Yet another win for dynasty duo
MARIANO Rivera and Derek Jeter now own the largest voting percentage in the history of the Hall of Fame. Rivera received 100 percent of the vote last year and Jeter fell one short of being unanimous Tuesday when the tallies were revealed. Since we love pitchforks and torches as much as ever, there was an immediate social media posse unleashed to find the one person who did not vote for Jeter.
Let’s keep in mind that one voter represents .0025 of the 397 votes cast. And it obscures the fact that whether you get in by six votes in your 10th and final year on the ballot as Larry Walker did or receive 99.7 percent of the vote in your first year as Jeter did, it is the same Hall of Fame.
If anything, let’s use the large voting percentages received by Rivera and Jeter as a reminder to appreciate the last baseball dynasty, of which they are the faces — the 1996-2000 Yankees. No team has won consecutive titles much less three in a row since the 1998-2000 Yankees, no club has won four out of five, no team has appeared in five of six World Series as those 19962001 Yankees. The 2010-14 Giants won three in five years, but were not considered a force-of-nature juggernaut like those Yankees teams — as they missed the playoffs in 2011 and ’13 and never won more than 94 games in that run.
In the lead-up to the election this year there were attempts in some quarters to downgrade Jeter’s career. One common complaint was that he was lucky to be a Yankee. Really, it was the other way around.
This wasn’t Luis Sojo being blessed to be along for the ride. Jeter was a great, durable, dependable, winning-obsessed player. He was a reason the Yankees played in all of those playoff games. And there are plenty of guys now who have logged lots of postseason time. Do they have plays named for them? How about two like “The Flip” or “Mr. November?”
Jeter was both himself and an historic figure in the postseason. He played a season in the playoffs — 158 games — and was as consistently excellent at that time of year (.308 average/.838 OPS) as during the nearly two decades he was an unflappable force for the Yankees. That was against the best competition at the most stressful time.
He was not as good a player as
Hank Aaron or Willie Mays or Ted Williams. And, of course, that trio and many others should have been elected unanimously in their time, not robbed of that distinction by a group of wrongheaded voters who thought 100 percent was a blasphemy against previous stars who never received that total.
But it is fine that Jeter has now usurped Ken Griffey Jr. (99.3 percent) for the highest percentage ever bestowed a position player. And that it is going to be quite a while until any eligible player nears 99.7 percent again, perhaps Ichiro Suzuki in five years and if not then maybe not until a currently active player such as Clayton Kershaw, Mike Trout or Justin Verlander is five years removed from his career. It is fine because Jeter not only represented the Yankees in his time, but really the whole sport. He was not the best. Yet, there was a quality about him — magnetism or public grace or some other inexplicable entity — that elevated his popularity to a level that certainly covered the Fame part of the Hall. And then some. He was respected by pretty much all and revered by many of his contemporaries. A generation of kids grew up wanting to wear No. 2 and make jump throws from the shortstop hole. He was the most popular singles hitter since Pete Rose — with none of the personal stain. And he imbued confidence in the Yankees. That also links Rivera and Jeter. Their talent was overt. But they also were the most self-confident players I have ever covered. That self-belief filled a clubhouse, united those early Joe Torre teams to believe that no challenge was too great. It helped the Yankees win their first title in 18 years in 1996 and three in a row from 1998-2000 and make it to 2001 World Series Game 7, when key elements of that roster were beyond their expiration dates and operating on muscle memory and an addiction to winning. That served as the cornerstone to how Rivera received 100 percent of the Hall of Fame vote and Jeter all but .0025 of it. They are linked now, like then. They define personal greatness and will forever be linked as cornerstones to the last great baseball dynasty.