Derek Jeter Finally Joins Twitter, Instagram: Is It Just To Promote His ESPN Series?

One of the greatest baseball players of the past 40 years joined several social media platforms Tuesday. Was the move him wanting to interact with his fan base or a way to promote his new docuseries?

What Happened: Former New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter joined Twitter Inc TWTR and Instagram, a social media platform owned by Meta Platforms Inc FB, on Tuesday.

At the time of writing, Jeter has more than 300,000 followers on Twitter and 199,000 on Instagram.

Jeter’s first tweet was a quoted tweet share of a December 2014 tweet by a fan that said “Derek Jeter has no excuse not to have a Twitter account by now.”

Jeter also engaged with followers via an Ask Me Anything (AMA) where he shared that winning five World Series with the Yankees was his favorite memory with the team, the toughest pitcher he faced was Roy Halladay and he’s now chasing around his daughters (aged 5 and 3) post-retirement.

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Why It’s Important: While Jeter could be joining the platform to interact with fans, the move was likely done to help promote a docuseries. A docuseries about Jeter called “The Captain” is set to premiere soon on ESPN and ESPN+, the cable station and streaming platform owned by Walt Disney Co DIS.

“Less than two months away from #TheCaptain premier. Thanks to all the hard work of everyone involved. Really excited for you all to see this,” Jeter tweeted while sharing a post from ESPN about the series.

The ESPN tweet said the docuseries will show Jeter “like you’ve never seen him.” Jeter said the docuseries has interviews with 70 people.

The series premieres on ESPN and ESPN+ on July 18. (Link to the trailer here.)

NextTV said that advertising for “The Captain” is sold out with several sponsors creating after-show content and customized content from American Family Insurance featuring Jeter himself thanking important people in his life.

Jeter said he should have joined social media earlier and he plans on using the platforms to share upcoming projects such as “The Captain” and updates on his foundation, Turn 2.

Photo: lev radin via Shutterstock