President Barack Obama is seeking retirement advice from a sports legend who “has some experience hanging up the cleats”: former New York Yankees star Derek Jeter.
In an interview on the sports website The Players’ Tribune, which Jeter founded, Obama joked with the All-Star shortstop about preparing to retire and getting old — and the Commander-in-Chief delivered some good-natured jabs at The Captain about his own exit from the game.
“Me and you retiring are two completely different things,” Jeter told Obama in a preview of the interview published Monday.
“Derek, you are somebody who has some experience hanging up the cleats here. And I’m about to retire, I’m not quite as young as you but still relatively young,” Obama said.
Jeter shot back, “Thank you — can you repeat that? ‘Cause you know when you’re in sports, they say you’re old at 30, so thank you, I appreciate that.”
Obama responded, saying, “I mean, for a baseball player, you were old, man. Let’s face it. I mean come on man, we saw you trying to run those bases.”
Obama has seemed to relish the retirement-tour component of the end of his presidency, frequently joking with public figures who have made high-profile exits in the last years of his administration.
When David Letterman was preparing to sign off from “The Late Show” on CBS, Obama stopped by his couch, joking that the two could play dominoes together once they’re free. And he sought advice from retired House Speaker John Boehner in a spoof video for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last May.
This isn’t the first time Obama’s been spotted with the Yankee legend this year. Both attended a baseball game between the Cuban National Team and the Tampa Bay Rays during a historic trip to Havana in March.
The full interview with Obama publishes Wednesday.