Fifteen years ago today, I was sitting in Yankee Stadium holding onto a ticket stub that I had no idea would end up mattering to me this much. July 9, 2011. Derek Jeter. Hit number 3,000. I still have that ticket, and every July it reminds me why I fell in love with this hobby in the first place - it's not just about the cardboard or the autograph, it's about being able to hold a piece of a moment you actually witnessed. Do you have a milestone ticket? Just Collect IS buying!
Today, I wanted to do something a little different and share my own favorite ticket, walk through why that particular afternoon became such a huge deal in Yankees history, and talk about why a simple ticket stub like mine (or maybe one sitting in your closet right now) can actually be worth something.
PREPARATION
Before the season started, I calculated when Derek Jeter would come close to getting career hit 3,000. I had always wanted to attend a "milestone" game such as a 3,000th hit or 500th home run. I used all the stats I could to analytically predict about when Jeter could etch his name into history. A trip to the injured list June 14th altered my target dates a smidgen. Jeter was just SIX hits shy when he landed on the IL.
As you can imagine, many fans wanted to see Jeter reach 3K, so tickets weren't exactly plentiful or cheap. The idea was to buy a few tickets to each game around the timeline, but with Jeter going down, that plan was no longer in motion.
RAINOUT AT 2,998
Jeter came back from injury and collected a few hits. On July 8th, 2011, my wife, Darcy, and I scored a pair of tickets and headed to the Bronx! At that point, the Yankees had home games on July 8th, 9th, and 10th before the All-Star game. After the ASG, the Yankees would hit the road, and Jeter may not reached 3,000 hits at home.
Jeter could get 2 hits over 3 games, right? Of course he could! However ...in came the rain. The July 8th game was rained out!
THE GAME OF A LIFETIME - 3,000
After the rainout game, we got another pair of tickets to the July 9th game. Mind you, the Yankees don't exactly play close to home; we drove a few hours to Yankee Stadium. Long days, lots of miles, altered plans, and wet shorts couldn't stop us from witnessing immortality, though.
Nobody in that sold-out crowd of over 48,000 people had to wait long. He led off the bottom of the first with a single off Rays starter David Price for number 2,999, and then in the third inning, on a full count, he turned on a hanging curveball and drove it into the left-field bleachers for a solo home run - hit number 3,000, delivered as a home run.
Darcy and I stood on top of our seats! To this day, I haven't heard a louder crowd. I've been to the World Series, stadium concerts (shout out to Ed Sheeran and Metallica), NFL games, NBA games, and WrestleMania - none were louder than the fans when Jeter went deep that day.
Jeter wasn't done. He went a perfect 5-for-5 that day, adding a double and two more singles, including an RBI single in the eighth inning that gave the Yankees the go-ahead run in a 5-4 win over Tampa Bay. It's still considered one of the greatest single-game performances tied to a milestone in baseball history.
I keep coming back to how much had to line up for that to happen exactly the way it did - the rainout the night before, Jeter working back from a calf injury just days earlier, the Yankees needing every bit of that comeback in the eighth. Watching it unfold live, inning by inning, is something I'll never forget.
WHY THIS TICKET MATTERS
Jeter became the 28th player in MLB history to reach 3,000 hits, and the first player in the Yankees' long history to do it in pinstripes. That's worth sitting with for a second - a franchise with that much history, and it took until 2011 for a Yankee to get there. He was also the first player to reach the milestone at Yankee Stadium, old or new, and only the fourth youngest player ever to do it, behind Ty Cobb, Hank Aaron, and Robin Yount.
That combination - first Yankee, home run milestone, perfect day at the plate, dramatic comeback win - is exactly why tickets, signed or unsigned, from that specific game carry real weight in the hobby. It's not just "a Jeter game." It's the game.
Truthfully, I have always kept my tickets. Every game, concert, and movie I have attended, I kept the ticket. Not for the value; it was a memento for me. I call it the "retail" stuff - everyone can buy a t-shirt from the game, but only I have the ticket from my seat; it's unique. Ticket over retail stuff all day! I have the paper ticket we had to print out at home rather than the season ticket holder version, because we had to buy another set after the rainout! I still enjoy my little piece of history, though.
I never thought about the monetary value of the ticket after the game, but I knew that ticket was valuable to me.
WHAT A TICKET LIKE THIS IS WORTH
I'm not selling mine, but I've seen what these tickets can fetch when they come up for sale, especially full, uncut tickets that have been signed and authenticated. A PSA/DNA-certified Jeter autograph on a full ticket from that exact July 9, 2011 game has been offered by dealers, and even unsigned full tickets from milestone games like this one hold value with collectors just for being present at a piece of history.
That's part of why I wanted to write this post. A lot of people hang onto ticket stubs from games they went to without ever thinking about them as collectibles - they get tucked into a drawer, a scrapbook, a shoebox. But a ticket from a night like this one is a legitimate piece of baseball history, and it's more common than you'd think for someone to be sitting on one without realizing it.
DO YOU HAVE A TICKET LIKE THIS?
If you were at a milestone game - a no-hitter, a walk-off, a debut, a record-breaker, or a night like Jeter's 3,000th - and you've still got that ticket tucked away, it might be worth more than just the memory. Just Collect buys certain tickets from milestone and historic games, so if you've got one sitting around and want to know what it might be worth, reach out and mention you read the Jeter 3,000th hit blog on Just Collect.
And if you don't have a ticket to sell but you were there for a game like this, or you've got a great story about a milestone you witnessed in person, I'd love to hear it too. Drop us a note! We always offer a
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