"My regret is: I wish we were as close as we were when we were teenagers in Seattle, when we played"
Derek Jeter and A-Rod have buried the hatchet.
Jeter appeared on the Kay-Rod Cast, part of "Sunday Night Baseball" on ESPN2, where he joined his former Yankees teammate. On the show the two gave hugs and revealed that they had squashed their beef over "a lot of cocktails" about a month and a half ago.
While addressing Jeter during the simulcast, the 47-year-old, who co-hosts the show, admitted he had "regrets" when it came to their history.
"When you talk about accountability," Rodriguez began, "in my career, one of the highest, best moments of my career, and one of the lowest, has been, No. 1, I really, really enjoyed playing with you, learned so much from you, your leadership — 2009 was unbelievable and I think one of the great moments, I think, of both of our careers."
they're besties pic.twitter.com/FbpiEo2CvY
— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) August 14, 2022 @TalkinYanks
"One of my biggest regrets — and a lot of it is because of my craziness and all the mistakes I made on and off the field — my regret is: I wish we were as close as we were when we were teenagers in Seattle, when we played," A-Rod said.
Jeter seemed to have an understanding of Rodriguez' actions as a young athlete and noted the pressures of building a public persona amid a meteoric rise to fame. The 48-year-old added that the reunited friends had discussed the details of their feud.
"We talked about it," Jeter said. "When you're coming up at 20 years old, 21 years old, I think we're all professional athletes, Major League Baseball players, you're trying to find your place. You're getting a feel for the league, you're getting a feel for being a public persona for the first time. There's a lot of things that you have to deal with, and we had to deal with a lot growing up at a very, very young age."
"We've talked about it before," he continued. "This isn't the first time I've seen him. We got together, what was it, about a month and a half ago? And [we] had some conversations."
Since the passing of his former teammate and friend Gerald Williams, Jeter realized that life was too short to hold grudges, which facilitated the end of their long feud.
"Things happen in life," he confessed. "[I] lost one of my best friends in Williams [to cancer in February] and you realize life is short. You don't hold grudges anymore and you move on."
For more details on their friendship and the feud see the article below: