Yankees captain Derek Jeter, who has hit the ball better as of late, received a pep talk from legend Reggie Jackson a few weeks ago. Jeter had been crawling towards 3,000 hits this season, but he's notched three-straight multi-hit games to push his average up to .283. "A few weeks ago, I thought he needed to hear that," Jackson said of reminding Jeter how great he has been. "So I put that in his mind, which is a true thing, a fact about who he is." The shortstop is now just 38 hits shy of 3,000. "I think Jeter deserves it," Jackson said. "He's a special person the way he has handled himself on the field and, of course, off the field. I had a conversation with Derek the other day and I want to pay homage to him and tell him the respect I had for him. "Here you are, you are one of the greatest players in the game. For four or five years, you are the best player in the game and never did anything better than anyone else. He didn't have the best arm, the best average, the most power. For four or five years he was the best player in the game."