UPDATE: I screwed up: Jeter passed Mantle in yesterday’s game. He tied Mantle on Friday.
Derek Jeter played in the front end of yesterday’s Yankees-Orioles doubleheader. In doing so he played his 2,402nd game as a Yankee. That put him past Mickey Mantle on the all-time Yankees games-played list.
Only 22 men* have appeared in as many as 2,400 games for a single team. All but five of those guys -- Dave Concepcion, Pete Rose Dwight Evans, Craig Biggio and Jeter -- are in the Hall of Fame. Rose would have been but for his personal foibles. Biggio probably will be. And so too, obviously, will Derek Jeter one day.
*Cal Ripken, Brooks Robinson, Dwight Evans, Carl Yastrzemski, Dave Concepcion, Pete Rose, Ty Cobb, Al Kaline, Jeter, Mantle, Willie Mays, Mel Ott, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Luke Appling, Biggio, George Brett, Robin Yount, Mike Schmidt, Roberto Clemente, Tony Gwynn, Stan Musial.