Mad at the Voter Who Left Jeter Off the Ballot? He’s Not

Jeter has always exemplified class and his refusal to snipe at the lone dissenting voter was in character. He was a great player and a great human being.

Maybe the lone holdout was an incentive vote for Mr Jeter to aspire to higher office than the hall of fame. Mr Walker and Mr Jeter are on many peoples first teams. It was a pleasure to see Mr Walker with the Cardinals for the short time that he was. Mr Jeter is correct Lets focus on the two rights done for these men and the game they represent

Derek Jeter is the greatest player of my lifetime. I am 73+ years old!

Is it possible that the lone holdout wanted to avoid a unanimous vote in order to make unanimous votes extremely rare?

Good for Jeter. He should care as much about the individual votes as he does about the color of the ink used to sign the checks he received over the years. Its all just minutia.

In his first year on the ballot (1953), Joe DiMaggio got only 44% of the vote. In 1954, he again was not elected. in 1955, he finally was selected for the Hall of Fame with 89% of the vote. Jeter has nothing to complain about.

Oh come on. Don't people have anything useful to do? If I were elected even to something as simple as village dog catcher - much less to a hall of fame - 396 to 1, I wouldn't even blink. "Oh, Wow! Everybody loves me - except for that one old grump, and who cares?" And no, don't remove anonymity from voting. That's counter to everything we claim our democratic process is about.

Well deserved. Congratulations to Jeter. Many of others on the list were juicing and using other performance enhancing drugs, so I am unclear how they, Clemons, Bonds, Sosa, etc. got any votes at all. Are Hall of Fame voters really considering letting cheaters in? At least with Jeter is was all talent, hard work, integrity, sportsmanship and a positive attitude. Go Jeter!

The lone dissenter had to be from Boston, right?

Why is it that actors and athletes who make gazzilion of dollars need these awards? Isn’t being extremely well compensated enough? Olympians get a pass because they are amateurs.

Debate whether he was the best of all time, or merely one of the best? Fine. But decline to even put Jeter on the Hall of Fame ballot? That alone would make you unqualified to vote for the Hall of Fame, as it clearly indicates you're voting for something other than accomplishment.

i guess some people just can't vote for a NY Yankee, even when Derek Jeter is the one on the ballot. yes - i'm a yankee fan and i enjoyed watching Derek play. he played well. at bat, in the field, in the clubhouse. he was creative. he was a great teammate. he didn't embarrass himself, his team, or the sport - which should probably be lower on the list, but it's not easy these days. a unanimous vote would have been nice, but i never expected to see it. congratulations Derek Jeter! hall of fame election was never in doubt, but it's nice to have it done.

As noted Mariano Rivera’s unanimous vote should not be a benchmark for induction. Odd things influence this kind of voting, and not necessarily connected to the individual. Jeter’s accomplishments stand quite well on their own merits.

I agree with Mr. LaFong. Derek Jeter was a great player and deserves the honor. Why are we arguing over how many votes? Was Babe Ruth unanimous, was Hank Aaron? Rivera is an outlier.

Jeter was a shoo-in to get voted into the Hall of Fame. However, I think that if players such as Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Ken Griffey, Jr. and others did not get in unanimously that Jeter should be given that honor. Why would a position player who was never an MVP be voted in unanimously? I think the anonymous writer felt the same way.