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Tonight, Derek Jeter will play his last Major League baseball game at Yankee Stadium, bidding farewell to the city and fans who have given him so much love over the course of his 20-year career, and bringing one of the most cherished legacies in all of baseball to a bittersweet close. Though he will soon be stepping off of the baseball diamond for good, he will not soon be forgotten, for Derek Jeter will live on in the hearts and minds of baseball fans everywhere as one of the 500 greatest baseball players in the history of the game.
What Jeter has accomplished over the course of his legendary career is simply astonishing, and places him in the same 500-player pantheon as Robin Ventura, Walter Johnson, Willie Mays, and Rusty Staub. Look at the facts: Jeter has 3,460 hits over the course of his career. That’s more than any other Yankee in history—including Lou Gehrig and Wilson Betemit.
In fact, Derek Jeter has more career hits than Nick Swisher. You can look it up.
Simply put, Derek Jeter has performed miracles over the course of his major league career, and he must certainly be considered, alongside Luis Sojo, to be one of the people who has played for the Yankees.
While his prodigious hit total is perhaps Jeter’s most touted statistic, his other offensive numbers are nearly as remarkable. He has 1,307 RBIs—more than either B.J. Surhoff or John Olerud—and is one of only 870 hitters whose career batting average exceeds .273. Jeter has also hit more than 100 career home runs.
Yet these are merely numbers, and Derek Jeter didn’t just produce numbers; he produced moments. Since his rookie year in 1996, when he helped carry the Yankees to a World Series Championship, Jeter has delivered dramatic triumphs both in the field and at the plate. He has been the heart and soul of the Yankees organization, so much so that in 2003, he was appointed Yankees team captain, joining the ranks of Roger Peckinpaugh and Everett Scott before him. It was a fitting honor for a player whose leadership and spirit has helped define New York baseball for the past two decades.
Simply put, Derek Jeter has performed miracles over the course of his major league career, and he must certainly be considered, alongside Luis Sojo, to be one of the people who has played for the Yankees.
In the coming years, when sportswriters sit down to compile the list of the 500 greatest baseball players of all time, of course they’ll include people like Ty Cobb, Jamie Moyer, and Moises Alou. They’ll mention names like Julio Franco and Mickey Mantle. But there among the likes of Paul Konerko, Ted Williams, and Jim Edmonds, you’ll find a special place reserved for Mr. November himself. Derek Jeter: A legend who will never be forgotten, and one of the 500 best to ever play the game.
