They're All Talking About Jeter

As Derek Jeter gets closer to becoming the all-time hits leader for the storied New York Yankees franchise, a lot has been written about him lately. Let's look at some of those articles:

Talking about his person:

• Buster Olney has a great story about Derek Jeter's contracts with his parents and how it translates to his unbroken contract with the fans
• Jack Curry has another great story about Jeter's debut with the Yankees, where, after going 0-5, he treated his dad to McDonalds. One of the greatest things about Jeter on the Yankees has been his parents always being there by his side. It's not hard to see where he came from.
• The New York Times interviews Tim Raines, who mentored Jeter in 1996 (Jeter's rookie year), and talks about who he has become and his ability to get past the bad stuff
  

About his hits numbers and his place in history:

• Baseball Think Factory projects his career numbers and thinks he'll end up with 3,574 hits (interestingly, they look at Ichiro and think that if he spent his whole career in the United States, he would have ended up with 4,188 hits)
• Jonah Keri tries to rank the great Yankees and puts Jeter 6th. It's hard to compare across eras, but I think Jeter will eventually end up #5, ahead of Berra. I think that Gehrig should be #2 behind Ruth, but, overall, Keri does a nice job.
• The New York Times points out that Jeter is within striking distance of another record: Rickey Henderson's Yankees stolen base record. That one looks to fall sometime towards the end of next season
  
• Peter Abraham listed today all the top hits leaders from every team. The amazing part of what Jeter has done: outhit the top hitters in the history of half of the teams on that list
• Keith Olbermann doesn't want to take anything away from Jeter's accomplishment, but points out that Lou Gerhig got to his total while his body was slowly withering away which is pretty remarkable
• Baseball Prospectus puts the MVP vote to the computer and it spits out Derek Jeter's name
• Tom Verducci talks about Jeter's historic season and says if Jeter finishes with an average over .330, he'd join Honus Wagner as the only shortstops Jeter's age or older to accomplish that feat.
  

Love Life:

• The New York Post thought that he may be engaged to actress Mika Kelly
  
• New York Daily News refuted that report
• The Big Lead says that it's no wonder he's mired in an 0-12 slump when he can dash off to be with Minka Kelly after the game
  

On his contract situation:

• Bob Klapisch says that if Jeter wants, he can tell the Yankees he wants a 4-year, $100 million contract extension and the Yankees will have no choice but to pay him--especially if he walks away with MVP hardware this year.
  
• River Avenue Blues touches on the Jeter contract conundrum with his current deal expiring after next season