It goes without saying that hitting a baseball over 3,000 times is not an easy thing to do.  Only 27 players before Derek Jeter have hit a baseball more than 3,000 times.  And only two have over 4,000 hits.

It’s probably going to upset some folks that I know for saying this, but Derek Jeter will go down as one of the best players of this era. It’s a fact.  Yes I’m not a Yankees fan, but I am a fan of baseball. Sure I don’t like to see the same team win year in and year out, unless it’s my team.  But regardless that’s what makes sports so great.

You can root against an opposing team and their players for many years.  Yet when something historic occurs for one of those players you have to step back and respect that accomplishment. So long as it was done the right way.

There have been too many baseball players in the last 20+ years that have tainted the game and have cheated their way to the top in some fashion.  Jeter has been one of the few good examples of how you conduct yourself both on and off the field in his 16 seasons.

All that put together with the 5 World Series titles and now over 3,000 hits have put him in an elite class.  Seven members of the 3,000 hit club have multiple titles before Jeter joined them.  Ten members don’t have a World Series title to their resume.

We can continue to root against the New York Yankees and Derek Jeter too.  Most of us don’t want to see another championship banner in Yankee Stadium.  But what makes sports and baseball specifically so great is that when one of the games best players accomplishes something.  The rest of us will show him respect.