More than three decades ago, Dick Groch made a declaration that helped change the course of Yankees history.
The Yankees held the No. 6 pick in the 1992 draft, and although Derek Jeter was high on their board, they knew the high-school shortstop from Kalamazoo, Mich., had committed to play college baseball for the Michigan Wolverines.
“He’s not going to the University of Michigan,” Groch, a scout who had closely followed Jeter, famously said on a Yankees conference call. “The only place Derek Jeter is going is Cooperstown.”
Groch died Wednesday night at age 84, according to MLB.com.
Jeter was among those to offer condolences, writing Thursday on social media, “RIP Dick Groch. My Yankees scout who believed in me and signed me. Thoughts and prayers are with your family and loved ones.”
While he was best known publicly for his ties to Jeter, Groch spent decades as a well-respected talent evaluator for the Montreal Expos, Yankees and Milwaukee Brewers.
Groch left the Yankees in 2002, following general manager Bob Melvin to help turn around a Brewers team that missed the playoffs 24 years in a row from 1983 to 2007. Milwaukee made the playoffs six times from 2008-21, the last of which being the final year that Groch was listed in the Brewers’ media guide.
But Groch’s contributions to the Yankees had come to fruition long before he left the organization.
The Yankees selected Jeter in 1992, and he quickly made Groch look like a genius. During his 20-season career in pinstripes from 1995-2014, Jeter won five World Series, received 14 All-Star selections, earned five Gold Glove Awards and was named the team captain in 2003.
Jeter’s 3,465 hits rank sixth in MLB history and are the most ever by a Yankee. He hit .310 with 260 home runs, 1,311 RBI and 358 stolen bases in 2,747 regular season games, while his 200 postseason hits remain an MLB record.
“I always thought that when you were looking at a shortstop, the highest compliment you could give him was that he was acrobatic,” Groch told Yankees Magazine of Jeter in a 2017 feature.
“It was eye-catching. It was so exciting that it took me away from the rest of the camp. … I was standing next to the assistant baseball coach from Michigan State University. He said, ‘Man, I need to get that kid’s information, send him some stuff about Michigan State.’ I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? Save your postage!’”
Jeter, of course, was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2020 — just as Groch predicted. In his first year of eligibility, Jeter received 396 of a possible 397 votes (99.7%), tying him with Ichiro Suzuki for the second-highest percentage in the history of the Hall.
Only Mariano Rivera, a teammate of Jeter on all five championship teams, received a higher percentage as the only unanimous selection ever.
“He gets the accolades for Jeter, and that he should, but I liked Dick because he created good debate in meetings,” Melvin told MLB.com. “He didn’t just sit there and agree with everybody. He made you debate from the other side of the table to make sure you’re right.”
