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Derek Jeter found out on live TV he missed a teacher conference. His co-hosts reacted perfectly.

"We weren't supposed to still be on the air."

Chris Ptacek/Wikimedia Commons & TechCrunch/Wikimedia Commons

Derek Jeter got a concerning phone call from his kids' school live on air.

All parents have experienced the uncomfortable moment when your life as Mom or Dad collides with your career. It could be the call from the school nurse in the middle of the work day, the fever discovered in the morning right before your big presentation, or your kids who are home on school break photobombing the Zoom meeting with your boss.

Being a world-famous athlete and TV personality can make a lot of these problems go away, but apparently not all of them. Even mega-celebrities sometimes struggle to balance their parental duties with career commitments. That's exactly what happened to MLB legend Derek Jeter on a recent telecast.

Jeter, a Hall of Fame shortstop, now works as an analyst on Fox Sports. During a recent game, a rain delay forced Jeter and the rest of the crew to fill three extra hours with coverage and analysis. And then his phone rang live on air.

While in the middle of speaking, Jeter's phone went off.

"Sorry. It’s a rain delay. I had a parent-teacher conference that I’m going to miss. So, sorry guys," Jeter said as he silenced the ringer.

The response from Jeter's co-analyst, former player David Ortiz, was so wholesome:

"Take it! Take it" Ortiz yelled. "Take the call, man." The gang enjoyed a good laugh at the slightly awkward broadcast miscue, but Ortiz wasn't joking. He doubled down a moment later when he said, "Kids first."

Host Kevin Burkhardt then quipped, "Derek has a parent teacher conference to go to, so we're going to take a break." At first, he appeared to be teasing, but he then admitted, "Well, we weren't supposed to be on the air, you're right! This is a surprise to all of us."

"I actually should get on it," Jeter then said, checking his phone again.

"You should go do your thing," Burkhardt said. Ortiz then added, "We got you, dawg."

The video went viral when MLB on Fox posted it to Instagram, and people couldn't say enough good things about how the men handled the situation.

"Best part is, everyone else was like 'go, that’s more important, we got your back'" one commenter said.

"The best part was all the other supporting men on that stage actually meaning when they say 'go man, take it'" added another.

"These men are the best thing to happen to sports in a long time… they’re funny, real humans and pro hands on dads!"

"A+ parenting. A+ teammates encouraging him to take it."

"The man who refused to have children until he finished playing because he wanted to be totally committed to fatherhood or the game. Way to go Derek for being an incredible father"

(That one is true, by the way. Jeter is on record with Fox News saying, ""The one thing I can say about my parents is: They were always present. It’s so hard when you have kids—I don’t care if it’s one kid; I have four kids—you want to be there, and then when you miss a day or two, you come back, and they completely change," and that he tries his best to emulate them.)

parenting, fatherhood, dads, famous dads, celebrities, derek jeter, mlb, yankees, family, work, career Derek Jeter Nod GIF by ESPN Giphy

The video even caught the attention of world-famous family psychologist Dr. Becky, who found the entire exchange to be an incredible teachable moment for other working parents.

She says she often speaks with parents who worry immensely about how their bosses and coworkers will react to their family obligations, causing tons of anxiety and mental strife.

Her advice was simple and pretty brilliant:

"What if people around me think I'm slacking and think I'm not doing a good job?" she said parents often worry. "You might not have [Ortiz] next to you telling you, 'Hey, we've got this, go do that thing for your kid'"

But that doesn't mean we have to feel alone and judged.

"If we are going to make up the thoughts of other people, we might as well make up that those thoughts are supportive. So the next time you're struggling ... imagine everyone in your workplace saying, 'We've got this. Go do that. We support you.'"

In a culture that rewards hustle and sacrifice and does not always do a good job accommodating people who want to have both careers and families, it's nice to see an example of what a supportive workplace atmosphere can look like.

It's great that Jeter wants to be there for his kids, but what's even better about this viral clip is the encouragement he gets from his fellow hosts and analysts that family, indeed, should come first.

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Little League player comforts distraught pitcher whose errant throw hit him in the head

An unforgettable moment.

Photo by Jordan Rowland on Unsplash

A viral video from a Little League game has people celebrating good sportsmanship.

Youth sports have gotten more intensely competitive, to the point where overeager parents and coaches have to regularly be reminded to take it down a notch. So when humanity takes precedence over team rivalries, it's extra heartwarming.

And considering how many "kids these days" laments we see coming from older generations, it's also heartening to see kids showing excellent character qualities when no one directly asked them to.

A viral video from a Little League baseball game is giving us a nice dose of both—good sportsmanship and basic human kindness from two players from opposing teams.

As reported by USA Today, Isaiah (Zay) Jarvis, a batter from Oklahoma, took a pitch from Texas East pitcher Kaiden Shelton right to the side of his helmet. It was a hard blow that caused Jarvis to spin around and crumble to the ground, grabbing his head. The replay in slow motion shows that the ball basically just knocked his helmet off, though it was undoubtedly jarring and probably painful as well.

Jarvis was able to continue playing, but Shelton was shaken up. No matter how fierce the competition, no one wants to be responsible for injuring another person. He was visibly upset on the mound, so Jarvis left first base and approached him.

Watch the classy interchange:

That a kid this age would approach a player who hit him with a ball and comfort him with a hug, especially knowing that all eyes were on him, is just so lovely. Someone raised this young man to put people's feelings ahead of competitiveness and not worry about what others might think.

And the fact that the pitcher was so distraught at the possibility of having hurt someone is also so sweet. This was a moment that showed the true character of both of these boys, and both of them exemplified caring and compassion.

People praised the boys' empathy and humanity.

"Both of those boys are what you want your kids to aspire to," wrote one commenter. "One willing to forgive and knows it wasn't intentional and the other showing remorse and sorrow. I love it!!"

Good sportsmanship all around. Love to see it. Big kudos to these kiddos and whoever raised them.


This article originally appeared three years ago.

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Baseball legend Reggie Jackson shares how team had his back when he faced racism

"If I couldn't eat in a place, nobody would eat…"

Jim Accordino/Wikimedia Commons

Reggie Jackson played pro ball for 21 seasons.

Baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson played for 21 seasons in the major leagues, starting with the Kansas City Athletics in 1967 and retiring as a Los Angeles Angel in 1987.

But it was the year he spent playing minor league ball in Alabama that he opened up about in a Fox Sports pregame show at Rockwood Field in Birmingham. Jackson had played 114 games with the Birmingham Athletics before being called up to the majors, and when Alex Rodriguez asked him how it felt to be back in that place, he said bluntly that it was "not easy."

As a Black player in 1967, Jackson faced virulent racism when the team traveled throughout the South, from restaurants to hotels to fancy venues the team was invited to. He shared examples of being called the n-word and not being allowed into various establishments. He said he'd never want to go through that experience again and wouldn't wish it on anyone.

He also shared how his managers, coaches and teammates had his back during such incidents. They refused to eat where he couldn't eat or sleep where he couldn't sleep. He said they helped him refrain from responding to racist attacks when he was "ready to physically fight."

Watch him tell his story:

Here are his remarks in full:

"Coming back here is not easy. The racism when I played here, the difficulty of going through different places where we traveled. Fortunately, I had a manager and I had players on the team that helped me get through it. But I wouldn't wish it on anybody. People said to me today, I spoke, and they said, 'Do you think you're a better person, do you think you won when you played here and conquered?' I said, 'You know, I would never want to do it again.'

"I walked into restaurants, and they would point at me and say, 'The n***** can't eat here.' I would go to a hotel, and they would say, 'The n***** can't stay here.' We went to Charlie Finley's country club for a welcome home dinner, and they pointed me out with the N-word: 'He can't come in here.' Finley marched the whole team out. Finally, they let me in there. He said, 'We're going to go to the diner and eat hamburgers. We'll go where we're wanted.'

"Fortunately, I had a manager in Johnny McNamara that, if I couldn't eat in the place, nobody would eat. We'd get food to travel. If I couldn't stay in a hotel, they'd drive to the next hotel and find a place where I could stay. Had it not been for Rollie Fingers, Johnny McNamara, Dave Duncan, Joe and Sharon Rudi, I slept on their couch three, four nights a week for about a month and a half. Finally, they were threatened that they would burn our apartment complex down unless I got out. I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

"The year I came here, Bull Connor was the sheriff the year before, and they took minor league baseball out of here because in 1963, the Klan murdered four Black girls—children 11, 12, 14 years old—at a church here and never got indicted. The Klan—Life Magazine did a story on them like they were being honored.

"I wouldn't wish it on anyone. At the same time, had it not been for my white friends, had it not been for a white manager, and Rudi, Fingers and Duncan, and Lee Meyers, I would never have made it. I was too physically violent. I was ready to physically fight some — I would have got killed here because I would have beat someone's ass, and you would have saw me in an oak tree somewhere."

People praised the commentators and show producers for letting Jackson say what he wanted to say without interrupting or cutting him off. Some shared that it's vital to hear this part of our history from first-hand sources, as there are Americans who forget or deny that such incidents were commonplace within current adult lifetimes. Even knowing that Black players had a lot to overcome as segregation waned, it hits differently when you hear specific details.

Jackson's story is a difficult but important reminder that Civil Right Act of 1965 changed the laws but didn't magically flip the racist beliefs that made it necessary in the first place. But it's also a good reminder that individual Americans rejecting those beliefs and standing up for racial justice is a part of our national history as well.

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Parents win fight to get young daughter a tryout with Mississippi school's baseball team

Everyone came together to do the right thing.

Curtesy of Shannon van Duijvendijk

Family of little girl take on Mississippi state for baseball tryout

As the old saying goes, "baseball is America's pastime." It was so important that during the second World War, Major League Baseball executives created all women's baseball teams since most of the young men were away fighting. The blockbuster hit movie, "A League of Their Own" details this era that not only provided fans with entertainment but proved women could be fierce competitive baseball players.

One South Mississippi family found themselves in the middle of a battle they didn't anticipate when it came to the game. Their daughter Jewel has been playing baseball since she was 5-years-old on city recreational teams, eventually making All Stars and travel baseball. With the 7th grader aging out of the recreational program, she wanted to join the middle school team.

That's where the problem came in. The girl's mom, Shannon van Duijvendijk says the Ocean Springs School District refused her a tryout for the baseball team.

This is the same school district that has had girls step out of their football cleats to put on a homecoming crown after kicking for the high school team. So the decision seemed a bit confusing for the community who chimed in to support the parents petitioning for Jewel to play on the middle school team.

Jewel is one of two girls planning to try out for the baseball team that many of their male teammates are competing for. But it was van Duijvendijk's husband who was determined to make sure his daughter got to play the game that she loves.

"It was actually my husband. That sense of injustice rose up in him and he was just like 'no, uh uh.'"

The initial call came from the school's athletic director who told them that it was a state rule that girls couldn't play on the baseball team because softball was considered an equivalent. That's when Mr. van Duijvendijk started contacting every person he could find in Jackson to help get his daughter a tryout. But the quest to speak with someone on the state level proved to be futile.

Curtesy of Shannon van Duijvendijk

After finding out the school's grievance policy, the determined dad emailed the superintendent who was extremely responsive according to van Duijvendijk. The mom tells Upworthy that the superintendent contacted people at the state level, eventually reporting back that Mississippi's High School Athletic Association (MSHAA) rule was unclear.

The rule from section 7.6.2 of the MSHAA Handbook reads in part, "When a state championship is offered for girls, they may not play on a boys’ team in that sport.”

As van Duijvendijk points out in her post, baseball and softball are two different sports and that ruling was made official by the NCAA in 2009. So a girls softball team would not be equivalent to a boys baseball team, according to the NCAA rules, the equivalent to baseball is baseball.

van Duijvendijk explains that the family got the most pushback from parents of softball players, which it is suspected the original complaint about girls trying out for baseball originated. There was confusion over why a girl would prefer to play baseball over softball and speculation on if the parents felt that baseball was superior.

But there was no feeling of one sport being superior over the other. In fact, in van Duijvendijk's social media post she writes, "I know a lot of people don’t understand why she chose to play baseball instead of softball, I didn’t for a while either. In the beginning I tried to convince her so many times to make the switch."

Jewel was so steadfast in her determination to play the sport van Duijvendijk says could see it in her eyes. That changed everything for the mom when it came to her support of Jewel's love of the sport. Right now, softball isn't even a practical switch.

"She has never played softball and doesn’t even own the equipment necessary to play the game. We have nothing against softball and we have so much love and respect for the girls that do play it, but that is not the sport she plays."

Curtesy of Shannon van Duijvendijk

Thanks to the determination of a dad who saw his daughter encounter an injustice, a mom who would do anything to support her and a superintendent that was intent on hunting someone down to clear up the rules–Jewel gets to tryout. Now that's what you call teamwork. As for Jewel, she's been playing with the boys since she was old enough to pick up a ball, she just wanted a chance to show them what she can do.

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