.
I had Giancarlo Stanton on the show,
and I said, "Look, Derek ... now and then,
Derek would come over and he'd nod and look at me
if I'm at the game."
I go, "You don't have to do that.
I want you to be focused, I want you to win.
For the Yankees. You are the Yankees, I want you to win!
Get out there. Don't look at me."
And he goes, "O.K., I won't."
I said, "O.K., great."
So I go to the game, I'm there with Lorne.
And we're at the game, and I said to Lorne,
I go, "He's not gonna look at me
'cause we already talked about this on the show.
I said, 'Focus up, and just go out there and win.
I'm there to root you on. I don't care.
I don't want you saying hi to me. I want you to focus up.'"
So he gets up. And he's warming up, he's swinging the bat,
getting ready. And he's giant, you know.
And then he goes over and he walks by,
and he just looks over at me and he goes....
Like, "Dude!
I just told you don't do that!"
And that was the day he hit the game-winning home run
and he had his Yankee moment.
Again, he owes me his whole career as well.
A-Rod will come up -
and I must have said a joke
about him on the show or something,
so he just looked like he hated me.
He would come and look at no one but me.
A-Rod would come look at me.
Staring right at ... I mean, the bat is whipping around.
I'm like, "All right, dude. We get it,
you don't like me, but uh...."
Now we're friends.
Do you remember going to your, was it your first...?
Was it your first apartment, or your first big apartment?
- Yes, yes.
- I went with you and your friends.
You're like, "Dude, you want to see my new apartment?
I got a big apartment."
It was like on the 159th floor or something.
It was gorgeous.
And there's no furniture. - No furniture.
- And we walked in, and you go, "This is it, man."
And I go, "Oh my God."
It actually looked like this room right here.
This was your apartment.
A little bit bigger.
It was a little bit bigger than this room,
is your first apartment.
My first apartment was this speaker right here.
This ... I would shove a bed and I'd have a hot plate in
there with the ramen noodle soup.
And here you are playing tennis in your....
You had an Olympic-sized pool in your apartment.
But we walked in and you were showing it.
"This is awesome."
You go, "Dude, I got this new invention
that can play like every song in the world on this remote."
And we're sitting there and I go, "Alright, let's play it."
And you couldn't get it to work.
It was so embarrassing. You couldn't get it to work.
And then I go, "Shh!"
I go, "I hear it.
It's coming from somewhere ... wait."
And we had to go all the way around your apartment,
and we found the only place it was working
was in your kitchen. So we drank a 12-pack of beer
in your kitchen, yeah. - We sat in the kitchen, yeah.
- That was really fun.
O.K.
Let's get into some questions
that these guys probably want to know.
First of all, congrats on the baby.
- Thank you.
Thank you very much. - How old is the baby now?
- She's 13 months. Yes, thank you.
- Thirteen months, that is so Hannah talking,
that is so your wife.
- Yes, she's 13.... - Guys don't care
about months.
- Well, I mean, I've done....
- Everybody's like, "Oh, how old's your baby?"
It's like, "Three hundred and forty-nine months."
And, "O.K., what is that?
Your baby's 23?"
I don't know.
- I have- - You stop worrying
about months after a while. That's such a thing.
- Yeah, I know....
- So she's one year.
Beautiful. - Yes, a little over one.
And I've done a great job pretty much raising her on my own.
I've done a good job.
- Absolutely, of course.
- No, I was actually doing a speaking engagement recently
and they asked me, What's my greatest accomplishment?
And I was going, you know ... they're asking about
whether it was my playing career,
or ownership, or The Players' Tribune.
And I said, "Well, my greatest accomplishment
is having a daughter." And then I said,
"My wife will probably disagree with me
because she probably feels as though
it's her greatest accomplishment,
giving birth to my daughter." - I think she had a lot
to do with it, yeah.
I know, where Hannah's ... yeah, exactly.
Has it changed everything?
- It has. You know, the thing is,
it's regardless of what happens on a daily basis
you go home and you actually see your daughter smile.
I mean, you know - you have
two kids of your own. - I have two little girls,
yeah. - And it really changes
your perspective on anything.
But I'm not just plugging my wife,
but I'm gonna just mention this.
Because when we acquired the Marlins
I had it in my mind, and I sold her on the fact,
that we'd be going back and forth to Tampa,
where I used to live.
We'd be going back every weekend ... team's on the road....
But I think we've been there for 10 days
since we acquired the team a year ago.
So she deserves a lot of credit,
with not only doing the heavy lifting, but....
- Oh, we know. - For putting up with me.
- Yeah, we know.
Hannah please, you're the greatest. Please we know that.
I mean is it...? I know people ask you all the time,
"Hey do you miss anything?"
I mean, it's almost coming on four years
that you're not playing.
- It's been a long time, yes Jimmy.
I don't miss it at all.
I have not swung a bat since my last game.
I have not thrown a baseball
with an exception of throwing out the first pitch
when they retired my number.
But I haven't done anything baseball.
I don't miss it at all. - You don't miss
anything about...? I mean, do you ever go like,
"Ah, I remember coming out to the thing"?
Or, "I remember, we went on the road,
these people would boo me"? Or whatever?
- Well, that's another good thing.
My wife does not like to see any highlights of me
when I played, at all.
You know they have some things come on ESPN,
I'm like, "Hey, look at this." - Oh yeah.
- She's like, "Turn the channel," or she
walks out of the room.
- She's like, "Yeah we get it. You're a legend."
- Yeah, so that legend - completely behind me.
- "Goodnight, legend. Yeah.
Go get the bottle for the baby." Yeah, exactly.
But there's nothing....
By the way, the last game -
do you guys remember Derek's last game?
Dude, I had a heart attack. I almost died.
'Cause you came out and you finished
and I thought it was your last at bat.
And everyone got weepy,
and everyone's taking cellphone videos of you.
And you go, "That's it. Bye, Derek. We love you."
And I go, "Aw man, I love that dude."
And then you came out to shortstop and you said a prayer,
and I think you either grabbed some dirt
or did you eat grass or something?
Did you eat the grass?
- No, you completely made that up.
- O.K., yeah. - I didn't do either one
of those things. - But that's a good story
you should maybe think about. - It's a great story.
I'll change it. - You should think
about embellishing.
It's kind of a great story.
But you went and said a prayer on the other side of
the mound, and I was like, "Oh, this is great."
And then they tied it up. Was it Baltimore?
- Baltimore, yes.
- And they tied it up, and they batted around.
And you have to get up again.
And I go, "This is terrible."
'Cause you had the best last at bat,
and it was perfect. And I go....
And now it's a tie game and there's two outs,
maybe.... - Yeah, just keep going.
Yeah that's ... it sounds great, yeah.
- Either way, there was a guy on....
- Two outs, bases loaded. - Something like that.
- Game 7 of the World Series, yeah.
- You get up and I was just so nervous for you again,
I go, "I can't believe the pressure this guy....
This is now his last at bat."
So now my video on my phone is useless,
'cause now this is your real last at bat.
So I'm really worried about me here
and my social media.
And then you just smack a game-winning single
and the place erupted.
And there's nothing like Yankee Stadium when it erupts.
I mean, this is similar, but....
You put on a show man.
- Thank you. I've been very fortunate
to have a lot of memories,
especially here in New York at Yankee Stadium.
Like everyone asks now because, you know,
being with the Marlins, they ask,
"Oh, are you a Yankee or are you a Marlin?"
Look, I will always be a New York Yankee.
I played in New York....
I played in New York for 20 years.
It's like Don Mattingly,
he will always be a New York Yankee.
But you move on and you do other things.
And now we're trying to build an organization -
we will build an organization -
that's one of the best in all of sports.
And it's gonna take us a little time, Jimmy,
but we're gonna get you down to Miami.
We're gonna get you a Marlins hat,
we're gonna put you in the front row
and we're going.... - That's never going to happen
as long as you live, but I do love you.
- Well, if we pay you enough money,
like that Boston movie, you'll do it, right?
- Again, thank you again for Stanton. He's awesome.
But talk about Turn 2 for a second,
because when you started this 22 years ago,
what's different?
I mean, how small was it compared to what it is now?
- Yeah, I mean, I said this earlier,
we had our first event in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
We raised $30,000, I think.
- That is just this table, right here.
That's it, that's.... - Yeah.
- Tonight is ... these are big wheels,
You guys are fantastic, by the way.
Give yourselves a round of applause
for doing this and coming out tonight.
These guys are awesome.
- So it was a small family foundation when we started it,
and we never imagined that it would
grow to what it is today.
And my dad, obviously, used to run the foundation
till my sister sort of kicked him out and took over.
And now she's taken over, and she continues to be innovative
and we continue to get the support
from the communities in New York, west Michigan,
and down in Florida, where I live.
So we deserve a lot of....
I mean, everyone in here deserves a lot of credit,
because we couldn't be successful
without everyone's support.
So thank you, once again.
- Where do you see it going?
What have you seen change, where you're like,
"Wow, that was pretty awesome that I did that"?
- The foundation, you know, it's always fun for us.
We have our alumni here, when they come back,
when we meet with the parents of the kids
and they thank us for even playing a small little part
in their child's development.
I think that's what makes it all worthwhile for us.
Everyone asks, "How many kids' lives have we touched?"
It's kind of impossible to count,
but we know we've had an impact on at least a few.
- Yeah, you absolutely have.
It's kind of amazing.
And then
let's talk about Miami for a second,
'cause you did something that I thought was pretty cool.
You are asking the English-speaking people
that work for the organization to learn Spanish.
- I did.
I always found it very interesting when I was playing
how, when you have players come from Latin America,
someone puts a microphone in their face
and all of a sudden they're expected to speak English.
And it's not that simple.
It's an entirely different culture,
and it's an entirely different language.
You're away from home for the first time.
So I thought it was important not only
that our Hispanic players learn English,
but all of our English-speaking players learn Spanish.
So we've implemented that in our organization this year.
- I can't even say how in awe....
You're just like the coolest dude ever,
and I love you so much.
There's nothing more to say,
but thank you on behalf of everyone here
and everyone you've helped.
Thank you so much.
Thank you for this great evening,
and I know you got some good music coming up here.
- And thank you. Everyone, thank Jimmy.
I know Jimmy's busier than anyone you can imagine,
but thanks for coming out here.
- Well, that's it.
- I appreciate it, brother. - Good seeing you.
- Thanks again.
- Thank you guys very much. - Thank you.