Hamill: Even Mets fans can agree, Derek Jeter was a player worthy of admiration — particularly for his taste in women

Even Mets fans are going to miss Derek Jeter.

You don’t have to root for the Bronx Bombers to admit that the most consistent baseball player to grace the stadiums and streets of New York City in the past two decades has worn No. 2 for the New York Yankees.

I’m not a Yankees fan. But I’m proud to call myself a Jeter fan. I’m happy I got to watch this icon of baseball history play, especially when I watched with my grandson, who roots for the Yankees.

I was at Bayside Batting and Hitting in Queens on Monday when Jeter’s face came on the TV along with the countdown to his final game at Yankee Stadium on Thursday. I thought of Bayside Little League coach Jerry Costa, who said to me last week, “I’m a Mets fan, but we’re sure gonna miss Derek Jeter in this town.”

He was so right it hurts.

At a time when pro athletes are being banned for despicable off-field behavior, I will always remember that Jeter let you root for him with your kids as an athlete and as a man.

John Smith, assistant baseball coach for Queens College, looked at Jeter on the screen and said, “I’ve been a Mets fan since I was born. But you have to respect the way Jeter played the game and the way he carried himself off the field. He’s one of the last role models for our young ballplayers. I even bought a ‘Jeter Respect’ T-shirt. He does everything with class, from his charity work to the damned TV commercials. No steroids. No scandals. Five championship rings. He’s the man.”

Woody Allen, who has love for both New York baseball teams, admires Jeter’s game on and off the field.

“I root for both the Mets and Yankees as they’re in different leagues,” Allen told me. “When they have played each other in recent years I’ve rooted for the Yankees because they’ve put much more exciting teams on the field consistently and deserve support. As much as I admire Jeter as a great player, I admire his taste in women more.”

Don’t we all?

Vic Nacinovich, who coached a dozen Little League and Catholic Youth Organization teams, said, “I suffer every season as a Mets fan, but in this time of thugs and ‘I hate the Yankees,’ I would be willing to give Derek Jeter a standing ovation.”

His wife, Liz, added, “Even though I’m a lifelong Mets fan, it was a pleasure to watch Derek Jeter play. He has always been a role model for my three sons, not only in the way he played the game with strength and confidence, but also the way he conducted himself off the field.”

Over in Brooklyn, where the sons of Brooklyn Dodger fans had no choice but to grow up rooting for the Mets, an old-time Bensonhurst guy like Downtown Ronnie Califano will miss Jeter as the quintessential New Yorker.

“In over 20 years, we never heard a bad word about the guy,” says Califano, who was the first fan onto the field after the 1969 World Series victory, with a lump of outfield turf to prove it. “He never said a bad word about anybody. He represents the best of New York, and the bottom line is, when the smoke clears, like it did after 9/11, I’m a New Yorker. Period. And Derek Jeter represented New York in a grand New York fashion. We should all be saying, ‘Thank you.’ ”

My brother Brian, primarily a boxing fan, occasionally sees Jeter in Cafe Minerva in the West Village.

“The only Yankee I liked in 30 years,” he says. “A kind, polite word to anyone who approached his table. Like Muhammad Ali, Jeter never had defeat in his heart or mind. No matter what team you root for, we should throw him a New York parade. Although he’d probably decline.”

We Mets fans tend to flock together in private corners of our earthly purgatory to commiserate about rooting for a losing team. We mourn the loss of Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, R.A. Dickey. We curse this new stadium built with dimensions to foil David Wright, our franchise player. We listen to general manager Sandy Alderson stutter before admitting that going after big name free agents for next year is “problematic.”

But to a person, every Mets fan I spoke with this week will be watching Derek Jeter’s last home game as a Yankee on Thursday night and rooting for this future Hall of Famer.

And Mets fans will miss this great player as much as Yankee fans do — as we wait until next year.

NY DAILY