Jeter and Gehrig share a day together

As my brilliant baseball statistics professor pointed out, Derek Jeter and Lou Gehrig will spend at least 24 hours tied atop the Yankees all-time hits leaderboard.

For at least 24 hours, they share 2,721 hits, but it also gives people time to realize how much both players were loved by fans. These men are two of the most highly-respected Yankees of all-time — not just on the field — but off the field as well.

Gehrig left the game of baseball in one of the most memorable ways possible. A farewell speech, on July 4, 1939. Jeter gave a farewell speech too — not to end his career (yet) — but to retire the old Yankee Stadium on Sept. 21, 2008.

There are many other parallels between these two Yankee greats. Today is a good day to remember all of those similarities, and think back to Gehrig’s outstanding career.

I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am for my first Yankee Stadium experience to be in the middle of a monumental milestone. I just hope I am not too late to miss Jeter’s first at bat Friday night, as that could be the record-breaker!