It was never a question that Derek Jeter, the longtime captain of the Yankees and one of the most celebrated players in baseball history, was going to be enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The intrigue instead centered on whether he would become the second unanimously elected player, following his former teammate and fellow five-time World Series champion Mariano Rivera.
On Tuesday, Jeter fell just short of Rivera’s historic mark from last season.
Jeter was named on all but one of the 397 ballots cast by members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America — more than enough to clear the 75 percent hurdle for election. He eclipsed the previous second-highest voting mark, 99.3 percent, for outfielder Ken Griffey Jr. in 2016. Jeter received 99.7 percent of the vote.
Jeter was joined in the 2020 class by Larry Walker, the standout slugger who played the majority of his career in Colorado with the Rockies. Walker was in the 10th and final year of his eligibility on the ballot.
Jeter, who is now leading a rebuilding effort in Miami as the chief executive officer and part owner of the Marlins, will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on July 26 in Cooperstown, N.Y., along with Marvin Miller, the former union leader who revolutionized the sport by helping players gain the right to free agency, and catcher Ted Simmons. The latter was passed over by the writers, but both were elected by a smaller committee last month.
Jeter enters the Hall of Fame with an impressive résumé. After growing up in Michigan dreaming of playing shortstop in pinstripes, Jeter was picked sixth over all in the 1992 draft by the Yankees and was persuaded to sign with them instead of playing baseball at the University of Michigan.
“The only place Derek Jeter’s going is to Cooperstown,” Dick Groch, a former Yankees scout who signed Jeter, told team officials at the time. Jeter was in the major leagues by 1995 and was named the American League Rookie of the Year the following season.
With his trademark right-handed swing that often poked balls to right field rather than pulling them to left, Jeter posted a .310 career batting average and amassed 3,465 career hits, the sixth-most in baseball history. He tied a major-league record with 17 straight seasons of at least 150 hits and is tied for second with 13 seasons scoring at least 100 runs. He played in 20 seasons — all with the Yankees, a team record — at one of the most demanding positions on the diamond. He was named an All-Star 14 times.
Jeter was part of the so-called Core Four of homegrown Yankees players — along with pitcher Andy Pettitte, catcher Jorge Posada and Rivera — who helped create a dynasty that won four World Series titles (1996 and 1998-2000). Jeter was the last of the four to retire, his final season coming in 2014. He ended his career as the longest-tenured Yankees’ captain, holding the title for 12 seasons.
And when it mattered most, Jeter delivered. He ranked at or near the top of many career categories for postseason play: appearances, runs scored, hits, total bases, runs batted in and home runs — even though he wasn’t much of a home run hitter during the regular season. He was also the World Series M.V.P. in 2000, when the Yankees beat the Mets.
Perhaps most impressive of all, Jeters spent two decades in New York as one of the most recognizable athletes playing for one of the most well-known franchises in the world, and he was never involved in a significant scandal.
Jeter did have some minor blemishes. He never won a Most Valuable Player Award (he finished in the top-3 of votes three times.) Probably helped in part by his reputation and astute playmaking (see: The Flip, during Game 3 of the 2001 A.L. division series), Jeter won five Gold Gloves even as his skills declined and he was rated a below-average defender. He famously refused to move from the position after the Yankees acquired a better shortstop, Alex Rodriguez, in 2004. Instead Rodriguez took over third base.
Advanced statistics, such as Wins Above Replacement, haven’t always been so kind to Jeter; WAR ranks him as the 10th best shortstop of all time.
Although he was accessible to reporters, Jeter was careful about his image and guarded in his answers. But that was part of what made him so beloved by fans. He was their proud, often stubborn, leader who helped usher in one of the most successful dynasties in baseball history with gobs of hits, heads-up plays and a stoic presence on the left side of the infield.