Derek Jeter ‘was hot’ over Boomer Esiason’s Old Timer’s Day dig: Tiki Barber
Not much got under Derek Jeter’s skin during his playing days, but Boomer Esiason managed to irk him with his “elitist” comment and speculation about why Jeter is skipping this year’s Old Timer’s Day.
WFAN host and former Giants star running back Tiki Barber relayed the message after spending time with Jeter over the weekend to celebrate CC Sabathia’s induction into the Hall of Fame.
“(Jeter said) ‘He should have called me,” Barber said Monday during his show with co-host Evan Roberts. “‘Don’t speculate about me. Just talk to me.’ He was hot. I had to calm him down.”
This controversy stems from Jeter not being part of the Yankees’ upcoming Old Timer’s Day on Aug. 9 that will celebrate the franchise’s 2000 World Series championship team.
This year’s edition will feature an actual baseball game for the first time since 2019.
The next day, Esiason and co-host Gregg Giannotti took Jeter to task for skipping out.
“It’s a little bit insulting … I think he should be there, he should be a part of it,” Esiason said on “Boomer and Gio” on last Tuesday. “It seems elitist to me.”
Giannotti then mentioned how Jeter said at last year’s event — the second he attended since retiring after the 2014 season — that the fans won’t see him hit again since he’s “afraid I would hurt myself.”
“Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio played in an Old-Timers’ game together,” Esiason said last week. “If those guys put a uniform back on then (Jeter) certainly can.”
He later added: “I just think, to me, he’s the captain, he was the guy that was embraced by the fans and loved by the fans and still is to this very day. It just feels a little bit elitist, that’s all.”
Well, those comments made their way to Jeter and he’s apparently not happy.
WFAN analyst Suzyn Waldman said last week that Jeter would miss the game for his daughter’s birthday and the ex-shortstop confirmed that’s the case to Barber.
“I went up to Jeter and I said to him, ‘Geez, I got a question for ya.’ Because my partner says you don’t want to hit, you don’t want to look like you couldn’t hit,’” Barber said to co-host and die-hard Mets fan Roberts.
“I said, ‘What happened?’ And he says, ‘I have a birthday party for my kids.’”
When Roberts asked Barber if he denied the report that he didn’t want to hit, Barber — with a laugh– called out his co-host and Esiason for striking out.
“No, he doesn’t care. He would,” Barber said of allegation. “You were dead wrong. More importantly, Boomer was dead wrong. He was so mad at Boomer I had to go buy him shots. So mad that I had to like dump water on his head to cool down and chill out.”
Barber later noted how the whole thing could have been avoided with a phone call, although he wasn’t sure if Esiason had Jeter’s digits.
“Boomer, just call him, just ask,” Barber said. “He’s not an elitist.”
Credit to Nypost AND Peoples
