To paraphrase John Sterling, who uses the line for perfect games, Friday night Derek Jeter "achieved baseball immortality". The Yankees captain became the team's all-time hit leader when he ripped a hard shot between Orioles 1st baseman Luke Scott and the right field line to start the 3rd inning.
For a while it was unclear whether the Yankees-Orioles game would even be played. Heavy rains fell most of the day in the metropolitan area, resulting in a one hour-25 minute rain delay before play got underway.
Jeter struck out in his first at-bat against Orioles rookie pitcher Chris Tillman, but hit number 2,722 put Jeter one ahead of Lou Gehrig and brought the rain drenched crowd, including Jeter's family to it's feet. As he did when he tied the record Wednesday night, Jeter raised his helmet in salute to the fans, who serenaded him with chants of "Der-ek Jet-er".
Jeter, who later added an RBI single, is 16th among players who lead their respective teams in base hits.
Derek Jeter hit timeline:
1st Hit - 5/30/95 vs. Seattle, Tim Belcher
100th Hit - 7/17/96 vs. Boston, Joe Hudson
500th Hit - 7/20/98 vs. Detroit, Bryce Florie
1,000th Hit - 9/25/00 vs. Detroit, Steve Sparks
1,500th Hit - 8/16/03 vs. Baltimore, Rodrigo Lopez
2,000th Hit - 5/26/06 vs. Kansas City, Scott Elarton
2,500th Hit - 8/22/08 vs. Baltimore, Radhames Liz
2,721st Hit - 9/9/09 vs. Tampa Bay, Jeff Niemann
2,722nd Hit - 9/10/09 vs. Baltimore, Chris Tillman
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