I’m a big fan of the New York Yankees, and a bigger fan of Derek Jeter.
He is one of the classiest guys to play baseball, and his dignity is beyond approach. Not only am I happy as hell that he is the first Yankee to hit 3,000 hits, his 3,000th hit was a home run! How cool is that?
That said, it’s time to stop with the “Jeter is the greatest Yankee” talk. A lot of people on ESPN and other media members are clamoring for Jeter to be placed as the head of the Mt. Rushmore of Yankee greats.
Not only is he not the greatest Yankee ever, he is not even in my top 5!
Those who know me best know I am a BIG stat geek and use stats whenever and wherever I could to back my arguments. While stats does play a role in my argument, it does not tell the entire story of who the greatest Yankee is.
When one utter the words “New York Yankees”, who is the first person to come to mind? Most (including yours’ truly) would say “Babe Ruth”, which is why HE – not Jeter – is the greatest Yankee. Sure Ruth’s stats play some part:
- .342 career batting average
- 714 home runs
- 7× World Series champion (1915, 1916, 1918,1923, 1927, 1928, 1932)
However, people came to see the Yankees because of Babe Ruth. In fact, the old Yankee Stadium was the “House that Ruth Built”. You only get that mention if you are the greatest player that organization has seen.
So I bet you are asking “well negro, how would you rank the greatest Yankees?” Well, I’m glad you did, because I have a nice tidy list for that ass…
- Babe Ruth
- Lou Gehring
- Joe DiMaggio
- Mickey Mantle
- Whitey Ford
- Derek Jeter
- Yogi Berra
- Reggie Jackson
- Mariano Rivera
- Thurman Munson
Categories: MLB, sports story
I understand Thurman as a sympathy pick based on his untimely death, but Bill Dickey was the better backstop, no question. I guess A-Rod is out due to steriods?
JAG
A-Rod would be on my short “most hated athlete” list – hey, what a good idea for a future blog posting!
Not to nitpick, but you obviously meant that his dignity is beyond “reproach,” not “approach.” Grammar and using words in the right context are important if you want your blog to be seen as credible.
You know what, I had “reproach”, but over-thought it and typed “approach” instead. Thanks for reading!
I will agree with JAG. Bill Dickey won 14 World Series with Yankees behind home plate. And, I would also put Donnie Baseball (Mattingly) who didn’t make your list ahead of Jeter. The incredible facts are, the Yankees have a great history, and great players, and Jeter is just the most recent in a long line of greats.
The reason why I didn’t put Donnie Baseball on this list is because he didn’t win any titles for my Yankees. Not his fault I know (thank you oh, so much George Steinbrenner), but life is cruel like that sometimes…