Putting Derek Jeter's Mark in Perspective

Last night, in a 4-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays, Derek Jeter made history. Yankees history. Jeter went 3-for-4 against the Rays, to the delight of the Yankee Stadium crowd, tying Lou Gehrig for the most hits in Yankees history with a whopping 2,721. That sure is a lot of hits.

But it’s not even close to a record. Sure it’s a Yankee record. And sure, Yankee fans and Yankee media can make a big deal about this record because it validates Jeter as the best player of this generation. You see, to Yankee fans and Yankee media, the only world that exists is inside the gothic confines of Yankee Stadium (well, I suppose, sometimes inside Fenway Park).

Twenty-seven championships will do that to a fanbase. So Derek Jeter is on the brink of becoming the leader in base hits for the most storied franchise in sports. That makes him the Hit King, right? According to the New York Daily News, that’s exactly what he is. The Daily News created a specific web page just for Jeter, comparing his stats and vitals to Gehrig’s, and heading the page with a graphic that reads, “Derek Jeter: The Hit King.”

Let’s leave aside the fact that Gehrig stopped playing the game because of a debilitating illness that took his life less than two years after his “luckiest man on the face of the earth” speech. Let’s not forget that Jeter has compiled those hits in 65 more plate appearances and a whopping 588 more at-bats (Gehrig walked 1,508 times in his career to Jeter’s 872) or that the Iron Horse’s on-base percentage (.442) is the fourth-best in this history of baseball.

Hit king!

I’m not trying to throw cold water on the record. Jeter has meant more to New York than any other athlete in our generation. He’s a sure-fire first-ballot Hall of Famer. His last name has become as synonymous with the Bronx Bombers as Steinbrenner. Mike Vaccaro, writing in today’s New York Post, has fallen one purple passage short of calling new Yankee Stadium the House that Jeter Built.

Then it was 9:18 p.m., the seventh inning of the Yankees' 141st game, and it felt like 12:01 a.m. on the first day of January or the bottom of the ninth of Game 7 of the World Series.

Jeter was alone now, standing on first base, and the scoreboard listed Derek Jeter's name and Lou Gehrig's name with "2,721" listed astride both, and this is where the cheers grew louder, and louder still, and finally Jeter lifted his helmet and saluted all four corners of the stadium.

Vacarro isn’t wrong. Jeter is responsible for new Yankee Stadium more than any other player. And last night did provide the first lasting memory in the new park. Jeter is on the brink of becoming the greatest hitter – sorry, sorry ... amassing the most hits – in the storied history of the great New York Yankees. It deserves to be recognized.

But it should also be noted that Jeter’s 2,721 hits put him tied for 53rd all time in Major League history. If he stays at his career pace, he’ll reach 3,000 hits sometime in the spring of 2011, putting him in a rare category with 27 other players. If Jeter plays another five years – making 20 in the major leagues – and stays at his career average, he’ll finish with just under 3,800 hits. That would pass Stan Musial and Hank Aaron for third all-time. But he’d still be a few hundred behind Ty Cobb and Pete Rose.

In fact, for Jeter to pass Pete Rose, the 35-year old will need to average 303 hits a season for the next five years, which might be hard considering no player has ever compiled more than 262 hits in a season. If Jeter maintains his 162-game average (a stellar 208 hits per season) he’d pass Rose just around his 43rd birthday.

Becoming the Yankees all-time hit leader is a great feat, and a time to celebrate in New York. But we might want to back off on this whole ‘Hit King’ thing for a few years.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.