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New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter has announced he will retire from baseball at the end of the 2014 season.

“The 2014 season will be my last year playing baseball,” Jeter said in a post on Facebook.

The 39-year-old, 13 time All-Star began his career with the Yankees, which includes five World Series rings, in 1995. His Facebook post began and ended with a simple thank you.

“Last year was a tough one for me,” Jeter said in the statement. “As I suffered through a bunch of injuries, I realized that some of the things that always came easily to me and we’re always fun had started to become a struggle. The one thing I always said to myself was that when baseball started to feel more like a job it would be time to move forward.”

Jeter never fully recovered from a fractured ankle he sustained in the 2012 American League Championship Series against the Detroit Tigers.

In 2013 he reinjured the ankle during spring training.

“I will remember it all: the cheers, the boos, every win, all the plane trips, the bus rides, the clubhouses, the walks through the tunnel and every drive to and from the Bronx,” said Jeter.

“In the 21-plus years in which I have served as Commissioner, Major League Baseball has had no finer ambassador than Derek Jeter,” Bud Selig said in a written statement. “He is one of the most accomplished and memorable players of his — or any — era.”

Photo:WENN