Derek Jeter Joins the 3000 Hit Club

Yesterday I had the pleasure to watch (on TV, not in person) Yankees' Captain Derek Jeter notch his 3000th hit with a homer against Tampa Bay Rays ace David Price. In doing so, Jeter became the 28th member of the exclusive 3000 hit club. He finished his day with a career 5 for 5 day with a homerun and a double with a stolen base. He drove in the winning run with his final hit of the day. To celebrate Jeter's achievement, I wanted to post some interesting points:

- 28th member of the 3000 hit club
- First Yankee to hit all 3000 with the team. EVER!!!
- Second player to hit a homer for his 3000th hit (Wade Boggs in 1999)
- Second player to get five hits the day he hit his 3000th hit (Craig Biggio in 2007)
- 15th Player to hit first 3000 with the same franchise (Rose, Cobb, Aaron, Musial, Anson, Yastrzemski, Mays, Ripken, Brett, Yount, Gwynn, Biggio, Kaline, Clemente)
- 10th Player to play for only one team for their career in the 3000 hit club (Brett (Royals), Roberto Clemente (Pirates), Tony Gwynn (Padres), Al Kaline (Tigers), Stan Musial (Cardinals), Cal Ripken (Orioles), Carl Yastrzemski (Red Sox) and Yount (Brewers))
- 18th player to do so with a .300+ career batting average (.313)
- 5th player to play with the Yankees to be in the 3000 hit club (Waner, Winfield, Boggs, Henderson)
- 14th Right handed hitter (12 left-handers, 2 switch hitters)
- 4th youngest to get 3000th hit at 37 years and 13 days of age (Cobb at 34 years 244 days, Aaron at 36 years 101 days, Yount 36 years 359 days)

Here are some of Derek Jeter's hits milestones:
1st hit 05/30/1995 against Seattle
1000th hit 09/25/2000 against Detroit
2000th hit 05/26/2006 against Kansas City
2722nd hit 09/11/2009 against Baltimore (Top of Yankees Hit list passing Lou Gehrig)
3000th hit 07/09/2011 against Tampa Bay

I can wax poetically on Jeter's achievement but I'll just let the statistics above speak for themselves. Oh, I just have one last thing to say about Derek Jeter: Hall of Famer.

FH

*** Keep in mind that of the 28 players who are in the 3000 hit club, 25 of them have been enshrined in Cooperstown. Biggio becomes eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2012, Jeter obviously is still active and the proverbial black sheep of the 3000 hit club is Rafael Palmiero whose Hall of Fame status is jeopardized by his failure of a steriod test in 2005.