Who can you compare Derek Jeter going back to 1869.

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Posted By: John Kalafarski

I was listening to WFAN in New York about 2 weeks ago and happened upon a conversation involving the notion that Jeter was as talented a ballplayer as Joe D. This is beyond absurd. (Another good place to go is thebaseballpage.com to get a read on just about any player you want. You can look it up, as Casey once said.) I agree with Rhys in that Jeter is very over-rated: if he didn't play in New York he would not be getting as much attention as he does. Yet I think there is much to like about Jeter: he is a very smart player in an era of the dumb; he hits the ball where it's pitched; he puts the team first (although this has been a Yankee trait for a long time). In the 13 years he played, Joe was in 10 World Series and the Yanks won 9 of them. He was the key player on those teams; there are many key players on today's Yanks. Joe is one of the top 5 or 6 players of all time. Mantle is the last great Yankee, maybe the last great player. Jeter would be lucky to place in the top 150 of all time.