It's not often that I spend time thinking about teams that are 3 games below .500 approaching Memorial Day, or about players with fewer career hits than Graig Nettles, but today I will do just that.
Derek Jeter got his 2,215th (and 2,216th) career hit(s) last night, passing Joe DiMaggio on the all-time list. Next up for Jetes?
What I find most interesting about this is just how few hits Joe DiMaggio had over his career - four more than Willie Randolph and seven more than Willie Wilson, to name two. But then I remembered that DiMaggio lost 3 years to World War II. And it's reasonable, given that he was absolutely, positively at the top of his game in those years, to think that 3 more 180-hit seasons would have been in order, bringing his career total to 2,754 -- 20 fewer than Andre Dawson.
Could someone explain to me how this man was ever described as the Greatest Living Ballplayer?
And, to open up an entirely different can of worms, is it possible that Jeter will play long enough -- moving to 3rd base, then 1st base, then DH -- that he could possibly, conceivably threaten 4,256? He gets to play for as long as he wants to -- no Yankee owner will ever cut him. The question is, does he want to play until he's 45, or doesn't he?