NEW YORK --- Derek Jeter walked to his locker, nearly two hours before game time, in his usual pregame attire of shorts and a T-shirt with cutout sleeves.
No longer the center of attention Saturday, he was back to business as usual, just the way he likes it. He didn't acknowledge the standing ovation when he came up to bat in the first inning or the second when he singled on the second pitch.
"Derek's a very humble guy, and he's not going to talk about it much," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said before the game.
A night earlier in the rain, Jeter broke the Yankees' 72-year-old hits record held by Lou Gehrig, with an opposite-field single to right in the third inning against Baltimore.
In a game that didn't end until 1:28 a.m., Jeter provided the most memorable moment at new Yankee Stadium. He became the sixth career hits leader for the team since the Highlanders completed their first season, following Willie Keeler (1903-11), Hal Chase (1911-22), Wally Pipp (1922-29), Babe Ruth (1929-37) and Gehrig (1937-09), according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
By the end of Saturday's 7-3 loss to Baltimore, Jeter increased his career total to 2,724, three more than Gehrig. It appears likely Jeter will reach 3,000 by 2011, when he turns 37. It's possible he could become the third member of the 4,000-hit club, following Pete Rose (4,256) and Ty Cobb (4,191).
He has joined Ruth, Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra among the top players in the Yankees' history.
"People were saying, were you happy to get it over with? But I don't want to say 'get it over with' because I don't think it's something that you just pass along," Jeter said. "I'm happy I was able to do it quickly. But I think 'get it over with' is kind of the wrong way to put it. Move beyond it maybe is a better way to put it. Because I'm sure if I didn't get any hits today then I would have heard that I was pressing and that would have all started again."
Gerald Williams, a Yankees teammate when Jeter first came up in 1995, was among those who stuck around until the end of the game to watch.
"You knew that he was special," pitcher Andy Pettitte said. "You knew that he carried himself a little bit different than a lot of other guys -- with a lot of class, a lot of charisma, a lot of confidence for as young as he was."
He's driven to win, but tries to deflect attention. Always has.
"We saw it in '92 in Greensboro early," catcher Jorge Posada said.
On Saturday, fans still cheered when Jeter and his No. 2 uniform appeared on the video board. Almost certainly the last player to wear a single-digit uniform number for the Yankees, Jeter said the mark was important to him because it was held by Gehrig, whose Hall of Fame career and life was cut short by Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in 1939.
"Being a former captain and what he stood for, when you mention his name to any baseball fan around the country it means a lot," Jeter said. "I think passing him makes it stand out that much more."
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