* Yankees fans gave well-deserved accolades to Derek Jeter this week, acknowledging his spot right beside that other beloved Yankee, Lou Gehrig. The applause and recognition are well deserved as Jeter has respected the game and maintained his humility. We have been privileged to see so fine a baseball player as Jeter for all these years. It has been a superb 15 years in the spotlight.
STEVEN PALUMBO
Bellmore, N.Y.
* It shouldn’t surprise anyone who has watched Derek Jeter since he arrived in 1995 that this man was a champion who ranked up there with all the Yankees greats. But as a die hard Mets fan, it’s always difficult to acknowledge greatness when it comes from your crosstown rival. Now that Jeter has surpassed Lou Gehrig in hits he just might be the greatest Yankee of all time, yes, even surpassing Babe Ruth. Let me tell you, Jeter might be the best major league player to come around in the past 50 years. If you have watched Jeter over his career, you would have witnessed the diving catches in the stands, the throws that few could make, the ability to always be in right place at the right time, etc. These baseball instincts, you are born with. Derek Jeter was born to be a New York Yankee. I have been a Mets fan since the 1960s, but I know Lou Gehrig is up there smiling saying, “Good job, son. Good job.”
KENNY CULLEN
Throggs Neck
He’s no Lou
* Not to take anything away from Derek Jeter, who is the Yankees’ new hits leader and having an excellent career, but please don’t compare him to Lou Gehrig. The Iron Horse, as Gehrig was called, was one of the best two or three players of all time. While playing in every game for 12-plus consecutive years, Gehrig exceeded Jeter’s home run total by 270, his RBIs by 931, his batting average by 27 points, his walks by 716 and his slugging percentage by .163, for starters. His career was cut short by a fatal disease or his stats would have been even better. There may never be another Lou Gehrig, no matter how long baseball is played on this planet.
ED MICHAELSON
Staten Island
* Can Yankees fans and the New York media please stop hinting Derek Jeter should be the MVP of the American League? He is not even the MVP of his team. Jeter’s best year is not even comparable to the top 10-15 guys in the league. Let’s just stop, he is a good player and has been a great Yankee, but he’s not an MVP.
DAN SKOUMBROS
Stamford, Conn.
Citi blights
* I am not old enough to have ever been there, but I am told that before it was demolished, the Brooklyn Dodgers’ home ballpark, Ebbets Field, was moldy, decrepit, and for the most part, falling apart. Five decades later, Fred Wilpon promised Mets fans a stadium that would invoke the memories of Ebbets Field. And what do you know? He did it!
IRV GOLDFARB
North Woodmere, N.Y.
* After all the injuries to Mets players this season, what a fitting way to end the misery: Even their brand new stadium has gone on the disabled list!
TONY STELLS
Manhattan
Gruntless work
* I am not a big fan of women’s tennis, but I became a big fan of Melanie Oudin during the U.S. Open. Why? She doesn’t grunt. It is so refreshing to see a young person playing this sport who doesn’t sound like she is having a baby on the court.
JIM BURKLY
Martinsville, N.J.
Jet outta here!
* The Post’s Phil Mushnick hits the mark with his column on PSLs [Equal Time: “License to steal,” The Post and nypost.com, Sept. 11]. Who is NFL commissioner Roger Goodell kidding when he says ticket prices have remained steady? Really? I was a Jets season ticket holder for 25 years with two mezzanine seats After being forced to purchase two meaningless preseason games, I was already selling some of my tickets to friends. But with the PSL, my $115 seats will run $500 each in 2010. Ten thousand dollars per year just for two plastic seats to a franchise that hasn’t won a damn thing in 40 years? I don’t think so. Throw in a nauseating $14,000 PSL tag per seat and Woody Johnson and Goodell should know that that is the reason so many season tickets, plus single tickets for every 2009 Jets game still remain unsold today. That’s unheard of and completely warranted. I will never purchase another New York Jets ticket.
BOB MANTZ JR.
Princeton, N.J.