New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter adjusts his cap as he sits in the dugout during a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles.Madison Hayes certainly hopes she wins her 12-under age group’s top prize during today’s Pitch, Hit & Run competition at Minneapolis’s Target Field prior to tonight’s Home Run Derby on ESPN.
But what the East Hamilton Middle High School seventh grader and her father, Adrian, really want is something any fan of major league baseball might cherish.
“The only thing I ask for is Derek Jeter’s autograph,” said Adrian, a huge fan of the retiring New York Yankees great.
“I got you, Daddy,” said a smiling Madison late Friday afternoon, two days before she and her mother, Greta, were scheduled to fly to Minnesota to become a part of Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game festivities. “That’s what I want, too. I want to meet Derek Jeter. Dad and I are both big Yankees fans.”
She expected to reach the All-Star Game two years ago after winning the local PH&R contest, as well as the regional trophy at Atlanta’s Turner Field. But Pitch, Hit & Run is all about your score against the rest of the country. It chooses just three boys and three girls from each of four age-group divisions nationwide — 12 youngsters total ages 7 through 14 — to receive all-expenses-paid trips for themselves and one family member to the Mid-Summer Classic. Hayes’s score just missed.