This didn’t happen. I photoshopped it. It was an idea that popped into my head during Derek Jeter’s last home game. There were discussions of how Jeter had a double that helped start the rally to tie the game at 2-2 in the first inning.

The constant talking about his number and the hashtag #RE2PECT gave me an idea. So I awaited the top of the second inning and looked at the pitch count. Then I awaited for the actual possibility of the influx of 2s to appear. It never happened. But I wanted it to happen. With all this talk of 2s and how everyone is praising Jeter for all the wrong reasons, I opened up my Photoshop, grabbed some screenshots from the game, then just made it myself.

I didn’t think much of it. It was a joke. I was so sure that people watching the game would notice that it was fake since the Orioles didn’t get two runners on base in the top of the second inning. But of course, in this day and age of the Internet, people will jump to anything. And look at all those retweets and favorites. That’s a lot! Sorry if I deceived you.

I tweeted that shortly after. I assumed that only my followers would see it, understand that the image was photoshopped, and that would be that. But of course, in with mass-spreading viral things online, it takes only a handful of people to share, then a big name like Justin Tuck notices it, then everyone ends up seeing it.

I didn’t expect this to happen. I just wanted to have some fun. But now I guess I am responsible for this massive retweet and favoriting fest. And other people are just taking my image, posting it as their own, assuming it’s real, and revealing they don’t know the meaning of the word ironic.

I know most of the people retweeting my tweet don’t follow me so they didn’t see my follow-up tweet. I hope they realize that it’s not real.

I am a fan of Derek Jeter and I credit him for being instrumental to my love for baseball. I just thought it would be kind of cool if something like that would happen. Since it didn’t, I decided to make believe it happened. And now some people think it really did.

Here are the screenshots I used to combine and create the image.

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Looks like Deadspin and Sports Illustrated (Link 1, Link 2) picked up this story.