The Captain

The Journey of Derek Jeter

By: Ian O'Connor

Narrated by: Nick Pollifrone

Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

Every spring, Little Leaguers across the country mimic his stance and squabble over the right to wear his number, 2, the next number to be retired by the world’s most famous ball team. Derek Jeter is their hero. He walks in the footsteps of Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, and Mantle, and someday his shadow will loom just as large. Yet he has never been the best player in baseball. In fact, he hasn’t always been the best player on his team. But his intangible grace and Jordanesque ability to play big in the biggest of postseason moments make him the face of the modern Yankee dynasty, and of America’s game.

In The Captain, best-selling author Ian O’Connor draws on extensive reporting and unique access to Jeter that has spanned some 15 years to reveal how a biracial kid from Michigan became New York’s most beloved sports figure and the enduring symbol of the steroid-free athlete. O’Connor takes us behind the scenes of a legendary baseball life and career, from Jeter’s early struggles in the minor leagues, when homesickness and errors in the field threatened a stillborn career, to his heady days as a Yankee superstar and prince of the city who squired some of the world’s most beautiful women, to his tense battles with former best friend A-Rod. We also witness Jeter struggling to come to terms with his declining skills and the declining favor of the only organization he ever wanted to play for, leading to a contentious contract negotiation with the Yankees that left people wondering if Jeter might end his career in a uniform without pinstripes.

Derek Jeter’s march toward the Hall of Fame has been dignified and certain, but behind that leadership and hero’s grace there are hidden struggles and complexities that have never been explored, until now. As Jeter closes in on 3,000 hits, a number no Yankee has ever touched, The Captain offers an incisive, exhilarating, and revealing new look at one of the game’s greatest players in the gloaming of his career.

©2011 Ian O'Connor (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

At least he pronounced Jeter correctly

The content of the book was excellent and very well done. I am more of a Red Sox fan than a Yankees fan and I have a new found respect for Derek Jeter.

Nick Pollifrone doesn’t have a foreign accent but I would question if he is American. He has no idea how to look up pronunciation keys for baseball names but he also butchered the name of the captain of the 1980 Gold Medal winning Hockey team. At what point does he ask for help? At what point does somebody hear the hack job and do something about it? It was so bad and frequent it took away from my enjoyment of the book.

I generally get baseball books with my audible credits and this was by far the worst narration I have ever experienced.

As expected from the captain

I am more than satisfied being able to hear one of the greatest ball players biography. I am so glad that I grew up in the decades that he was the captain of my team. I can only imagine the amount of people that look up to him in this manner as I do. His book Why is everything that I expected , great job guys.

Great story! Narrator?

Narrator would have benefited from watching an episode or two of baseball tonight to get some very popular names pronunciations correct!

Good listen for all baseball fans.

I imagine all baseball fans would enjoy to listen to this book. Even if you "hate" the Yankees, it's hard to dislike Jeter the man. I didn't notice any issues with the narration as others have mentioned. It was a very easy listen, just as sports biographies should be.

Great listen but...

Just have someone with a baseball background review it first. I can’t believe how many times Player’s names were pronounced wrong. Meinkowitz? Witasik? Do better!

Great book for Yankee and Baseball fans

The book itself is excellent. Well written and offering many tales I previously did not know about one of the players I grew up loving. The character portrayals in the wider game of baseball are also wonderful.

The narrator is not bad in terms of his reading, but they really should have gotten a baseball fan to read it. He butchers major names in the game (Pujols with a strong J, Teixeira with a pronounced X etc). He even doesn’t know how to read a record, calling it 92 to 50 instead of 92 and 50 and so on. But it’s a mild annoyance that doesn’t kill the book as some narrators can.

Horrible narrator

I liked the story but I stopped counting the dozens of mispronounced names. You would think they would have a baseball fan do the narration. I’m sure Jeter would not approve!

Narrator is clueless

Great book, great story for any Yankee fan. What really bugs me is that the narrator mispronounced so many different player names throughout the book. Probably about 20. I couldnt focus with all the constant errors. Nobody at the production company caught these errors? Narrator couldn't ask for help with names he was unsure of? some of the players he mispronounced are well know Hall of farmers, not obscure journeymen.

Baseball fans will cringe with the narration

I am a huge baseball fan. I am even a bigger Yankees fan as a born and raised NYer.

It’s hard to write a book about the captain that I wouldn’t enjoy. That said, if it wasn’t for the allure of the content I would have abandoned this. One of my biggest problems with the writing is that the author sometimes provides too much detail about a story. I typically listen when I drive and there were times I forgot the point of a passage because of all that detail.

But my biggest gripe is with the narrator. It’s obvious that he doesn’t know anything about baseball because of the way he interprets the book. Forget about all the mispronounced names! If you are going to narrate a book with lots of baseball terms and players names you should do your homework to make sure you can pronounce them correctly.

The captain

Growing up in a small town in South Carolina only team to Root for was the Atlanta braves. I grew up to hate the New York mets and Yankees. But one man stood out to me in the pinstripe and that was Jeter. This book just gave me more respect for the captain