The baseball legend confessed the story in a game on 'The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.'
Derek Jeter confessed to a story that seriously blew Jimmy Fallon and Rita Ora's mind.
During an appearance on The Tonight Show, the host, singer and Yankee legend were playing a game dubbed "True Confessions." The point of the game calls for two envelopes -- one containing the truth and the other a lie -- and they have to figure out whether the story's true or false.
First up, Jeter, who unsurprisingly chose envelope No. 2 (get it?), and read out loud, "I once wore a thong in public in front of thousands of people."
Ora and Fallon peppered Jeter with a slew of questions to try and figure out if the story was even conceivable. In the end, they determined the story was false. But they were soon in for the shock of their lives.
"It is the truth," Jeter revealed.
"What are you talking about?" Fallon wondered. "What in the world?!"
Jeter then settled in to tell the story.
"I’m going to ultimately regret playing this game but let me explain. I had a new teammate that I played with in 2002, and he always had a gold thong hanging from his locker," Jeter explained. "And he told me, 'Anytime you struggle, you wear the gold thong, you’re guaranteed to get a hit.' Now, I thought the guy was crazy. So, in 2004, I went through the worst offensive stretch in my career. And every day, I’d walk in, he’d point at the thong. So, finally I wore the thong. Now, it wasn’t a thong-to-skin. I had shorts on underneath. So I put the thong over the shorts. First pitch, home run."
According to The Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger, the gold thong belonged to none other than Jason Giambi, who played for the Yankees from 2002 to 2008. Jeter was in a major slump in 2004 when he decided to don the gold thong, batting a woeful 0-for-32 at the plate.
Giambi recalled the tale in an ESPN radio interview, via the Star-Ledger.
"The golden thong is legendary. It's never not gotten a hit," Giambi said in 2015. "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."
Giambi continued, "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. 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. I just know first pitch, home run and the slump was over."
Jeter also glowingly spoke about his three daughters -- Bella Raine, 5, Story Grey, 4, and River Rose, 1, whom he shares with wife Hannah -- and how one of them already has his unparalleled confidence. Jeter, no stranger to having his nails painted by his little girls, was talking about Bella, and how there was a time when she did not want to attend tennis lessons, but not for the reason one might think.
"So, one day, we’re taking her to practice, and I say, ‘You know, Bella, are you ready to go to tennis practice?’ She said, ‘I don’t want to go.’ I was like, ‘All right, that’s fine,'" Jeter explained. "I said, ‘We’ll find something else for you to do. But do you mind sharing why you don’t want to go to tennis practice.’ She said, ‘Dad, I already know how to play.' So, she is not lacking in confidence when it comes to sports."
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