1992 Jeter Drafted

June 1, 1992. A conference call linking all 28 major league front offices, the kind of unglamorous logistics that decides franchises' fates. Five picks came and went -- five college players, tidy and safe, the kind of prospects a front office can defend to ownership without much sweat. Then, with the sixth pick, the New York Yankees took a high school shortstop from Kalamazoo, Michigan, who'd already signed a letter of intent to play for the University of Michigan -- a kid named Derek Jeter. Nobody outside a handful of scouting departments had any idea what had just happened. It took a few years to find out.

Five Safe Picks and One Gamble

The 1992 draft's top of the board was about as boring as the position permits. Houston took Cal State Fullerton third baseman Phil Nevin first overall. Cleveland took North Carolina right-hander Paul Shuey second. Montreal took Mississippi State lefty B.J. Wallace third. Baltimore took Stanford outfielder Jeffrey Hammonds fourth, handing him a bonus worth nearly a million dollars -- the biggest of the whole draft. Cincinnati took Central Florida outfielder Chad Mottola fifth, signing him for $400,000.

Every single one of those guys was a college player. Polished. Evaluated against pro-caliber pitching for years. The kind of pick a scouting director takes when he wants to sleep at night.

Then the Yankees took Jeter, a high schooler with a gorgeous swing, a bad New York accent joke waiting to happen (he grew up in Michigan, not the Bronx), and a Wolverines scholarship that gave him a real out if the money wasn't right. He was the only prep player drafted in the entire top six. Betting on him meant betting on projection instead of production -- exactly the kind of pick that gets second-guessed in draft rooms every June, and exactly the kind of pick that separates franchises that get lucky from franchises that get it right.

The Yankees got it right.

The Scout Who Wouldn't Shut Up About Him

Long before the draft, Yankees area scout Dick Groch had Jeter circled. Groch worked Michigan for the organization and had been tracking Jeter since the kid was practically still riding a bike to Little League. By April 1992, Groch's scouting report on Jeter read like a man who'd stopped pretending to be objective: "A Yankee! A five-tool player. Will be a ML All-Star! +5!!" (Scouts aren't supposed to write reports that sound like fan mail. Groch didn't care.)

The organization's real hesitation wasn't about talent -- it was about signability. Jeter's Michigan commitment was real, and a kid with a Big Ten scholarship in his back pocket can walk away from a mediocre offer without blinking. On a pre-draft conference call, when Yankees brass raised the Michigan question, Groch delivered the line that's followed him around for three decades: "He's not going to the University of Michigan. The only place Derek Jeter is going is Cooperstown."

Scouting director Bill Livesey had final say, and Groch's conviction is widely credited with tipping the room toward Jeter over the safer college bats still on the board. It's easy to forget now, with a bronze plaque in upstate New York validating every word of that scouting report, how much nerve it took to write "Cooperstown" about a high school kid from a town nobody in the sport could find on a map.

The One That Got Away in Houston

Here's the part of this story that Yankees fans should genuinely enjoy: Houston had the first overall pick, and Houston very nearly took Jeter instead.

The Astros' Michigan-area scout was Hal Newhouser -- a two-time American League MVP as a pitcher for Detroit in the 1940s, a Hall of Famer, a guy whose baseball opinion carried real weight. Newhouser scouted Jeter extensively and told Houston's front office, in no uncertain terms, that the kid was the best player in the draft. Ownership had capped the bonus for the top pick at $700,000, worried a high schooler with a Michigan scholarship would demand more. Newhouser reportedly believed he could get Jeter signed for something close to that number anyway.

Houston didn't listen. They took Nevin, signed him for $700,000, and passed on the best freakin' shortstop prospect most scouts in the building had ever seen (their own guy's words, not mine). Newhouser was so disgusted by the decision that he quit his scouting job in protest. He never scouted again. He died in November 1998, three weeks after Jeter and the Yankees swept the World Series for the second time in three years -- close enough to see exactly how badly his own team had blown it.

The Yankees signed Jeter for $800,000 -- $100,000 more than Houston paid Nevin. Cheap, in hindsight, doesn't even begin to cover it.

What the Yankees Were Actually Building

The 1992 draft didn't happen in a vacuum. George Steinbrenner was still serving out his suspension from day-to-day operations -- banned by Commissioner Fay Vincent in July 1990 over the Howard Spira mess, not reinstated until March 1993. Gene "Stick" Michael ran the front office in the meantime, and instead of chasing quick fixes he'd been quietly stockpiling young talent for two years.

Mariano Rivera had signed out of Panama in 1990. Jorge Posada had been a 1990 draft pick himself, buried in the 24th round. Andy Pettitte signed in 1991 after the Yankees drafted him and stayed patient through his commitment to a junior college. Bernie Williams had already debuted in the majors. And the year before, the Yankees had used the first overall pick on Brien Taylor -- a story that ended in tragedy instead of Cooperstown, which only makes it more remarkable that the very next year, picking sixth instead of first, they nailed it completely.

None of these guys knew each other yet. None of them had played an inning together. But by June 1992, sitting in scattered corners of the Yankees' minor league system, the foundation of a dynasty was already assembling itself -- one draft pick, one international signing, one patient front-office decision at a time.

A Quiet Kind of History

Jeter signed that summer for his $800,000 bonus and, in one of the stranger footnotes to his origin story, actually enrolled in classes at Michigan that fall -- not to play baseball, just to take a few credits during the pro offseason, the way a kid does when he isn't quite ready to fully let go of the other life he'd planned. He registered again the following fall before the Yankees' instructional league needs finally put an end to the coursework for good.

There was no press conference. No number retired that day. Just a sixth overall pick, a scout who wouldn't stop talking about Cooperstown, and a Houston front office that would spend the next two decades wishing it had listened to Hal Newhouser.

Frequently Asked Questions

When was Derek Jeter drafted by the Yankees?

Jeter was drafted by the Yankees on June 1, 1992, with the sixth overall pick in the MLB Draft, straight out of Kalamazoo Central High School in Michigan.

Who was drafted ahead of Derek Jeter in 1992?

Five college players went ahead of him: Phil Nevin (Houston, 1st), Paul Shuey (Cleveland, 2nd), B.J. Wallace (Montreal, 3rd), Jeffrey Hammonds (Baltimore, 4th), and Chad Mottola (Cincinnati, 5th). Jeter was the only high school player selected in the entire top six.

Did the Houston Astros almost draft Derek Jeter?

Yes. Houston held the first overall pick in 1992, and team scout Hal Newhouser, a Hall of Fame pitcher, pushed hard for the Astros to take Jeter. Ownership passed over bonus concerns and took Phil Nevin instead. Newhouser quit his job in protest and never scouted again.

How much was Derek Jeter's signing bonus?

Jeter signed with the Yankees for $800,000 -- $100,000 more than Houston paid Phil Nevin, the player they took instead of him first overall.

Who scouted Derek Jeter for the Yankees?

Yankees area scout Dick Groch tracked Jeter for years before the draft. His April 1992 report read "A Yankee! A five-tool player. Will be a ML All-Star! +5!!" and he famously told Yankees officials worried about Jeter's Michigan scholarship, "The only place Derek Jeter is going is Cooperstown."