Derek Jeter Was Baseball's Last Superstar and a First-Ballot Hall of Famer

Though it’s been more than five years since Derek Jeter played his last game in the majors for the New York Yankees, more sports fans know who he is than reigning MLB MVP Mike Trout.

Why is that?

Because Jeter was a superstar on par with the likes of Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Peyton Manning or Tom Brady — and baseball hasn’t had one like him since.

As Gabe Lacques of USA TODAY points out, though baseball is still making money like a top-tier league (industry revenues approached $11 billion in 2019), MLB is not really in the national spotlight in the same way the NBA and NFL are.

Some of that can be blamed on pace of play and the apathy the length of the MLB season creates, but some of it certainly has to do with pro baseball lacking players with the same sort of national recognition Jeter possessed.

In addition to playing on five World Series winners, Jeter kept himself in the spotlight by doing appearances on David Letterman’s show, appearing on Seinfeld and becoming the first, and only, baseball player to host an episode of Saturday Night Live.

The World Series MVP in 2000, Jeter played in more playoff games than anyone in history (158) and also holds postseason records for at-bats (650), runs scored, hits, total bases, doubles and triples.

That’s a lot of records … and a lot of time on national television.

By comparison, Trout — who has already won three MVPs including this year’s award — has only appeared in three playoff games for the Los Angeles Angels, losing all of them.

“How would a young Jeter fare in this environment if he debuted in 2016 instead of 1996?” Lacques writes. “Would his high-profile relationships (Mariah Carey, Jessica Biel, Minka Kelly, etc.) help him win the proverbial Internet and burnish his fame? Or would his reserved public manner, combined with baseball’s overall challenge to maintain its foothold in a buzzier, busier world, confine him to fringe celebrity? Regardless, it still feels as if he’s the last of his kind.”

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