New York Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter retired this past season and there has much buzz about his all-time rank in baseball’s most historic franchise.

As Jeter finished his 20 year career, talk of his legacy was a prominent feature on not only television and radio, but among fans of the game.  A significant number of people consider Jeter to be the best Yankee to ever play.

Sure, Jeter accomplished a lot both on and off the field in his career– becoming the face of the city, giving back to the community and playing his way to the 6^th spot on the all-time hits list– but does this put him in the rarefied air of the greats like Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig?

In Jeter’s 20 seasons as a Yankee, his numbers don’t match up with these two Yankee greats. Ruth played 22 seasons, and Lou Gehrig played 17, retiring only because of an illness (later named after him) that sapped him of both his strength and stamina. Ruth had a lifetime batting average of .342, while Gehrig had a lifetime batting average of .340. Jeter boasts a respectable .310 lifetime batting average, which is solid but isn’t close to Ruth’s and Gehrig’s.

Jeter also averaged 61 more at bats a season than Gehrig in his career, while logging 17 fewer than Ruth. While Jeter had far more hits than both Yankee greats, Ruth and Gehrig both had more home runs, runs batted in (RBIs), and World Series Championships than Derek Jeter In fact, Ruth’s 9 championships and Gehrig’s 9 championships don’t compare to Jeter’s 5.

Now that we’ve shown that Jeter is not the greatest Yankee – a pretty easy decision – let’s take a look at the Yankee all-time Top 5.  Of course, it starts with Ruth and Gehrig and moves down to number 3: Mariano Rivera.  Rivera is, without a doubt, the best relief pitcher to ever set foot on the mound in the 9th inning. Rivera has 5 World Series titles, the same as Jeter, but in 1999 Rivera became only the 4th relief pitcher to win MVP of a World Series. Rivera has the most saves in baseball history and is 10th all-time on the Yankees strikeout list.

With Rivera at number 3, that leaves 2 more spots open in my Top 5. In the 4th spot, I’d have to say Joe DiMaggio. Jeter played 7 more seasons than DiMaggio, but DiMaggio averaged 207 hits per season while Jeter averaged only 204. If DiMaggio had played the same number of seasons as Jeter, then he possibly would’ve had more hits than Jeter. Plus Joe DiMaggio had 101 more home runs and 226 more RBIs than Jeter even though he played a significantly shorter career.  DiMaggio won 9 World Series with the Yankees, which is the second most in the franchise history to Yogi Berra’s 10 championships.

The last spot left on my list is debatable, as it is either Berra or Jeter. Berra had a career average of .285 to Jeter’s career average of .310. Jeter also had over one thousand more hits than Berra but, when Berra hit the ball, he contributed more as he finished his career with 359 home runs and 1,430 RBIs. Jeter played one more year than Berra but had only 260 home runs and 1,311 RBIs.

As a young fan of baseball, I have to admit that and seeing Jeter play all of my life and watching how much he impacted the sport on so many levels – not to mention and how much he will be missed – makes me realized that I have , I’d to put Jeter in their at number 5.