New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter will end his Major League Baseball career this weekend. For only the third time in the 20 years he has worn the pinstripes, the Yankees will not be in the postseason.

The team he helped lead to five World Series titles is not the powerhouse it was in many of those seasons. The Yankees have struggled all season, much to the delight of the millions of fans who dislike, even hate, the fabled franchise.

Jeter is symbolic of that decline. He is a shadow of the player he was at his peak, losing his power, speed and ability to hit for a high average.

His defense, never a hallmark, has made him a liability in the field at times. The jump throws from the hole, his signature play, have been few and far between this season.

And yet Jeter has never seemed to enjoy a season more. Watching his games this year, one thing was striking: Jeter was smiling. A lot.

He looked happy when he came to bat, even when his less-than-dazzling numbers were flashed on scoreboards and his team was trailing. He seemed delighted to be around his teammates and his rivals, grinning and kidding with both when there was a break in the action.

Jeter knows he has had a blessed career, making tens of millions of dollars while playing for the most celebrated team in sports in the most famous city in the world. He did that while avoiding controversy, while competing in an inspiring manner and winning in most cases.

He also showed a flair for the dramatic, homering to win a World Series game, making the famous “flip play” in the playoffs and repeatedly serving as the driving force for a dynastic team.

You’d smile too if that happened to you, if you had any sense. The dazzling string of girlfriends he has squired surely helped, too.

Of course, not every player, or celebrity, has displayed the kind of grace that Jeter carried throughout his career and very public life. His rival-turned-teammate, Alex “A-Rod” Rodriguez, may well have been a superior player to Jeter, in part due to performance-enhancing drugs, but he is not the icon that Derek Jeter is.

A-Rod was never a leader on his three teams, and was forced from baseball this year because of his repeated and rampant cheating. Meanwhile, Jeter is being hailed and saluted by fans, fellow players and seemingly the entire nation for his success and his classy manner.

He deserves all of that. It’s a reminder of something that Rodriguez never understood, on and off the diamond: Character counts.

Jeter, who turned 40 this summer, made the decision to end his career this year during spring training. He assuredly could have hung on for another year or two, playing a bit while serving as a team leader. The Yankees would not have asked The Captain to take off that uniform until he was ready.

But Jeter knew it was time. He realized age and injury have reduced his ability to perform at a high level. His statistics this year bear out the wisdom of his choice to hang up the spikes; he may well have hung on a bit longer than he should have, based on his paltry production this year.

Jeter has said he looks forward to new challenges, to marrying and raising children, opening a publishing company, maybe becoming the first former player to own a major league team.

This old ballplayer is a young man ready for a new path and it’s reasonable to expect he will succeed in that, too.

We all go through transitions in life. We change towns, homes, careers and more.

We could learn a lesson or two from Derek Jeter. Give your all, try to inspire and lead, and enjoy what you are doing. When you make a change, do it in a smart, graceful manner.

That’s why no matter what the Yankees’ final record is, or what stats he posts, Jeter is going out, as he was throughout his career, a winner.