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The following article was originally published on Nov. 25, 2009.
For whatever reason, this past week the article received a lot of attention on the airwaves in Cincinnati (I guess that's what happens when your town's NFL season is over.) I'm guessing the Pete Rose faithful felt the need to defend their guy.... Anyway, we thought today being 'NFL Championship Sunday' was good of a day for a reprint if there is such a thing - so that the rest of the country could see what all the hub-bub was about.)
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People always talk about Derek Jeter as if they have to apologize for him.
- "He's not a stats guy, it's the intangibles."
- "He's always in the right place at the right time."
- "He always gets the clutch hit."
- "He's been to the World Series 7 times in his 14 years..... and won 5 times."
I guess people say these things because when you go to compare his stats to A-Rod's, they don't hold up. David Ross spoke about this in his "Jeter Lovers / A-Rod Haters" piece.
 But why does he have to be compared to A-Rod? Unless you are Albert Pujols , no one's stats will hold up. Even players with Hall of Fame career starts like Miguel Cabrerra have a hard time staying in the conversation..... it's not a knock.
In his 14 full seasons Derek has averaged 208 hits, 119 RS, a .317 BA, 17 HR and 81 RBI. That's pretty darn good for a short stop in any era, especially one that is most know for ‘the other things he does' and not putting up stats.
I'm sure that you remember earlier this year when Derek passed Lou Gehrig on the all-time Yankees hit list. Jeter ended the 2009 season with 2747 hits in 49th place with only one active player in front of him, Ken Griffey Jr. who has 2763. Jeter will certainly pass Griffey this year. If he has another average year of 208 hits (it's not like he's slowing down, he has 212 this past year) look at some of the other legends of the game he'll pass. Brooks Robinson, Babe Ruth, Mel Ott, Rogers Hornsby, We Willie Keeler, Barry Bonds, Frank Robinson just to name a few.
After this year Derek Jeter will probably be somewhere around 30th all time on the hits list. It's not going to happen this year, but at some point Jeter will move to the outfield and or start to DH. No one expects Jeter to play another 7+ years getting 208 hits per year to break Pete Roses' record, but if he stays healthy and have just two or three more very productive years and over time moves to the outfield and DH, there is no reason he can't play 10 more years and catch Rose.
Jeter is currently 1509 hits behind Rose, that's ten years of 151 hits per year. If he has just three more years at his current pace before he starts tailing off he can average as little as 126 per year and catch Rose. Don't think he can do it? If Jeter can play full time for 3 more years and then play about 60% of the time for a few more years, he's there. It might sound farfetched when you first say it, but if you think about it for a bit, it's not.
I'm sure this will get contentious as people will either root for the guy or hope he breaks his leg because people on this earth seem to be either Yankee fanatics or Yankee haters......... I can't think of anyone I know who's indifferent. So pick a side and chime in, let's hear what you think. - David Fry
For more coverage of this topic on the Bloguin Network take a look over at our friends @ Tetreault Vision
David is an independent sports photographer currently covering MLB and the NFL. David will be reporting on observations as he sees them in stadiums throughout the year
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