Among the many traits that combined to make Derek Jeter one of the most admired and adored baseball players of his generation, there was talent, drive and focus — and a good dose of stubbornness, too.

Opposing pitchers felt it, even when they had great stuff. If they found a way to beat him on a Friday, Jeter figured out a way to respond by Saturday. Backups of his with high aspirations saw it, too. For virtually all of his 20-year career, Jeter clung stubbornly to that shortstop position, molding it into one of the highest-profile jobs in sports, like quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys or striker for Barcelona.

Even when a superstar like Alex Rodriguez, the best shortstop in baseball, joined the team in 2004, he would be the one to move to third base. Jeter was staying put, because he was stubborn enough to believe that he was the best person to be at shortstop for the Yankees, a dirt kingdom he stamped as his own and guarded tenaciously.

That refusal to acquiesce helped make Jeter a five-time World Series champion, and on Tuesday it helped him become a first-ballot Hall of Famer, receiving the second-highest percentage of votes ever for a player, with 99.7. Only relief pitcher Mariano Rivera, Jeter’s teammate, exceeded that, receiving 100 percent of the votes from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America last year.