Stubbornness, as Much as Skill, Kept Derek Jeter on Top

Jeter’s lucky the Yankee pitchers who watched him wave at ground balls that any other shortstop would have gotten to while their ERAs went up weren’t Hall of Fame voters.

Like many of your readers, I’ve been a Yankees fan all of my life. Derek Jeter was the ultimate professional both on and off the field. This is who I would recommend(kids and adults)emulating. He was always took the high road.

Stated as succinctly as possible, Derek had the MVC - Most Valuable Career.

I’m glad that you mentioned Derek’s loving and stable family who, I believe, provided him with important emotional support throughout his remarkable career, particularly in his early years, playing for the iconic Yankees in the Big Apple pressure cooker. I remember watching many games when the camera would pick up his mother, father, and sister sitting in the stands, watching him perform his Stadium magic. They even relocated from Michigan, I believe, to the New York area to be closer to him.

In the 'old days' the voters just wouldn't give anyone a perfect 100% Can anyone even think that Jeter as good as he was , was better than Mays, Dimaggio, Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle? I could go on and on. Come on, just another example of an over hyped time. That is why no player today should get 100% if these and other very great players didn't.

Stubbornness or Steadfastness? The latter defines the Captain to a T. Stubbornness defines the 1 voter who didn’t vote for him.

Greatness in some brings out smallness and mean-ness in others. The one person who didn’t select Derek Jeter on yesterday’s ballot would likely pay.....how many millions?.... just to BE Derek Jeter for one day. In the Bronx. In pinstripes. In Yankee Stadium. In an important game...in which DJ makes the winning defensive play, or scores the winning run, or drives in the winning run. Because that is what he did. Consistently. For 20 years—that’s right, two decades. Which is why he should have been a unanimous choice.

Where was the voter who left him off the first ballot? Neptune?

Yankees fans won't like this. Jeter was a winner, no question. But since many other great HOF players never came close to 99.7% of the votes, Jeter didn't deserve to go in unanimously. (Neither did a relief pitcher by the way . . . not if some all-time great starting pitchers didn't . . . ) I can't say it's a NYC bias as the voters are nationwide. It's an individual award, winning World Series on an absolutely loaded team that always had one of the highest payrolls in baseball shouldn't matter. Somehow that's become a criteria to be taken into account- "he didn't bring a parade to his city" as though a constellation of factors don't come into assembling a team that wins it all in any sport. Lifetime .310 hitter is very impressive, but lots of other players that didn't come close to 99% of the vote on their first ballot had better batting averages. He didn't counter that with outstanding power for his position, and he wasn't very good on defense. 6th most hits is a combination of that impressive batting average and longevity, along with many postseason games to add to the total. HOF worthy absolutely. First ballot worthy most probably. Unanimous considering the other great players who preceded him? Definitely not.

Derek Jeter was more than el Capitan. He elevated his play in the big games. Playing hard and always acknowledging the fans when they chanted "Derek Jeter!" Young fans always yelled words of encouragement when he was in the on deck circle. How can anyone forget that dive into the stands against the Red Sox or the backup flip against the A's? Evidently, the protest writer did. I bet that person is a Pete Rose advocate.

One of my all time favorite Yankees, for both his ability and class. What a great message he sends to aspiring athletes: “A lot of times it’s mind over matter,” Jeter said in a conference call Tuesday night. “Every time I was in a situation, I felt as though I was still playing Little League. I had fun with it. I enjoyed the competition. I didn’t shy away from it. And I wasn’t afraid of failure.”

Who's the doofus that didn't vote for the Captain? I've been watching baseball since 1953 and in my opinion few players have been as clutch as Derek Jeter.

Aloof and self-obsorbed off the field. A seeming cold fish. His success or lack of success in his current position may tell more. But no question he deserved election.

Thanks to the one voter who didn't name Jeter on his ballot. I've been a Yankee fan since the late 50's, have had a season ticket plan since '09, simply stated, he didn't deserve unanimous election. He didn't dominate his position like Mo did and wasn't anywhere near as gracious which is a function of his highlighted stubborn demeanor. I watched him play in well over 300 games in person, he was tenacious and remarkably talented and a wonder to watch. Having said that, his treatment of Ken Huckaby as noted by another commenter as well as his continued marginalization of Arod just always bothered me, at some point his ungracious treatment hurt the team which to hear Jeter talk was always paramount. He talked the talk but didnt walk the walk.

Jeter's right, the teams with the Highest Payroll don't always win the World Series.....he just didn't add, smartly, that the Yankees sure did win a lot of them. A better question may have been, how many teams with the lowest payroll have won the World Series.... Congrats Derek. Stick it NY....

Derek Jeter was and remains such a good ambassador for New York, the Yankees, and baseball. I may remember that as much as his incredible performance and consistency.

I've often thought the reason the Yankees have 27 championships is because at the organizational level, they treat the playoffs as an extension of the regular season. So often nerves and performance anxiety affect those on the big stage. That didn't seem to be the case with Jeter. You write about his stubbornness, which I think is an under-appreciated aspect of sports. Most sports involve failure, especially the hitter in baseball. A good hitter is lucky to get a hit 30% of the time. How you mentally navigate that statistic with perseverance and grit seems to determine whether you will succeed at the highest level.

Dissenting Hall of Fame Voter, shame on you.

An officer (team captain) and a gentleman.

Class.

Which idiot voter stupidly decided that Derek Jeter was not Hall of Fame worthy?

For Jeter not to have been elected unanimously is a travesty. The person who did not vote for him should lose their credentials for voting to the HOF.

I'm glad that Jeter got 99.7% of the vote to get into the Hall of Fame and that Mariano Rivera received the full 100%. But does anyone believe that such immortals as Willie Mays, Henry Aaron, Roberto Clemente, Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb (I could easily go on) didn't deserve to be named on every single ballot? Such is the frequent silliness of the voting for the Hall of Fame where resentments, envy, and plain stupidity can come into play.

I remember that last game, that last at bat. His last outing ever, his last swing at the ball ever. And there was the hit that drove in the winning run. It was pure magic to see it happen, like the last basket from Jordan, the last goal from Pele. That’s the way to go. On top, in complete enthusiasm. Well done sir. Thank you so much for the memories.

One of the greatest clutch hitters ever in the playoffs, a stark comparison to Alex Rodriguez in that regard.

"when a superstar like Alex Rodriguez, the best shortstop in baseball, joined the team in 2004, he would be the one to move to third base. Jeter was staying put, because he was stubborn enough to believe that he was the best person to be at shortstop" And he was wrong, Alex Rodriguez was the better shortstop and it was Jeter that should have moved. I'm glad that at least one writer had to nerve to not include him on his/her ballot.

Jeter's stubbornness served him well, mostly, but even as a Yankees fan, I still am bothered by how ungracious he was to Blue Jays catcher Ken Huckaby in 2003, after Jeter dislocated his shoulder sliding headfirst into third base, with Huckaby covering to apply the tag. Huckaby, a journeyman player, made the right play, with no ill intent. Jeter brushed off all Huckaby's later attempts to apologize or make amends. I've never understood his lack of empathy for a guy who was trying to make the most of his shot at the big leagues, who was guilty of no more than making a heads-up play against a superstar who made what turned out to be an unwise decision to slide headfirst.

I was lucky enough to be in the stands for his leadoff World Series homer against the Mets, his 3,000th hit, and his final game at Yankee Stadium in which he drove in the winning run (in the bottom of the ninth, of course). When I tell my daughter about Derek Jeter in years to come, I will tell her about those moments -- and how he conducted himself off the field. I won't tell her that he was one vote shy of unanimous election because that doesn't matter. Perfection is nice but not necessary. It's far more important to conduct yourself in a way that commands respect, and Jeter has done that a hundred times over.

I’m not sure why people think that it was a Boston sportswriter who didn’t vote for him. It was just probably a person who despite the obvious history still thinks that NOMAH was BETTAH.

His agent told the 5 teams that Jeter wouldnt sign with them if they drafted him, if they did he would have gone to college instead, Jeter chose the Yankees and good for him, one of the greatest

Why Derek Jeter did not receive 100 percent of the votes from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America last year is very puzzling indeed. I would have to question the competency of the one member who left him off the ballot. I'll make a guess it was a sports writer from Boston.

Who was the one idiot that didn’t vote for Jeter’s induction?

Stubborn, and consistent was he.

396 of 397?! I like to know which Red Sox fan was the hold-out...

396 of 397 first place votes. Who in their right mind voted didn't put him as a first place vote?

The real deal...

Jeter was the player that his steroid using contemporaries vainly hoped to be. He won five championships without electronic cheating. He stayed in the spotlight for 20 years without a hint of scandal or impropriety. We baseball fans could not have asked for more. Thank you and congratulations.

What I always respected about Jeter was that he was so smart and had such great baseball situational awareness. It's hard for me to think that he ever mentally loafed thru a game. That and the determination that went with it to squeeze every ounce of talent he had into his game is what made him great.

He was the essence of athletic class, both on and off the field, always a bit larger than natural, playing in the fishbowl of New York City, where many talented pros have fallen by the wayside. I felt privileged to scrutinize him for twenty years at short -- even if A-Rod may have been quicker to his left -- Jeet was the nerve center of that infield with his best bud, Georgie, behind the dish. The listing of his highlights equates to those of many great ballplayers, but the stage of each (breaking his neck diving into the stands against -- of course -- Boston; the "flip" in a playoff game; five-for-five at 3,000, with the last, possibly the longest homer of his career -- IN the Stadium, of course) to name but a few. But post 9/11, difficult to recall now, with the country still in freak-out mode, a fan in Seattle, when play finally resumes, lofts a sign, "WE'RE ALL NEW YORKERS NOW," followed soon by the Game 5 winning homer five minutes past October, with the nation pulling for a NEW YORK recovery (not the Yankees, per se) defined him for all time, rounding first pumping the right fist high -- All's Well in NY and America. As far as I'm concerned, that concluded the Yankees 4th Consecutive Championship -- all that followed in Arizona, taking nothing from that fine D'backs team, was Cactus League drama. Shoot me for this sacrilege, but There It Is. All that, plus the his Leadership, with the ad-libbed speech, closing the House That Ruth Built, his finest hour.

Whether to make a play in the field, or to grind out a pivotal at bat, I can recall no one else from my six decades of watching baseball, whom I would rather have had in the spotlight. For even a single voter to take the position that Jeter did not belong in the HOF is a joke and a disgrace; the issue on the ballot was whether he deserved entry, not whether he was the greatest of all time, or better than you name them. And as to that one question, HOF now, no one who has any fair minded appreciation for the game, how it is played, and how it should be played, can disagree,

Nice piece about D.J. & well deserved, but how come I kept being reminded of Pete Rose?

Jeter was always such a team player. He carried himself with great pride and self-respect, but somehow managed to avoid narcissism (despite his many successes.) He was present and alert, reserved and polite. Good natured, cheerful. (Hopefully, he's still all those things.) As someone who lived in lower Manhattan on 9/11, I was (and will always be) especially grateful to the spirit and will that the Yankees and Jeter, brought to 2001 post-season. They really helped New York at that time--when even just being in a crowd could raise fear--they really helped rally the City, Jeter a huge part of that.

Jeter is admired because he conducts himself as a real, civilized human being, something we seldom see anymore in sports or elsewhere. While we can no longer encourage our children to emulate the president, we would still be very proud if they grew up to be like Jeter.

Imagine a player who never intentionally brings any attention to himself, hustles on every play, roots hard for other players, never says a bad word about any of them, is always ready to play at a high level no matter which game it is, rises to the occasion, and lives clean. Add all of those hits, smooth play in the field, enormous baseball IQ, a proclivity for winning, and longevity. Then mix in class. He handled the missed vote last night just as easily as he handled the reporter's questions mentioned in the article. We were honored to watch DJ.

Great stubbornness, sure, to the detriment of the team at times. ARod was a substantially better defensive shortstop than Jeter, yet the Captain insisted on playing that position -- at a subpar level.

396 of 397 voters? I wonder who was the writer that believed Jeter doesn't belong in the HOF. Also, I wonder their rational for the decision beyond stubbornness.

I recall Jeter as a rookie phenom walking over to my son and me before a game at the stadium on Father's Day in 1996. He smiled and graciously signed my son's cap. That signature was a thing of beauty, written with care and style. I am pleased that the pride and grace never abandoned him, and that he will forever remain a hero to those he so deeply touched.

Hall of fame player sure, but never understood the adoration as "captain." In his decade as such, the Yanks won 1 World Series, even while vastly outspending all other teams year after year. I imagine the prickliness we saw in the Ken Huckaby situation wasn't isolated, but others could never speak up against the fanboy cult of Jeter.

With some of the unfortunate ways that Jeter has been in headlines for the Marlin purges of Andre Dawson and others, his HOF induction is a nice reminder of his qualities as a player. He really did exude leadership qualities that in New York translated into an aura of greatness. However you feel about Jeter’s value in the age of WAR, too, there was something beyond value in his determination and efforts to win. WAR doesn’t measure confidence and its contagions - and for good reason - but right now there’s no way to quantify the intensity, affect, and other forms of emotional endurance that Jeter performed and sustained. In these respects, he was without peers. Whatever his more recent lapses, the trip he’s making this year to Cooperstown is most deserved, and for reasons beyond counting stats and wins above replacement.

Jeter is not only a great baseball player, he has a heart of gold. One of the first things he did as a pro player was set up a foundation that supports young people. Our small town near Kalamazoo is just one beneficiary, where we receive money to support programs for at-risk youth. He is a well-grounded individual who deserves all the respect he receives.