The moment Derek Jeter retired from the game of baseball, there was no doubt that he would soon become enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.
It became official on Tuesday evening, as Jeter ended up one vote shy of joining teammate Mariano Rivera as the only unanimous Hall of Famers.
Still, Jeter and Larry Walker will enter the Hall as members of the class of 2020, along with with Ted Simmons and Marvin Miller, who were elected back in December by Modern Baseball Era Committee.
Jeter spoke with reporters on a conference call shortly after the announcement was made, taking time to thank his family and all who helped him along the way.
"I just want to say briefly thank you to all the baseball writers for electing me into the Hall of Fame," said Jeter to kick things off. "When you think about playing your career, this is the highest honor that a player can receive. It's a very humbling day and I was happy I had an opportunity to share that with family and friends, and I also want to take an opportunity to congratulate Ted Simmons, Larry Walker and the late Marvin Miller and family. So, thank you very much."
Here are five takeaways from Jeter's conference call …
On his emotions on Tuesday
"Everyone told me it was a foregone conclusion. I didn't buy it, so it was not a relaxing day. There was a lot of anxiety. I was nervous. Sitting around waiting for a phone call is something that is completely out of your control. Once you get the phone call, I don't even know if I said anything for a while, because it is the ultimate honor and it's a very humbling experience and to be elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame is truly a dream come true."
On not getting 100 percent of the votes
"Well, I look at all the votes that I got. It takes a lot of votes to get elected in the Hall of Fame. Trying to get that many people to agree on something is pretty difficult to do. That's not something that's on my mind, I'm just extremely excited and honored to be elected."
On "The Flip" as a one of his career-defining moments
"I get asked about that play quite a bit. I've said since it happened that I was just doing my job. I was basically in the area where I was supposed to be. My job is to redirect the throw to third base, but fortunately we had an opportunity to get the out at the plate. That's a play that I think - any time I'm in the bay area, ever since that happened, I'm always asked that question, so I think it is one of the career-defining moments that I had, and fortunately for us it came at a good time, because we ended up winning that series."
"I took a lot of pride in playing the game hard and doing my job every day and being consistent, and caring about one particular thing, and that was trying to help our team win. That's the bottom line."
On spending his whole Hall of Fame career as a Yankee
"It probably means a little bit more to me than to some other people, because I grew up a Yankees fan. It's the only organization I ever wanted to play for. I was fortunate to play 20 years in New York, parts of 23 professionally, and a lot of thanks goes out to the Steinbrenner family, especially The Boss (George Steinbrenner), because he was big on 'If you guys win, we'll bring you back,' and we had a lot of success and the entire family gave me the opportunity to finish my career playing in New York. That's the one thing that I always wanted to be remembered as, was to be remembered as a Yankee."
On his upcoming induction weekend in Cooperstown
"I don't know what to expect. … I don't know if you can necessarily prepare yourself for that situation. Just like the phone call that I got today, I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know how I'd feel. I didn't know how I'd react, and I think the same goes for when we get to Cooperstown in the summer. I will spend a lot of time thanking my family, thanking my friends, thanking my support group, but I really don't know what it's going to feel like, but I'm pretty sure it's going to feel special."