I'm not really surprised that Derek Jeter was a league leader last year. What I was a little taken aback by was that he has been a league leader so few times in his Hall of Fame career. But I guess if your strong categories are At Bats and Hits, its tough to be in the same league as Ichiro for the past 10+ years.
As you can see by the back of the card, this isn't the first time Jeter has been a league leader in hits but it has been a while. And it is the first time he led in At Bats, although a quick glance at his Baseball-Reference page shows he has been in the top 6 ten times in his career and is currently second for career At Bats among active players. The active leader is Omar Vizquel but without a team as of now, Jeter should surpass him this year. Teammate Alex Rodriguez is a pretty distant 889 At Bats behind in third place. Though Jeter is 35 At Bats behind Vizquel, he is 427 Hits ahead of him on the career Hits list, good for tops among active players and 11th All-Time.
Of all the Career Chase notes I've seen on the backs of Topps cards this year, Jeter breaking Pete Rose's all-time Hits record seems the most doable. He'll need to play another 5-6 at the same rate he's played the past 5-6 to do that though and who knows how his body will react as he gets closer to age 40.
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