Well this thread went the way I had hoped it wouldn't. The question wasn't "tell us all about your feelings about Derek Jeter". The question was specifically about his final AB at Yankees Stadium... And whether this was a "miraculous baseball occurrence"... Or a more or less staged series of events.
To the responses of "the Orioles needed the win" - Then why is Evan Meeks in that situation when there are perhaps literally a dozen better arms sitting in Baltimore's pen... Including the closer? Come on...
To the response "pitchers don't help their opposition, ever" - This is of course simply false. Not only does "feeding" a meatball to a retiring supper star happen, it's basically a tradition. (I would have thought such a "real fan" might've been aware of that.)
When a late season game doesn't mean much, guys like George Brett and Craig Biggio, just to pull great hitter names out of the hat, often get one grooved in their final AB... Especially in front of the home fans. It's a simple tip of the cap from the opposing team, opposing manager, and/or opposing pitcher. Doesn't always happen, but more often than not it does. I would contend that what happened with Jeter's last AB in the Bronx was along these lines... Just taken a step or three further than the usual... Because it's Jeter and because it's NY. Amazing to me how people lap it up!
Really, all you have to do is look at the pitches from Meeks and from Robertson... It's plainly obvious what was going on. Watching with my son, I told him with one out in the ninth "watch what's about to happen here"... And sure enough. I'd love to believe that I have extraordinary powers of baseball perception... But all you had to do was watch in real time. Replaying certain pitches a couple of times removes any lingering doubt.
Lastly, consider a couple of additional factors:
Why was Jeter not lifted with one out in the 9th in a 5-2 game? That was clearly the time to give him the swan song... And don't tell me he wanted to play out the game with no fan fair. After the circus of the past couple of months!? Please!!
The Manager of the O's is Buck Showalter (you could look it up)... Jeter's first Mgr and an active part of bringing him up and developing him. He was obviously conducive to sending Jeter off with some (canned) flair.
Anyway... None of this diminishes Jeter's HOF career IMO. Personally, I dislike the charade. But it's all good... all part of "The Show" I guess. If you were wiping tears from your eyes that night, then ok by me! I just put the poll up to gauge how many people really bought it... About 2/3rds according to the highly scientific poll above.