Hall-of-Famer Derek Jeter had one of the most successful careers, both individually and from a team standpoint, in major league history.
The 14-time All-Star and five-time Gold Glove winner was a part of five World Series championship teams. But in an interview with YES Network's Jack Curry, Jeter explained that it was the 2000 World Series against the Mets in which he felt the most pressure to come out on top.
And if the Mets would have won? Jeter says he would have been looking for a new home address.
"I moved to Manhattan when I was 21 years old, and I've joked about it before, but I really mean it. If we didn't win that World Series against the Mets, I think I would have moved out of the city because in my mind it was a battle for New York.," Jeter said. "We were playing for something that was pretty special, three championships in a row. The Mets had a great team, and all eyes were on New York at that particular time.
"We had to win. I felt as though we had everything to lose. I never like when teams are playing and they say 'We had nothing to lose,' yeah you do, you have a World Series to lose. I think for us it was a little bit more than that, so thank God we were able to win that series."
Jeter was the MVP of that Subway Series, slashing .409/.480/.864 with a pair of home runs. The Yankees handled the Mets in five games, though every game's final score was within two runs.
The 2000 title was the Yankees' third-straight and fourth since the 1996 season. Since then, not only has no team won three straight titles, but no team has even won in back-to-back years.
That feat is not lost on The Captain.
"Throughout my career, I always said winning isn't easy. We made it look easy at times, but it's not easy…. Teams haven't won back-to-back since then," said Jeter. "I always say the best teams make it to the postseason and the hottest team wins. It just goes to show you how special those groups were, but then on top of that, a lot of credit goes to Mr. Steinbrenner. He gave us the opportunity to stick together, which a lot of times, you don't see that, even nowadays. There's so much player movement that teams' core groups don't get an opportunity to stick together. He gave us that chance.
"Three in a row, you never want to say it's not going to happen again, but it's difficult to do."