📍Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA
1978 – 1992“Derek Jeter was born in New Jersey in 1974 and moved with his family to Kalamazoo, Michigan, when he was four. His father, Charles, was a substance-abuse counsellor who had played shortstop in college, and his mother, Dorothy, was an accountant. They were a close, disciplined family: every year Derek and his younger sister, Sharlee, signed a contract with their parents setting out rules on homework, behaviour and respect, along with the consequences for breaking them. Kalamazoo was a mid-sized college town, and the Jeters lived near a high school baseball field, where Derek would hop the fence to practise. He began Little League at five. But his heart belonged to New York: the children spent their summers with their grandparents, Dot and Bill Connors, in West Milford, New Jersey, and his grandmother took him to Yankee Stadium and even caught for him while he worked on his pitching. By eight he was telling everyone that he would play shortstop for the Yankees. He made the Kalamazoo Central High School varsity team as a freshman, worked tirelessly, and by his senior year was one of the best high school players in the country. In 1992 the Yankees drafted him, and he went on to play twenty seasons for them, winning five World Series and becoming captain. He has often credited his parents' rules and his grandparents' Yankee summers for shaping him, and his Turn 2 Foundation has supported young people in Kalamazoo ever since, honouring the community where he grew up.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today