I am a life long Yankees fan. I fully appreciate all that our Captain has done to help the team in a career that will make him a first ballot hall of famer. No one can take any of that away form Derek Jeter.
Sometime in the next few games Jeter will reach the milestone of 3,000 hits. He will be the 28th player in MLB history to reach this milestone. That is a pretty exclusive club. So far this millenium we have seen Biggio in 2007, Palmeiro (dubious) 2005, Henderson 2001, and Ripken Jr. in 2000. So 5 of 28 in the last 11 years.
Growing up I witnessed the end of Yaz, Rod Carew and Pete Rose's careers, along with the majority of the careers of: Molitor, Yount, George Brett, Dave Winfield, Boggs, and Tony Gwynn. So I have been fortunate enough to have watched 14 of the 28 3k hits club members.
My memory is selective as I remember more of the hey day of Henderson, Brett & Gwynn, not the last days of their career. I can still picture Winfield (drafted out of college for football, baseball, and basketball) robbing a homer at Yankee Stadium and stretching a single into a double. Of course all Yankees fans remember Boggs toward the end in Pinstripes jockeying a cops horse. We tend to remember the best parts of great players careers, not the endings when they stay too long.
The same will be true of Jeter. As fans we will choose to remember "the flip", or an opposite field double in the gap.............. not a sad dribbler to third that has become commonplace. I am offering a beautiful "Vandelay Industries" t-shirt from fivefingertees if someone can name the exact date Jeter gets moved out of the lead-off spot permanently. We can take guesses up until Jeter gets his 3,000th hit, so post your guess in the comments.
Sometime in the next few games Jeter will reach the milestone of 3,000 hits. He will be the 28th player in MLB history to reach this milestone. That is a pretty exclusive club. So far this millenium we have seen Biggio in 2007, Palmeiro (dubious) 2005, Henderson 2001, and Ripken Jr. in 2000. So 5 of 28 in the last 11 years.
Growing up I witnessed the end of Yaz, Rod Carew and Pete Rose's careers, along with the majority of the careers of: Molitor, Yount, George Brett, Dave Winfield, Boggs, and Tony Gwynn. So I have been fortunate enough to have watched 14 of the 28 3k hits club members.
My memory is selective as I remember more of the hey day of Henderson, Brett & Gwynn, not the last days of their career. I can still picture Winfield (drafted out of college for football, baseball, and basketball) robbing a homer at Yankee Stadium and stretching a single into a double. Of course all Yankees fans remember Boggs toward the end in Pinstripes jockeying a cops horse. We tend to remember the best parts of great players careers, not the endings when they stay too long.
The same will be true of Jeter. As fans we will choose to remember "the flip", or an opposite field double in the gap.............. not a sad dribbler to third that has become commonplace. I am offering a beautiful "Vandelay Industries" t-shirt from fivefingertees if someone can name the exact date Jeter gets moved out of the lead-off spot permanently. We can take guesses up until Jeter gets his 3,000th hit, so post your guess in the comments.
Posts
Well-said, Alex! I think it's going to occur Opening Day of 2012 (at least that's my guess). I can't see if it happening this year unless he's REALLY bad (at least not permanently)
ReplyDeleteI agree, it's just tough because he is really bad this year. I will go out a limb and say August 15th 2011. Enough is enough, change is in order. He shouldn't gripe either as he will help the club batting 8th.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nypost.com/p/sports/yankees/captain_to_captain_much_respect_DVqO5O9LvKsmsDfIzWAjFI
ReplyDeleteI thought I would attach this NY Post piece by Mattingly. Some kind words about Jeter, by my second favorite yankee growing up. My favorite Yankee as I was just starting to watch baseball was anothe captain---- the late, great, Thurman Munson.