Derek Jeter hits milestone with 2,500th

Derek Jeter hits milestone with 2,500th
BY MARK FEINSAND
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Saturday, August 23rd 2008, 12:49 AM

BALTIMORE - Nearly five years ago to the day, Derek Jeter recorded his 1,500th hit against the Orioles at Camden Yards. Friday night, Jeter reached another milestone, picking up his 2,500th hit in the very same ballpark with a first-inning single.

"I guess if you play long enough, you're bound to get some milestones," Jeter said. "More importantly we won. We needed this game."

Jeter is the 88th player in history to reach the mark, joining Ken Griffey Jr., Omar Vizquel, Gary Sheffield, Ivan Rodriguez and Luis Gonzalez as the only active players on the list. None of the others is younger than 36 - Jeter is 34.

"How old are the other guys?" Jeter asked with a smile. "So I'm still young."

No Yankee has ever reached the 3,000-hit mark, as Lou Gehrig's 2,721 stand as the club record. Babe Ruth is second with 2,518 (Ruth had 355 hits with the Red Sox and Braves), followed by Jeter, who also needs 17 hits in the final 16 home games to tie Gehrig for the most hits in Yankee Stadium history.

Asked if reaching this mark makes him think about the next milestone, Jeter answered quickly.

"Yeah, 2,501," he said. "That's what I'll be thinking about tomorrow."

MOUND MAN: Joba Chamberlain will throw off a mound today, though it remains to be seen when he'll return from the disabled list. Chamberlain will throw 30 pitches - all fastballs and changeups - during his bullpen session, getting up on a mound for the first time since he left his August 4 start in Texas with a shoulder injury.

"We'll wait to see how he does (today) and then we'll go from there," Joe Girardi said. "At this point, we take it day by day."

Hank Steinbrenner, though, expects to see Chamberlain back before the end of the season.

"I don't know yet," the co-chairman told The Associated Press at the Yankees' spring training complex. "It's up to Girardi and (pitching coach Dave) Eiland, how they want to do it. They know what they're doing, and the doctors obviously know."

Girardi said the Yankees will be looking to see how Chamberlain's arm feels more than how his command is, though the manager noted that one typically feeds into the other.

LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN: Bobby Abreu welcomed 25 kids from the Venezuelan Little League team at Friday night's game, while Johnny Damon hosted 10 members of the Wounded Warrior Project after visiting the Walter Reed Army Medical Center with David Robertson and Billy Traber earlier in the day.





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