1996 SELECT CERTIFIED MIRROR GOLD DEREK JETER ROOKIE /30 #100 PSA 10 GEM MINT

Derek Jeter did not produce eye-popping statistics when the New York Yankees gave him a brief trial during the summer of 1995, but manager Buck Showalter could sense something special lived inside the charismatic 21-year-old shortstop. He had an intangible quality, Showalter thought, that would serve the Yankees well for years to come. Just how well? He could not say, but he felt compelled to have Jeter around the team during the American League Divisional Series against the Mariners to experience the ups and downs of playoff baseball. Losing that series ultimately cost Showalter his job, but the experience gave Jeter an all-important glimpse into the less glamorous side of the game. “It let Derek see that beyond the money and the contracts there was still a passion for the pureness of winning,” Showalter said. “He saw that it was OK for Don Mattingly to cry. He saw that losing that series made us all sick to our stomachs, and that pain helped Derek’s development. It taught him to do everything he possibly could to avoid that feeling.”