New York Yankees icon Derek Jeter admitted he wore a gold thong to help break the worst offensive stretch of his professional career.
In 2004, Jeter went through an 0-32 at the plate in the first month of the season. Former Yankees’ first baseman Jason Giambi would wear a gold thong that he kept in his locker when he went through rough stretches at the plate, so 19 years later, Jeter admitted he turned to his teammate for some help during the most challenging time he faced at the plate.
The former Yankees Captain was on The Tonight Show Wednesday night, participating in a segment called True Confessions with host Jimmy Fallon and singer Rita Ora. Each contestant read one thing true about their life and one thing false, and the other two had to guess which was the truth and which was false.
“I once wore a thong in public in front of thousands of people,” Jeter said.
Ora and Fallon seemed dumbfounded, and after the two grilled Jeter, they guessed it was false. But the Hall of Famer told them they were wrong.
“It is the truth,” Jeter said. “I’m going to ultimately regret playing this game, but let me explain. I had a new teammate that I played with in 2002, and he always had a gold thong hanging from his locker. And he told me ‘anytime you struggle, you wear the gold thong, you’re guaranteed to get a hit,’” Jeter said. “Now, I thought the guy was crazy.”
“So in 2004, I went through the worst offensive stretch of my career, and every day I’d walk in, he’d point at the thong. So finally, I wore the thong. Now it wasn’t thong to skin; I had shorts on underneath, so I put the thong over the shorts: first pitch, home run.”
Jeter hit the home run on April 29th, 2004, against the Oakland Athletics. In 2015, Giambi admitted to Dan Le Batard he gave Jeter the thong to help break the slump.
“The golden thong is legendary. It’s never not gotten a hit,” Giambi said. “It was his first slump. I don’t think the guy’s ever slumped in his career. He’s unbelievable. You know, the gold thong, he had to get out of it.”
Jeter finished the 2004 season with a .292 average and led the Yankees to an appearance in the American League Championship Series.
Watch above via NBC.
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com