The Yankees lost last night, again, but Derek Jeter set a record that can never be broken:
To Derek Jeter, the night sky seems a little darker and the floodlights seem a little brighter at Yankee Stadium. As he described it, “It’s like playing on a stage.” During Tuesday night’s show, the curtain was barely up when Jeter took his standing ovation.
With one crisp swing on the first pitch of his first at-bat, Jeter dispatched one of the last remaining nuggets of competitive intrigue in a Yankees season that has turned dismal. He slapped a ground ball under Juan Uribe’s glove and into left field to break Lou Gehrig’s 71-year-old record for most hits at the Stadium.
Though there might have been a case for scoring the play an error, few among the 52,558 fans would complain about Jeter’s 1,270th hit in the Bronx. Even if the play was ruled an error, fans would have only had to wait until the fifth inning, when he again singled during a 6-2 loss to the White Sox.
“It’s kind of hard to enjoy because we lost the game,” Jeter said. “But I definitely appreciate everything the fans have done. They’ve been great my entire career.”
Jeter made them wait through Monday night’s 0-for-4 performance, but given his current hot streak — he is batting .378 since Aug. 17 — it was unlikely to take long. After his 8,002nd major league at-bat, he was greeted at first base by the capacity crowd on its feet and a supernova of flashbulbs. After a moment of apparent hesitation, Jeter doffed his helmet and sent the chants up to 11.
Jeter has spent his entire 14-year career with the Yankees and took 81 fewer home games than Gehrig to break his record. It is one of the few marks that is guaranteed never to be surpassed since the Stadium, where Gehrig made his debut in 1923, will close after Sunday’s game.
Congratulations Derek.
