At face value, the hit itself was nothing spectacular. Its significance, however, is very spectacular. With an infield single in the 6th inning of Saturday's game with the Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter passed Hall-of-Famer and Pittsburgh Pirates legend Honus Wagner for sixth place on MLB's All-Time Hits list. Jeter now has 3,431 hits in his 20-year career, all with the Yankees.
Jeter dribbled a 0-1 breaking ball from Cleveland's Corey Kluber toward shortstop Jose Ramirez. Third baseman Lonnie Chisenhall cut in front, but he could not corral the ball with a bare-handed attempt. Jeter reached safely for an infield hit.
It took Jeter three at bats Saturday after tying Wagner Friday night. In his first two at-bats, Jeter grounded back to Kluber in the first and then had first baseman Carlos Santana make a diving stab on a hard ground ball to get him. He came through in the sixth, demonstrating that where a player hits it is more important than how hard he hits it.
Jeter would need 84 more hits to pass Tris Speaker and crack the Top 5. With 56 regular-season games left in his career, though, we can safely assume that Jeter will retire in sixth place without any regret. He is already the Yankees' all-time leader in both total hits and doubles.
The sure-fire first-ballot Hall-of-Famer (in 2020) has nothing left to prove. In addition to retiring as the #6 all-time hit leader, Jeter has also won five World Series, seven American League pennants, the 1996 A.L. Rookie of the Year award, five Gold Gloves, and four Silver Slugger awards. He has also made 14 American League All-Star teams. It may not happen, but Jeter has a legitimate chance at becoming the first-ever unanimous Hall-of-Fame inductee -- if former teammate Mariano Rivera does not beat him to it in 2019.