Kalamazoo, Michigan : The only man who has tied the great record of Hank Aaron
- Makio Mukai
- Jun 6
- 6 min read
On April 25, 2016, I flew from Japan to the US, arrived in Houston, Texas, and started my road trip in a rental car. Then, on May 3, I arrived in Kalamazoo, a city in Michigan. I had a little business to take care of at Western Michigan University in that city.
The campus of Western Michigan University was extremely large and extremely beautiful. After taking care of my business, I took a rest and drank coffee in the cafeteria on campus, and fell asleep for about an hour. But thanks to that, I was able to recover from the fatigue of the drive and feel extremely good. So, I decided to accomplish another purpose. Actually, there was another place I wanted to visit while I was in Kalamazoo. I returned to the parking lot and headed to that place.
After arriving at KALAMAZOO CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL, I parked my car in the large parking lot and walked towards the school building. I opened the most conspicuous door and tried to go inside, but it was locked. Oh dear, so where do I enter? As I was wandering around, someone called out from behind me, "Gentleman, what's the matter?" It was a black boy. I asked him,
"Are you a student here?"
"Yes, I am. It seems like you're having some trouble".
"I'm a tourist from Japan, so I don't know where to enter".
The high school student smiled kindly and politely told me,
"I see. There's an unlocked entrance over there".
"Thank you".
"You're welcome. Welcome to our high school!"
He was a really kind high school student.
I walked into Kalamazoo Central High School without an appointment....into the alma mater of Derek Jeter, the superstar who played his entire career for the New York Yankees and retired in 2014.
Derek Jeter, captain of the New York Yankees, was said to be the most famous and popular active major leaguer in the United States. At least, that's what the people of New York thought. There is a good example that illustrates Jeter's such position. It is the American movie “World Trade Center”(2006) which is based on the true story of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks
This movie begins with a scene in New York in the early morning of September 11th, before anything unusual had happened. Then we see a conversation between two men on a commuter train.
“Did you see Jeter’s homer on Saturday? Guy’s got some swing, man.”
“Yeah, I was there.”
“Yeah? It was a good one to have been at.”
“It was.”
In this way, Jeter was New York’s most iconic conversation piece.
But Jeter was not the batting average leader, home run leader, RBI leader, or MVP, all of which are recognized by everyone as proof of a top-class player. And some people called Jeter “the most overrated player." Here is a good example that illustrates Jeter's such position. This is also a conversation between two men on a commuter train in “World Trade Center”.
On September 8, 2001, the Saturday before the terrorist attacks, Jeter had not hit a home run. In fact, he had not even played in a game. Jeter had not played in a game since playing in a game on September 4. If anyone saw Jeter's home run live at Yankee Stadium, it must have been on Saturday, August 18. Is that something to talk about on September 11?
(I think “World Trade Center” is a great movie that depicts the September 11 terrorist attacks very well. However, I think the conversation between the two men about Jeter is a bit problematic. Of course, I didn't remember Jeter being absent after the game on September 4. When I heard the conversation between the two men in this movie, I thought it was strange and looked into it. There were two reasons why I thought it was strange. First, Jeter was not a home run hitter, so it seemed a bit strange for them to talk about Jeter’s home run. Second, even if Jeter had hit a home run, it seemed strange to me for them to discuss his swing. Jeter's batting style was unique, and that style didn’t make me think about his swing in particular just because he hit a home run. My thoughts on Jeter's batting may not be correct, but when I looked closely at Jeter's play in September and August based on these thoughts, I discovered the surprising facts mentioned above. If I've made a fundamental mistake, or have grossly misunderstood something, or if the results that I looked into has turned out to be incorrect, please let me know and I will sincerely apologize.)
To be honest, I didn't think highly of Jeter either. I thought, "Hmm, he's the captain of the Yankees, so he must be overly highly rated." However, something happened that changed my view of Jeter.
Just before the 2012 season started, I was casually looking up records when I noticed something that surprised me. There was a player who could tie the great MLB record ! That player was Derek Jeter. If Jeter had 150 or more hits that year, he would have tied Hank Aaron's major league record of 17 consecutive years with 150 or more hits.
In the three years leading up to 2012, Jeter's number of hits per year was clearly declining, 212, 179, and 162, so I thought it might be difficult for him to hit 150 hits in 2012. But to my surprise, Jeter hit 216 hits, the most in both leagues. Amazing, hats off to him! My view of Jeter had to change drastically. But I still had some resistance to becoming a Jeter fan like the people in New York.
By the way, the following year in 2013 Jeter had 12 hits, and the year after that in 2014 he had 149 hits. Then he retired.
Now, when I entered the building of Kalamazoo Central High School, I became the center of attention of many high school students in the hallway. They seemed surprised by my scary face with a mustache, and looked at me with anxious expressions. But when I smiled and waved at them, they all smiled back.
I introduced myself to the young woman at the reception desk. "I'm a huge Derek Jeter fan, so I came to this high school from Japan." In a situation like this, it would be bad if I didn't say I was a huge Jeter fan. The young woman smiled and said, "Oh, that's good to hear. Just wait a moment," then called over someone.
The person who came was a white woman, I couldn't tell if she was young or middle-aged (for us Japanese, it is often difficult to guess the age of white people, regardless of gender). I think she was probably someone in charge of public relations, but she might be a teacher. I didn't ask which it was, as I felt it would be somewhat rude to ask. She didn't say much. When I said, "Jeter is in this high school's Athletic Hall of Fame, isn't he?" the woman nodded without saying anything and took me to the "Athletic Hall of Fame."
“Kalamazoo High School's Athletic Hall of Fame” was a wall in the gymnasium hallway a short distance from the school building, with about 40 people's photos and brief biographies of them lined up evenly on the wall, and the whole thing is covered with glass. I really like this simple look and how Jeter isn't treated specially. When I tried to take a photo, the woman said, "The light is reflecting off the glass. I'm sorry I forgot the key to open the glass cover." She was a woman of few words, but very kind and gentle. I said, "I'll do something about it, so don't worry about it," and took the photo. After taking the photo, I asked, "Next, can I see the baseball field named after Jeter?" The woman nodded slightly without saying anything and started walking toward the baseball field.
The baseball field came into view. "Oh, so you've put up a photo of Jeter from his Yankees days." "Yeah." The sign saying Jeter Field was quite impressive, but the baseball field itself was simple.
As we returned to the parking lot, I asked the woman, "Have you ever met Jeter?" "Only once. …I wish I could introduce you to the teachers who taught Jeter, but they're all getting old and have retired. It's a shame." "No, I'm very satisfied."
I shook hands with the woman in the parking lot as we said goodbye. She smiled a little and said, "I hope you have many enjoyable drives."
My impression of Kalamazoo Central High School was very good. The black male student who kindly called out to me when I was having trouble finding the entrance, the many students who were surprised when I suddenly showed up but quickly smiled back, the receptionist who was not reluctant at all despite my unexpected visit without an appointment, and the quiet but very kind woman who guided me to fulfill all my wishes.
As I was leaving Kalamazoo Central High School, I started to think, "Maybe it would be nice to become a fan of Derek Jeter, who studied at such a wonderful high school." Surprised at myself for starting to think such a thing, I left Michigan.
(If I’ve made a mistake or left out something important, please let me know. I’ll try to make corrections or additions.)