“I once wore a thong in public in front of thousands of people,” Derek Jeter admitted during the Thursday (Feb. 2) edition of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Derek, 48, joined host Jimmy Fallon and guest Rita Ora on “True Confessionals.” Though the others didn’t believe it at first – “You’re Derek Jeter. We would’ve known,” said Jimmy — the former New York Yankees player finally owned up to the rumor lingering around his behind for decades.
“I’m going to ultimately regret playing this game, but let me explain,” said Jeter. “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, 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. Now, finally, I wore the thong.”
“Now, it wasn’t thong-to-skin,” he clarified. “I had shorts on underneath, so I put the thong on over the shorts. First pitch, home run.”
This is not the first time that Jeter has confirmed this story (“Golden Thong Gate?”). He spoke about it in a 2008 story with The New York Daily News. The thong belonged to Jason Giambi, who told the Daily News that “it works every time” after another publication shone the spotlight on his underwear. “I had it over my shorts and stuff,” Jeter said. “I was 0-for-32, and I hit a homer on the first pitch. That’s the only time I’ve ever worn it.”
His teammate, Johnny Damon, also admitted to wearing the thong “probably three times” and, at the time, was batting .255. “I may need to wear it again soon,” he added. When asked what makes the thong so magical, Damon said, “You’re not worrying about your hands or your balance at the plate. You’re worried about the uncomfortable feeling you’re receiving.”
The Daily News decided to help out the Yankees by delivering 26 golden thongs to the clubhouse so that every player – and then-manager Joe Girardi – could wear one.
“The golden thong is legendary. It’s never not gotten a hit,” Giambi told NJ.com 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. … 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.”
It’s unknown whether or not the thong remains in the Yankees Clubhouse. Giambi, 52, retired in 2015 (about eight years after admitting he used more than a golden thong during his baseball career.) Jeter retired in 2014 and has since committed to being a girl dad to his three daughters.