Derek Jeter made history on Friday night when he bettered Lou Gehrig's 70-year record for hits by a New York Yankees player.
Yankee Gehrig's long-standing hits mark finally broken
Derek Jeter made history on Friday night when he bettered Lou Gehrig's 70-year record for hits by a New York Yankees player.
Jeter hit a single to right field in the third inning against the Baltimore Orioles to chalk up 2,722 career hits, one more than Gehrig whose career was cut short by a cruel illness in 1939.
The entire Yankees team joined the 35-year-old at first base as a crowd of nearly 47,000 roared its approval on a drizzly night in New York.
"I never imagined, I never dreamed of this," Jeter said later. "My dream was always to play for the team.
"Once you get here you want to stay and try to be consistent. This really wasn't a part of it. The whole experience has been overwhelming.
"My team mates coming out, I didn't know they were going to do that. It caught me off guard."
Gehrig, known as the 'Iron Horse' for playing in 2,130 consecutive games in a 15-year career, was forced to retire because of a debilitating disease that now bears his name, dying just two years later at the age of 37.
