The truth will set you free! Derek Jeter opened up about one of the unique methods he once used to beat a streak of baseball bad luck.
“I once wore a thong in public in front of thousands of people … in New York,” the former New York Yankees star, 48, said during a Wednesday, February 1, appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. “Do you have anything stronger than that coffee [on the table]?”
Jeter’s candid remarks were made during a “True Confessions” game with host Jimmy Fallon and fellow guest Rita Ora, as they took turns guessing whether each person’s revealed secret is true or false.
Fallon, 48, and the “Your Song” songstress, 32, however, were initially hesitant about the chances that Jeter actually donned a thong in public.
Rita Ora, Jimmy Fallon, and Derek Jeter during “True Confessions” on February 1, 2023. Todd Owyoung/NBC
“Where else would you wear it? I wore it where one would wear a thong,” the New Jersey native told the pair, noting it wasn’t “his thong” that he wore.
“It is the truth. I’m going to ultimately regret playing this game, but let me explain,” Jeter went on to confess. “I had a new teammate that I played with in 2002 and he always had a gold thong hanging from his locker, and he told me, ‘Anytime you struggle, you wear the gold thong and you’re guaranteed to get a hit.’”
The former infielder— who retired from professional baseball in 2014 — initially thought his fellow athlete was “crazy,” however, Jeter soon changed his tune after going through the “worst offensive stretch in my career” in 2004.
“Every day I’d walk into [the locker room], he’d point at the thong, so finally I wore the thong,” Jeter explained, noting he put a pair of shorts on underneath his buddy’s underwear. “First pitch, home run!”
While the Arena Club founder — who was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2020 — did not reveal which teammate owned the thong, Jason Giambi previously confessed that he had a similar piece of clothing.
“I only put it on when I’m desperate to get out of a big slump,” Giambi — who joined the Yankees in 2001 — told Portfolio.com in May 2008. “All of [my teammates] wore it and got hits. The thong works every time.”
Giambi later revealed that Jeter was one of the Yankees who had borrowed his underwear.
“You know, Derek Jeter’s a gold thong-wearer. He wore it one time,” the former Oakland Athletics, now 52, said of Jeter during an October 2015 appearance on the “Dan Le Batard Show” on ESPN Radio. “He had to get out of a slump. The golden thong is legendary. It’s never not gotten a hit. … Well, it was just, you know, it was his first slump. I don’t think the guy’s ever slumped in his career. He’s unbelievable. You know, the gold thong, he had to get out of it.”
The California native further explained to radio host Dan Le Batard that while he never directly gave the thong to his teammates, it was always available in times of need.
“I never gave it to anybody. I would sometimes put it in their locker. I would sometimes start mentioning I’m going to give a gold thong if you don’t get out of this slump,” Giambi said. “Sometimes I would break it out because they didn’t want to wear the gold thong. And most of the time it just ended up in their locker. And anybody who’s worn it has gotten a hit.”