Baseball Hall of Fame: Derek Jeter is a no-brainer, but will he be unanimous?
In other news ….
There’s a Baseball Hall of Fame election around the corner, coming Tuesday.
Derek Jeter will finally give us a break from baseball’s ugly cheating scandal.
You remember Jeter, right?
The guy with five World Series rings.
The pride of the New York Yankees.
The guy who spent his entire career in New York and was never involved in a single scandal, nor a scintilla of trouble, and was a role model for baseball?
Well, the only controversy surrounding Jeter on Tuesday is whether he’ll be a unanimous Hall of Famer, joining former teammate Mariano Rivera.
Otherwise, you knew the last day he took off his Yankees uniform he would be in Cooperstown.
He was the Tom Brady, LeBron James and Mario Lemieux of baseball.
A Hall of Famer?
A no-brainer.
Case for Jeter
Jeter was a 14-time All-Star, a five-time Silver Slugger, but never once won an MVP, with only one top-five finish.
Yet, he merely embodied the Yankees, one of the game’s greatest champions, taking New York to five World Series titles, seven pennants, and 16 postseason appearances.
It wasn’t until his 14th season, at the age of 34, that he played a game in which his team had been mathematically eliminated from the postseason.
The man was built for stardom, and handled the pressure of New York as if he were playing a pick-up game in the neighborhood.
There’s a reason the Yankees made him a captain at the age of 29.
It was his uncanny consistency that made him one of the game’s greats, finishing his career with 3,465 hits, the sixth-most in baseball history, and most by any shortstop. He produced at least 179 hits in 15 seasons, and scored at least 100 runs in 13 seasons.
Sure, he didn’t have the power, averaging just 13 homers a season, but he was the complete ballplayer, and his 20 postseason homers are the third-most in history.
Case against Jeter
Ok, so he wasn’t Ozzie Smith or Omar Vizquel at shortstop, let alone Cal Ripken Jr.
He was steady, and did win five Gold Gloves, but his defensive metrics left the analytic folks screaming into the night.
He had a strong arm, and solid hands, but he had little range, relying on his ingenuity and instincts.
Truly, that was his lone flaw.
HOF: Was Derek Jeter baseball's last celebrity?
THE CASE FOR ...
X-factor
This is a stretch, but it’s possible someone doesn’t vote for him because of his management skills.
We’re talking about his role as CEO of the Miami Marlins. He bought a stake of the team in 2017.
The Marlins cleaned house upon Jeter’s arrival, and one of his first moves was firing Hall of Famers Andre Dawson and Tony Perez, who were special assistants. Dawson and Perez are two of the most popular Hall of Famers among their peers, and are still miffed at their dismissals. They vowed last summer they likely would skip Jeter’s Hall of Fame ceremony.
So someone may snub Jeter on their ballot, out of respect for Dawson and Perez.
Consensus
The village of Cooperstown will be besieged by perhaps the largest group of fans in the Hall of Fame ceremony’s history to witness Jeter’s induction.
The largest crowd for an induction ceremony was the 82,000 fans who came to celebrate Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn.
It doesn’t matter if anyone else goes in with Jeter from the writers’ ballot -- with former catcher Ted Simmons and the late union leader Marvin Miller already elected from the veterans’ committee -- this will the induction all of New York has been awaiting.
Start spreadin’ the news: The most popular Yankee since Mickey Mantle is going to the Hall of Fame.
Follow MLB reporter Bob Nightengale on Twitter.