Derek Jeter didn’t consider the New York Yankees “savages” back in his day.
As baseball fans can recall, current Yanks manager Aaron Boone, Jeter’s former teammate, dominated headlines and inspired T-shirt slogans in July when he went on an expletive-filled rant, telling a young umpire, “Our guys are f—ing savages in the box.”
But the Miami Marlins CEO says things were different when he was wearing pinstripes.
“You know what? I’ll be honest with you. I haven’t been able to watch as much because obviously, I have my hands full down in Miami but I don’t know if we called ourselves savages,” Jeter, 45, told Page Six at his 23rd annual Turn 2 Foundation dinner at Cipriani Wall Street on Monday night. “So it’s a little bit different.”
When asked what his teammates went by, he proudly replied, “The Yankees!”
“I don’t know if we really had a nickname,” he said.
The former slugger also told us he has no wise words for Boone this season.
“He’s doing a great job,” he said. “I played with Aaron, so nah, keep doing what he’s doing.”
Jeter also spoke of his Turn 2 Foundation, which he and his family founded in 1996 to raise funds for youth programs that motivate kids to stay away from drugs and alcohol.
“When we started the foundation, the goal was to help out as many kids as we possibly could in the west Michigan area, the New York area, and down in Florida, but we never knew it would grow to as big as it is now,” he told us. “I think we raised about $30,000 at our first event I think we had in Michigan and now we’ve given back over $30 million, so we’re pretty proud of it as an entire family.”
Jeter was joined by his model wife, Hannah Jeter. The couple welcomed their second daughter in January.
Also at the fundraiser were Hoda Kotb, Aly Raisman, Larry Johnson, Joe Hogan and Sharlee Jeter.