What a way to finish his Yankee Stadium career!
GW RBI in bottom of 9th
What a way to finish his Yankee Stadium career!
GW RBI in bottom of 9th
It couldn't have been scripted any better. Like the Yankees or not, he truly was an ambassador of the game and respected everywhere.
I like him. But baseball went way overboard with his farewell tour. The All-Star game was obviously about Jeter, so Wainwright obliged and served him a meat pitch and it cost the National League a chance for home field advantage in the world series. Baltimore gave up what little chance they had of having the AL's best record because it was obviously all about Jeter last night, so Showalter pitched to Jeter with first base open and the winning run on second instead of walking him to set up the double play (LIKE HE WOULD HAVE DONE IN ALMOST ANY OTHER SITUATION). It was like an exhibition game.
Good old Memorial Gym
The/some are now saying his last play was set-up for him.
KO is an asshole. Jeter is a nice guy. No doubt. But KO was listing stats not opinions and after listening to some of those stats I realized Jeter is indeed overrated. Good player, iron man, good leader. Great player? Meh. Put him on the Texas Rangers his entire career and he's Michael Young.
I don't want to take anything away from Jeter but my how things have changed in 54 years. Ted Williams played about 20 years, lost at least parts of 5 seasons serving in the military in two wars and hit a homerun in his last at bat. It's been a long time but I swear there wasn't this type of hoopla when he retired.
I didn't see the stats Olbermann presented, but I have always though Jeter was a little overrated due to him being liked around the league. His defense is average at best, and by some metrics, downright not good. His offensive game is very good for a SS, but not mind-blowing. He did accumulate a ton of hits, and we know that longevity and stat accumulation is very important to being considered "great" in baseball. I think Jeter is a very good player who will be immortalized due to being part of the Yankees and given many opportunities to shine. Look at his playoff stats, he obviously had great moments, but overall, his playoff stats match his regular season stats. Which the law of averages would tell you that should happen, given the ample opportunity Jeter had.
Now, look at Mariano, his stats were just stupid in the playoffs even compared to his nice regular season stats. He truly is "clutch" if such a thing.
I've never been a Yankee fan or a Derek Jeter fan. However, baseball is about statistics. Therefore, I decided to compare Derek Jeter's statistics vs. Hall of Fame shortstops I heard a lot about during my 50+ years of following baseball. I also listed Honus Wagner who leads HOF shortstops in many categories. Honus Wagner last played in 1917 after a 21 year career.
The statistics in bold indicate the leader among the shortstops listed. Derek Jeter leads the listed Hall of Fame shortstops in hits and runs. He is 2nd to Honus Wagner in AVG and OBP, 3rd behind Ernie Banks and Cal Ripken Jr. in HR's, and among the leaders in most of the other categories. Among the "modern day" shortstops, he leads or is near the lead in most categories.
Derek Jeter's statistics support his selection to the HOF.
Hall of Famer AVG OBP SLG HITS HR RBI RUNS SB Luis Aparicio 0.262 0.313 0.343 2,677 83 791 1,335 506 Ernie Banks 0.274 0.333 0.500 2,583 512 1,636 1,305 50 Barry Larkin 0.295 0.371 0.444 2,340 198 960 1,329 379 Pee Wee Reese 0.269 0.366 0.377 2,170 126 885 1,338 232 Cal Ripken, Jr. 0.276 0.340 0.447 3,184 431 1,695 1,647 36 Phil Rizzuto 0.273 0.351 0.355 1,588 38 563 877 149 Ozzie Smith 0.262 0.337 0.328 2,460 28 793 1,257 580 Honus Wagner 0.327 0.391 0.466 3,415 101 1,732 1,736 722 Robin Yount 0.285 0.346 0.430 3,142 251 1,406 1,632 271 Derek Jeter 0.310 0.377 0.440 3,465 260 1,311 1,923 358
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