Yankees legend Derek Jeter makes crucial life message hilarious in speech to Michigan graduates

Derek Jeter delivered the commencement speech at the University of Michigan Saturday and spoke about the importance of fighting through failure The New York Yankees legend would ve played baseball at Michigan the state he called home in Kalamazoo if he didn t turn pro right away as a first-round pick in But he did attend classes at the university and has inevitably indicated his fandom for its teams over the years Jeter who received an honorary degree from Michigan spoke to the hundreds of students graduating and used his own failure in his message to the class CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS COM Failure is essential he mentioned If I can promise you one thing for certain you will fail The bigger the dream the bigger the danger But what s the price if you don t take the peril if you don t commit to the dream You might end up overmatched or maybe you won t When Jeter decided to go pro it wasn t smooth sailing in the minor leagues I failed publicly I failed miserably There were days I literally cried because I was so bad My first season as a professional I made errors For the non-baseball fans it s hard to do intentionally Jeter explained as the crowd burst into laughter And that s also not funny Jeter s fight through adversity worked out in the long run He made it to the big leagues in and the rest is history Jeter put together a Hall of Fame career while becoming one of the largest part accomplished players for arguably the majority of storied franchise in American sports But he wouldn t have gotten there if he had let failures define who he was on the diamond That s the message he gave the Michigan students preparing for professional lives You me every one of us has to learn to deal with failure Jeter commented I wouldn t have had the success without the failures It s your job to make sure that a speed bump doesn t become a roadblock Follow Fox News Digital s sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter