Thumbnails | First player Prince of the City: Derek Jeter, referred to as "the best player I've ever played with" by Paul O'Neill, is de facto Yankee captain, Gotham's bat man, and the club's best shot for AL MVP. The handsome, personable and relentlessly polite baseball star, who turns 25 on June 26, is bigger than Austin Powers. Driving to Yankee Stadium he's occasionally pulled over by cops asking for his autograph. When he comes to bat, teenage girls shriek as if he were a Beatle landing in the U.S. 35 years ago. Gossip columnists, still frothing over Jeter's past romance with pop diva Mariah Carey, document his every social step -- and some he's never taken. In only his fourth full major league season, Jeter is New York's most adored ballplayer in at least a decade, possibly since Reggie Jackson led the Yankees to back-to-back world championships in the late '70s. Anointed by Michael Jordan as his Air Apparent at Nike -- he signed a lucrative deal with Jordan's new brand within a brand -- Jeter, by virtue of his performance, personality, looks and location, is positioned for megastardom. "If you're looking for complaints, I don't have any," he says. "O.K., the traffic here is a pain, but other than that, I'm living a dream. I think I'm the luckiest person in the world." ... In 1996 he became the first rookie in 34 years to start at shortstop for the Yankees, won Rookie of the Year honors and hit .361 in the postseason. Last season he finished third in the American League MVP balloting, and the Yankees won their second World Series in three years. This season he's one of the league's most productive players. At week's end he ranked second in batting (.380), tied for first in hits (89), tied for fourth in runs (54), first in triples (seven) and second in on-base percentage (.471), and his power numbers -- 11 homers, 43 RBIs, .658 slugging percentage -- were well up from last year, when he finished with 19 homers and 84 RBIs in 149 games. He reached base at least once in each of the Yankees' first 53 games and, with his exceptional range in the field, made enough sensational plays to more than compensate for his eight errors. -- Michael Silver Issue date: June 21, 1999 Photograph by Chuck Solomon Sports Illustrated on Baseball | Team-by-Team Reports Rookie of the Year Watch | SI's Inside Baseball Archive

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