Former Yankees star Derek Jeter denies the infamous gift basket rumors

(AP Photo/Julie Jacobson) When you’re the marquee player on the most popular baseball franchise in the world for 20 years, you’re bound to find yourself the in the news quite a bit. For New York Yankees star Derek Jeter, most of those instances were positive. Most of Jeter’s headlines focused on him hitting a walk-off home run, making a diving play in the stands or hosting a charity event.

They weren’t all positive, of course. When you’re in the public eye as much as Jeter, some interesting stories seem to pop up in the tabloids. They are often wacky and difficult to prove.

[Nationals MVP Bryce Harper to the haters: “I enjoy getting booed”]

That was the case with the now infamous gift basket rumors. In 2011, the New York Post reported that Jeter gave out gift baskets full of memorabilia to women who spent the night at his house. The story seemed silly at the time, but it kind of took on a life of its own. Whether or not people actually believed it happened, the rumors never really went away.

Well, Jeter is retired, and engaged, now, and he wants everyone to know that the gift basket story is absolutely false. Jeter appeared on Undeniable with Joe Buck recently, and said many of the rumors about him are untrue.

Jeter, who was known for speaking in cliches when he played, comes off pretty well here. He’s smart, he’s funny and he’s charismatic. Jeter gets the audience to laugh multiple times during the clip.

He’s also pretty careful. He stresses that he doesn’t hate the media while explaining some of the negatives involved with being such a huge public figure.

Jeter also explains why he never publicly addressed some of the stranger stories that were reported about his personal life when he played. If he stopped to deny one rumor, he would have to start denying every single thing. Considering how much was out there about him, that makes sense. He was probably better off ignoring everything.

This isn’t the first time he’s publicly denied the story. Jeter told NY Mag in 2014 that the gift basket rumors were false. Still, it’s fun to see his reaction on video, and the way he interacts with the audience as he’s talking about the story.

So, there you have it. The gift basket rumors you so desperately wanted to believe aren’t true. By denying this one, though, Jeter has broken his own rule. Pretty soon, he’s going to have to address every single rumor that came out about him during his playing career.

Hopefully, he can find a good place to do that. We’re thinking he’ll probably need something bigger than a 60 minute show to properly address all the crazy things that wound up in the tabloids.

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