MLB

Ripken shares Jeter’s secret of success

Cal Ripken Jr. had 3,184 hits in a 21-year career — all with the Orioles, 17 of those seasons at shortstop. Of all the players in the 3,000-hit club, Ripken perhaps is the one who can best identify with Derek Jeter’s accomplishment. Here are his thoughts, as told to Mark Hale.

My dad would say years ago, “They tried to put 40-year-old heads on 20-year-old bodies.” And in Derek’s case, he seemed to come to the big leagues with a 40-year-old head.

The first thing I noticed is that he’s mature beyond his years. Now, I don’t know if you can say that now because we’ve watched him mature in front of us. But when he first came into the league, he was a young

player, but he looked as if he had played the game a long time before he got here. He seemed to have a good mental outlook for the day-to-day game.

MR. 3,000

JETER BY THE NUMBERS

Derek has an innate ability to react to things as if he has eyes in the back of his head. A great example is that famous play he made against Oakland when he came across the field and flipped the ball to home plate for the out. Technically he was out of position but he has the ability to see the play start to develop, and then with his athleticism and reacting ability, he understood he was the only one who could get to that ball and then he knew that because Jeremy Giambi wasn’t a very fast runner, he still had a shot at home. He processed that all very quickly and made the play.

In addition, his clutch hitting is phenomenal and I admire the fact that he can control his emotions in an emotional setting. That allows him to relax and perform in those pressure situations. There’s not a whole lot of people who have performed like he can in the postseason.

When we played the Yankees in the 1996 ALCS, he was poised beyond his years and it seemed as if the playoff atmosphere didn’t faze him. He played a nice, deep shortstop and made all of the plays. Something people don’t always recognize is the fact that Derek has very strong legs and is faster than you think. I remember as a right-handed hitter, he put a lot of pressure on the infielders from a speed standpoint and he never jaked it down the line.

One of the things that makes me feel good is Derek has come up to me and said, “Thanks for paving the way.” That’s a high compliment because maybe my level of success made people look at taller shortstops and not move them out of the position too soon. I feel good that I might have helped change the mindset toward the bigger shortstops, but guys like Derek, guys like Alex Rodriguez, they’re going to pave their own way.

Even though he is a big shortstop I don’t think he and I play a similar game. He brings his own athleticism to the table and in many ways, he has more athleticism than I did. And the joy of watching Derek is that he takes his skill set and refines it and modifies it to be able to make all of the plays.

Getting 3,000 hits means you have to be pretty darn good for a long period of time. Derek’s been the face of the Yankees, and the pride that he takes in putting the uniform on and assuming the captain role, it’s very fitting and very appropriate that he gets his 3,000th hit and all his hits as a Yankee player. From my perspective, that’s not easy to do in this day and age.

He’s been consistent, he’s been on a winning team and he’s been able to endure being a great Yankee. It still blows me away that in the rich history of the Yankee franchise, nobody’s had 3,000 hits and I really love that he has become the first to do it.