Baseball history today in the Bronx

In the 3rd inning of today's Tampa Bat Rays-New York Yankee game at Yankee Stadium, Yanks shortstop Derek Jeter doubled off the Rays David Price.

It was the 3,000th hit of Jeter's 16 year career. 

Here's the bat Derek Jeter used to hit #3,000. courtesy of Twitpic.

Jeter became the 28th player to collect 3,000 hits in the big leagues, tying the late Roberto Clemente.

In the 5th inning Jeter doubled off of Price, giving him 27th place on the All-Time hit list, with 3,001.

Next up on the list, in 26th place, is Al Kaline, the Hall of Fame Detroit Tigers right fielder, at 3,007.

Yesterday I wrote about Jeter, and what I thought of him, both as a player, and a person.

I love Jeter, the way he has handled himself, and played the game of baseball.

Over at The Hall of Very Good, there is a fantastic article on Jeter, and his 3,000 hits.

The next active players looking for 3,000 hits are the Washington Nationals Pudge Rodriguez(2,842) and Omar Vizuel of the ChiSox(2,831).

I'm not sure either one will come near 3,000 hits, but if I had to choose, I'd say Rodriguez has the better chance.

Derek Jeter has been elected by the fans to start in Tuesday's All-Star Game, but won't play, as he has asked to rest his recently healed ankle for the 2nd half of the season.

The Tigers Jhonny Peralta has been added to the A.L. squad, giving Detroit five representatives in the game, Peralta, Justin Verlander, Jose Valverde, Miguel Cabrera, and Alex Avila.

So, what a day for baseball.

Even though it was on TV, and I wasn't at Yankee Stadium today, I'm still thrilled to watch baseball history happen before my eyes.

The 1st player I remember getting his 3,000th hit was the Tigers Al Kaline, in September of 1974.

A native of Baltimore, Kaline doubled in a game in the last days of 1974, against the Orioles, in Baltimore's Memorial Stadium.

Of course, baseball was different back then, we knew Kaline was getting close, but had to see his historical hit on the local newscast that night in my hometown of Portage, Michigan.

Kaline was in his final year of baseball, 22 of them, all with the Tigers.

In 1980, five years after his retirement, Kaline was inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame.

Jeter is far from done, and should collect a couple of hundred more hits before he calls it a career.

When he does, add five years to the calendar, and meet me in Cooperstown.