If you haven’t heard by now and in an act of pure kindness and class, future first ballot Hall of Famer Derek Jeter telephoned the mother of one of the last Friday’s shooting victims.

It doesn’t matter what your favorite MLB team is, if you are not a Derek Jeter fan, you simply don’t know anything about him. (Photo credit – Elsa Garrison)

I’m not into plagiarizing the work of others, but everybody needs to know what Derek Jeter did on Wednesday morning to express his condolences to the mother of 27-year-old Victoria Soto, the young teacher who was brutally shot to death while trying to protect her students during the shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14 which killed 20 children and six adults. Here is the story from ESPN New York’s Andrew Marchand:

Derek Jeter called the mother of Victoria Soto, a young teacher killed while protecting her first-grade students at Sandy Hook Elementary School in last week’s Newtown tragedy.

Jeter telephoned Donna Soto on Wednesday, the same day she laid her daughter to rest. Carlee Soto, Victoria’s sister, tweeted the family’s excitement about hearing from Jeter.

“Derek Jeter just called my mom!!!!! Thanks Vicki, she needs it thank you @yankees this meant a lot to my mother and all of us,” the tweet read.

James Wiltsie, a cousin of Victoria Soto, said she had been a huge Yankees fan, according to the New York Daily News.

“Vicki loved the Yankees — that was part of her eulogy,” Wiltsie said Wednesday night. “No one in the family reached out, so (Jeter) must have heard about it and … reached out.”

The Yankees confirmed the phone call, but declined to go into details about the conversation.

Victoria was shot to death Dec. 14 as she shielded her students in her classroom. She was 27.

“Nothing is going to fix the fact that [Donna] had to bury her daughter today,” Wiltsie told the Daily News. “But I’m happy that it brought some comfort. … People like Jeter have reached out. It brings some comfort to know that people recognize Vicki as a hero.”

Some may think that this is merely a publicity stunt by the 38-year-old Yankees shortstop, but it is not. In fact, Jeter has done several other acts of kindness that go way beyond the call of duty, such as the time that he sent a gift package to a 8-year-old Long Island boy who had been repeatedly stabbed in the back by a 24-year-old stranger while playing video games at a restaurant in New York.

I will be the first to admit that I am not a Yankee fan; in fact the only team that I hate more than the Yankees are the Giants – but I will also be the first to admit that I have always been a huge Derek Jeter fan, and I don’t care who you are or what your favorite team is, Derek Jeter is truly a class act in every sense of the word.

UPDATE:

On Friday morning, Major League Baseball offered a moment of silence in memory of this tragedy exactly one week ago. You will also find remembrance logos on many websites, including MLB.com and the Google home page.

Major League Baseball offered a moment of silence in memory of last Friday’s shooting victims and their families and friends. (Image courtesy of CBS New York)