Recent Hall inductees await Jeter

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. -- Someday, a few special Hall of Fame players will proudly say to Derek Jeter, "Welcome to the club within the club." As it is, the fellows who preceded him to the 3,000-hit plateau are impressed by the way Jeter stormed that milestone on his way here.

"It's an honor when you're a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Derek might be the only guy to ever get 100 percent of the vote. He's a no-brainer," said Hall of Famer Wade Boggs, the Yankees' starting third baseman from 1993-97 who played alongside Jeter during the latter's rookie season of 1996.

Not only did Boggs see Jeter have that 5-for-5 game July 9, including a home run for his 3,000th hit, but he claims to have seen it ahead of time. "I was telling my wife about two days before his hit, 'I guarantee Derek is going to get a home run, in Yankee Stadium.' That's the way Derek is. He did it in New York fashion. I knew he was going to do that. Just a little single up the middle for Derek Jeter is not the way to go."

Boggs and other greats spoke during the Baseball Hall of Fame Invitational golf tournament, which preceded the induction ceremony to be held this afternoon.

"I've got good company now," Boggs said. "He was a special kid and I knew he was going to represent the Yankees in an absolute tremendous way. That's why he's the captain. He's a special individual. He plays the right way. When you play in New York that long and you're single and you're not on the back pages, you've done something right."

Boggs has not spoken to Jeter since No. 3,000. "I tweeted him," said the man who finished with 3,010 hits, five fewer than Jeter's current total. "I'm on Tweeter [sic] now: ChickenMan3010. I need all the followers I can get."

Jeter's big day was more perfect than the one on which George Brett reached the 3,000 milestone -- a Royals game on the road. "I went 4-for-4," Brett said. "But he went 5-for-5 at home, with a big home run. It was pretty special. I was very, very impressed. Him being a Yankee his whole career, me being a Royal my whole career, and Cal [Ripken] and Robin [Yount] and Tony Gwynn; there's not many of us who are going to get them all with the same club."

SEE PHOTOSJuly 9, 2011: Derek Jeter collects hit No. 3,000

Paul Molitor works in the Twins system, which did not stop him from following every detail of the Jeter saga.

"Leading up to it, becoming the all-time Yankee hit leader, now the first one to go in the 3,000-hit club, to be forced out of action a little bit and then to come back as dramatically as he did with that day, that's a little bit of an exclamation point," said Molitor, who had 3,319 hits. "I think anybody who gets in that club would not want to meander their way in. You want to aggressively find your way into the club and still be going strong. He certainly has done that."

Roberto Alomar will be inducted into the Hall Sunday, along with Bert Blyleven and executive Pat Gillick. Alomar retired 276 hits short of 3,000.

"I am an admirer of Derek Jeter. I've been a fan of his since Day 1," said the man who was playing second base for the Orioles the day Jeffrey Maier reached over the fence and helped Jeter get a pivotal postseason home run.

SEE PHOTOSThe 3,000 hits club

Brett joked that the way to get 3,000 hits (or 3,154, as he did) is to make 7,000 outs. Having the fortitude to hang in there amid all that failure is pretty special, too. "He has played a long time, he has been able to stay healthy and he has been a great face for baseball the past few years," Brett said. "I've never really met Derek Jeter. I look forward to the day I do."

No one can tell when that meeting will happen, but he is sure about where.