By David Shepard, OTSL Special Contributor
Derek Jeter took sole possession of 10th place on the all-time hits list, passing Willie Mays this season. I will argue why he is one of the top 10 position players to ever live.
In 1998 the Sporting News came out with the best 100 Baseball players of all time. Out of the top 10 position players lets exclude seven of those: Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Ty Cobb, Hank Aaron, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams and Stan Musial. The other three players are Joe DiMaggio,Honus Wagner and Rogers Hornsby. I will compare them all to Jeter.
DiMaggio: Keep in mind he was on the ballot four times before he was elected into the Hall of Fame. Jeter, based on his contract, will play until at least 2014. He has at least two plus years of baseball left. He already has 1,000 more hits than DiMaggio. At 32 years old Jeter had more stolen bases (34) in that season than DiMaggio had for his entire career. Jeter has batted nearly 40 points higher in the postseason. Both have a big enough sample size to show off their stuff in October.
Jeter DiMaggio
Postseason BA .307 .271
Hits 3,287 2,214
Stolen Bases 248 30
Runs 1,862 1,390
Wagner: Jeter, barring injury, will pass Wagner in hits by next season (39 years old). Wagner played until he was 43 years old. Jeter already has more than double the HR output that Wagner had. Jeter already has more than 100 runs than Wagner did for his career. Jeter has a career .307 batting average in the postseason, Wagner’s is .275.
Jeter Wagner
Postseason BA .307 .275
Hits 3,287 3,420
HR 255 101
Runs 1,862 1,739
Hornsby: In all fairness to Hornsby, he did have more career Home Runs, but Jeter could pass him if he plays to 41 years old, the age that Hornsby played until. As prolific a batter as Hornsby was, Jeter already has 350 more hits than Hornsby. Hornsby also batted just .245 in his postseason career.
Jeter Hornsby
Postseason BA .307 .245
Hits 3,287 2,930
Runs 1,862 1,579
HR 255 301
Jeter was better than all these legendary players at 38 years old
DiMaggio didn’t even play until he was 38 years old; he was 36 in his final season. He batted .263 that year, more than 60 points less compared to Jeter. Hornsby had just one HR and two runs scored at 38 years old. He also had a lower batting average. Wagner hit one point higher than Jeter. Jeter has more runs scored and more than doubled Wagner’s HR output at the age of 38.
BA HR Runs
Jeter* .323 15 93
Hornsby .304 1 2
Wagner .324 7 91
DiMaggio** .263 12 72
*16 Games remaining
**36 Years Old In Final Season
Numbers can sometimes lie, and yes, sometimes we can make them say whatever we want; but in this case the numbers speak for themselves. Derek Jeter is one of the Top 10 Position Players in MLB history and when it's all said and done, not only will we see him in Cooperstown alongside the 10 gentlemen listed at the beginning of this piece, but no Yankee will ever wear #2 ever again.
