Derek Jeter on playing in Angel Stadium: ‘Half the stadium is Yankee fans’

In two decades as a major-league star, Derek Jeter developed a well-earned reputation for avoiding controversial remarks. In his first year of retirement, the New York Yankees icon founded the Players’ Tribune -- “the voice of the athlete,” as he puts it.

Jeter posted a mailbag on the site Thursday, in which he avoided controversial remarks. But he did take a mild shot at Angels fans, in answering a question about his favorite ballpark.

“After New York? Anaheim,” Jeter wrote. “You’ve got that California weather. Great baseball conditions. And then half the stadium is Yankee fans.”

Jeter’s observation is not new. At the start of his career, when the Angels were consistently mediocre, Angels players complained about Yankees fans overrunning Anaheim Stadium. After the Angels won the 2002 World Series and emerged as a hot ticket, some fans would buy season tickets -- and pay much of the cost by selling their seats for Yankees games to Yankees fans.

The Angels themselves acknowledged this practice when they slapped a surcharge on single-game tickets to popular games -- including Yankees games -- in 2008.

“These extra tickets, more than likely, will be picked up by Yankee fans and Red Sox fans,” Angels spokesman Tim Mead said then.

In his mailbag, Jeter did not say that the Angels were 92-86 against the Yankees during his tenure, the only league rival with a winning record against New York in that time. Jeter did say that his favorite breakfast cereal is Frosted Flakes; his standouts among current players are Mike Trout, Andrew McCutchen and Bryce Harper; he does not like cilantro; and his three must-have items if he were stranded on a desert island would be food, water and a boat.

“Get me off that island,” Jeter wrote.