Jeter, a 13-time All-Star who ranks No. 10 on the all-time hits list, announced yesterday on Facebook that 2014 will be his 20th and last Major League Baseball season. Within two hours, the average ticket price tracked by TiqIQ for the Yankees’ home finale against the Baltimore Orioles on Sept. 25 rose 164 percent to $804. The cheapest tickets surged tenfold to $280.
“The market for this game is one of the craziest we have seen in terms of initial demand and how quickly tickets were taken down from resale sites by brokers,” Chris Matcovich, vice president of data for New York-based secondary-market ticket aggregator TiqIQ, said in an e-mail. “It’s insane.”
Jeter, who will turn 40 in June, said he decided months ago that this season would be his last. His family told him to hold off announcing his decision until he was “absolutely 100 percent sure.”
“And the thing is, I could not be more sure,” Jeter said in the letter. “I know it in my heart.”
Following an injury-marred 2013 campaign, the Yankees team captain in November signed a one-year, $12 million contract to return to New York, where he’s spent his entire major league career.