Reporter's cell phone rings mid-press conference, Jeter coolly answers it

Jeter answers reporter's cell phone

By Dakota Gardner

September 7, 2014

After Derek Jeter Day concluded on Sunday, the Captain sat down with media to answer some questions about the ceremony ... only to be interrupted by a reporter's ringing cell phone. Jeter, naturally, answered it:

"She'll have to call you back, buddy."

The phone belonged to the Bergen Record's Tara Sullivan, but the caller on the other end will probably be pretty understanding:

@MarlyRiveraESPN You captured my embarrassment perfectly. FYI, it was my husband who called.
- tara sullivan (@Record_Tara) September 7, 2014

Big League Stew's David Brown managed to track down Sullivan's husband, Walt Rheinheimer, to hear his side of the conversation:

I actually couldn't hear anything," Rheinheimer said in a phone interview with Big League Stew. "I think he actually pressed the wrong button because I thought my wife had hung up on me.

"I knew where she was, I thought she still might have been working. I figured it was her and that she'd call back when she could. I actually wish I could have talked to him; it would have been pretty funny."

Maybe it was for the best -- evidently, Rheinheimer is a Mets fan:

"Haha, yeah, I am," Rheinheimer admitted. "But I'm a Derek Jeter fan, too. How can you not be?"

Sure, it was a bit embarrassing for Sullivan, but her husband could appreciate the humor in it:

"He handled it perfectly, really," Rheinheimer said. "I was surprised he was so nonchalant. But then, that's Jeter."

And look on the bright side: now Sullivan's got the greatest outgoing voicemail message on earth.