Welcome to the Hall . . . MR. JETER!
100% vote or not, Derek’s still perfect for Cooperstown
The day he announced his retirement, it was pretty much a given that Tuesday night Derek Jeter would be named a Hall of Famer.
The Yankees captain’s numbers and career can be debated, but on Tuesday night the arguments were settled when he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, with his name on 396 of 397 of the ballots cast by the voters from Baseball Writers Association of America.
Jeter will be joined by former Rockies outfielder Larry Walker as the Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2020. They will be inducted July 26.
For Jeter, who said he was not sure he’d get in on the first ballot and was nervous Tuesday waiting for the call, he did not care about the final numbers of his career: the vote tally and the one contrarian who left him off the ballot.
“I look at all the votes that I got. It takes a lot of votes to get elected into the Hall of Fame. To get that many people to agree on something is pretty difficult,” Jeter said.
The 99.7% of votes is the highest ever for a position player and he was just one vote shy from becoming the second player ever elected into Cooperstown
unanimously. His teammate, Mariano Rivera, also elected on his first try last year, remains the only player to get into Cooperstown with 100% of the vote.
“It’s going to be a very special day standing next to Derek in Cooperstown this summer. He had such a deep desire to win, and that singular commitment to his team is what made him so special. Derek prided himself on being a consistent presence,” Rivera said Tuesday night. “No moment was too big. He was fearless, and he was the type of leader we knew we could count on year after year. I feel so fortunate that he was a teammate and friend for my entire career, and I congratulate him on this great honor.”
Joe Torre, Jeter’s long-time Yankees manager will be there to welcome the player that he watched blossom from a skinny kid in 1996 into a superstar.
”A Derek Jeter comes along once in a generation. By August of 1996 his teammates started looking for him to set the tone and make things happen. Derek was comfortable in his own skin. On the biggest stage in sports, he was never afraid to fail and always kept the game fun. Derek respected the game, the fans, his teammates and his
opponents. His character, determination and confidence are a wonderful reflection of how he was raised by his parents,” Torre said. “It was a true privilege to watch Derek and to be his manager for 12 years. To this day, he still calls me ‘Mr. Torre.’ Today, it is a pleasure to say, ‘Welcome to the Hall, Mr. Jeter!’ You did it with class and grace.”
Jeter becomes the 61st member of the Yankees organization to go into the Hall of Fame. He is the 26th shortstop to go into the hallowed hall in Cooperstown.
Now the CEO and part owner of the Miami Marlins, was the most recognizable player on the most famous team during its most successful modern run for a reason.
He was tremendously consistent, if not ever an MVP over his 20 years in the big leagues.
A 14-time All-Star, five-time Gold Glove and Silver Slugger award winner, Jeter is the 32nd player in baseball history to cross the 3,000-hit mark. His 3,465 hits are sixth all time in baseball and the most ever by a shortstop. Over 20 years in the big leagues, the Yankees’ last captain hit .310/.377/.440 with 260 career home runs and 1,311 RBI.
A five-time World Series champion, Jeter had almost a season’s worth of postseason experience. He hit .308/.374/ .465 in 158 playoff games, hitting 20 homers and driving in 61 runs.
In the last 10 years, as baseball has rushed head-on into the age of analytics, however, Jeter has come under scrutiny as his career is quantified in less flattering ways.
Baseball began trying to calculate the overall defense of a player in 2002, the first year it began keeping track of defensive runs saved. Under that scrutiny, Jeter is seen in a different light — as one of the worst defensive shortstops ever. Actually, Jeter’s career DRS of -152 is the worst ever measured for a fielder.
That, however, is never how Jeter was judged in the Bronx. His ability to make big plays and get clutch hits endeared him to fans and teammates quickly.
Even before Jeter announced 2014 would be his last season, those who had watched him closely over the years knew he was destined for Cooperstown.
“Derek has done everything that a baseball player should do. He played the game the right way. He played the game to win. He played the game with no excuses. I saw it from day one — I thought he would be a Hall of Famer,” Jeter’s teammate Jorge Posada said. “Congratulations, Derek, you deserve it.”