Posted by Sabrina B. @gametimegirl
Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter was voted the greatest New York athlete ever, with slugging right fielder Babe Ruth coming in a close second, according to a poll released Tuesday.
Jeter — a five-time World Series champion — earned 14 percent of the vote, while 11 percent tipped their hats to Ruth, according to the poll conducted by the Siena College Research Institute.
Yankees greats Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle, and former Jets quarterback Joe Namath rounded out the top five.
Jeter — 74 hits away from becoming the only player to get 3,000 all in a Yankees uniform — earned 17 percent of the female vote and 10 percent of the male vote.
Ruth, the Hall of Fame slugger who retired in 1935, topped Jeter among men with 14 percent.
DiMaggio, Mantle and Namath all earned four percent.
With the start of the 2011 baseball season two weeks away, the poll also found that 30 percent of New Yorkers said the Yankees are their favorite team.
The Mets and Knicks were named fans’ first choice by 11 percent.
“It doesn’t matter, upstate or downstate, young or old, rich or poor, crazed sports fan or uninterested, the Yankees are New York’s favorite team. About a third follow the Giants, Jets, Mets and Knicks, but a majority of every demographic count themselves among the Yankee faithful,” said Don Levy, director of the Siena College Institute.
As for the greatest athlete poll, 24 athletes — including former Knicks star Patrick Ewing and Brooklyn Dodgers legend Jackie Robinson — received mention from at least 1 percent of the New Yorkers who were polled.
The poll was conducted from Feb. 22 to March 1 by random telephone calls to 801 New York adults.
Read more here
– WRITTEN BY NEWSCORE
I am a Yankee fan, I love this team but how can everybody be so blind.The love of Derek Jeter has become bigger than the love for the Yankees and I can’t stand that. No one should be bigger than the team. Derek Jeter is the most overrated player in the history of sport. I will give just two stats, in the last four years he has struck out more than 380 times and hit into 85 double plays. The Yankees have tried to hide him in the line up. How can these Jeter lovers ignore his and other stats. As a die hard Yankee fan I need him to produce but in his walk year he only hit .270. Can these Jeter lovers wake up an get over how good they think he looks in the uniform and see that this guy is the most overrated overpaid player in sports history.