Who’s next to 3,000? It could be a while
On Monday, May 12,1958 Stan Musial went 1-for-4 (a double) as his team, the St. Louis Cardinals, defeated the Chicago Cubs in Wrigley Field. The only thing remarkable about that hit was it was number 2,999 in Musial’s remarkable career. He had reached the precipice of joining the highly exclusive 3,000hit club.
This would be a momentous achievement — the culmination of a lifetime of skill and durability. Only seven others had done what Musial was about to do and only one had done it in the past 33 years.
The Cardinals were scheduled to complete their two-game series in Chicago on Tuesday afternoon, then return home to face the San Francisco
Giants the next night. Manager
Fred Hutchinson agreed to bench his star on Tuesday, thus giving him an opportunity to reach the historic milestone in a home uniform.
Alas, the Cardinals fell behind and in the sixth inning Hutch needed a pinch hitter and he couldn’t resist the temptation to use Musial. Stan the Man delivered another double, driving in a run and propelling the Cardinals to a come-from-behind victory, but his success came at a price. St. Louis fans were deprived of the opportunity to witness the historic hit.
Nevertheless, more than 1,000 people made their way to Union Station in order to greet their hero even though it would be nearly midnight when the train carrying the ballclub reached the depot. Musial stepped off the train and thanked the well-wishers for their warm greeting.
“Now,” he added, “I have a message for all you kids here tonight.”
He paused momentarily, for effect, before continuing.
“Be in school tomorrow.” It would be 12 more years before another player — Henry Aaron — would be admitted to the exclusive 3,000-hit club. Before long, however, the club didn’t seem quite so exclusive. Willie Mays joined only a few weeks after Aaron did and Roberto Clemente entered the portfolio two years later. Before the decade ended four more players reached the milestone.
Let’s pause for a moment and let that sink in.
Recording 3,000 hits in a career was such a difficult task that only eight players were able
that only eight players were able to do it in the first 93 years of major league baseball. Then, in the next 10 years, seven more accomplished the feat.
The rush continued. After one more player joined the club in the 1980s, an additional seven qualified in the 90s. Since the millennium began 10 more have joined the list. The latest, Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers, two weeks ago became the 33rd player to be credited with 3,000 lifetime hits
Membership in the club is not so exclusive any more, is it?
Well, yes, perhaps it is. It appears that Cabrera will be the club’s junior member for years to come. There are no more active players poised to join in the near future and it isn’t clear that any active player will achieve that threshold. It’s possible that the 34th member will be somebody who has not yet begun his career. Some analysts are even speculating that because of the way modern baseball is played there will never be a 34th member.
Really? How can the level of achievement be so uneven?
Well, there are reasons.
In the early 1960s the standard season went from 154 to 162 games. Eight additional games per year may not seem like many, but that adds up. A player with a 20-year career gets the equivalent of another full season.
About the same time many of the historic old ballparks were replaced by new, more spacious, palaces with plenty of open spaces for base hits to land. Some of them were carpeted with a fast, synthetic turf. All this aided hitters, especially spray hitters.
The designated hitter was introduced in one league in the 1970s and managers could rest a player by giving him a “half day off,” or extend a veteran’s career by making him a full-time DH. No fewer than 13 members of the 3,000-hit club played at least 100 games as a DH. One of them, Paul Molitor, did it in over 1,000 games.
Free agency caused salaries to explode and players no longer needed to find employment in the offseason. Some were able to hire fitness professionals to assist in offseason work outs that probably extended their careers.
All of these factors clearly had an impact on the game and one of the results was the rapid rise in the number of 3,000-hit achievers.
Now there are new factors. Another generation of ballparks has arrived and most of them are smaller. Players are stronger and the game is much more power-oriented than it used to be. There are a few notable exceptions but most of the players on the 3,000-hit list were contact hitters who used the whole ballpark. That kind of hitter is almost extinct today.
Even though the list of 3,000-hit achievers has expanded from eight to 33 in about half a century, I think it’s still fair to call the club exclusive. Just look at the names of great hitters who never joined.
Babe Ruth didn’t get 3,000 hits. Neither did Ted Williams or Barry Bonds. There are multiple reasons why each fell short but they have this much in common — they all drew more than 2,000 walks in their career. They were selective hitters who didn’t like to chase balls out of the strike zone. The threat of their power was great enough cause pitchers to nibble at the strike zone and risk issuing a walk. Every walk is one less opportunity for a hit. In fact, only one player in history — Ricky Henderson — finished his career with 2,000 walks AND 3,000 hits.
Ruth, who fell short by 123 hits, broke into the majors at the age of 19 but he spent his first four seasons as a pitcher, so his career as a hitter effectively began at age 23, and that’s a bit late. Twentyfive of the 33 members of the 3,000-hit club were in the majors at the age of 21 or younger. Eight arrived while still in their teens. The one notable exception was Ichiro Suzuki, who was 27 before donning a big-league uniform for the first time.
Williams missed nearly the equivalent of five full seasons when he was twice called for military duty. If he had been able to play baseball during those absences he probably would have easily surpassed 3,000 hits and likely would have approached 700 home runs as well.
Another Hall of Famer, Sam Rice, missed the magic threshold by only 13 hits. World War I cost him almost the entire 1918 season — enough to have made the difference.
Military obligations certainly cut into many careers. Only three military veterans — Ty Cobb, Musial and Mays — ever reached 3,000 hits.
Ivan Rodriguez missed by only 156 hits, a phenomenal achievement for a catcher. Only two members of 3,000-hit club ever caught at the big-league level and one of them, Cap Anson, did it before catcher evolved into the demanding position it became. The other — Craig Biggio — was a catcher the first four years of his career before shifting to less strenuous duties. Catchers need to be rested more than other players and cannot approach hitting the way other players do. Rodriguez played 21 seasons and was primarily a catcher in all of them.
Rogers Hornsby won seven batting titles but still didn’t reach 3,000 hits. That’s likely because he played only 41 games in 1930 when he suffered from a combination of a knee injury, a skin rash and, according to the owner of his team, a bad attitude.
George Sisler missed the entire 1923 season (age 30) with a sinus infection and that probably kept him out of the club. Hornsby had 2930 lifetime hits. Sisler wound up with 2812. He had 194 hits the year before he sat out and 246 the year after.
Most players who reached 3,000 hits were remarkably durable during their careers and most of them played into their 40s. In fact, 11 of them were 40 or more when they collected the milestone hit.
There were others who could have reached 3,000 if they could have lasted that long but they didn’t. Wee Willie Keeler was 38 when his career ended with him 68 hits short of the mark. Frank Robinson was 40 when his career ended 57 hits shy of 3,000.
He had become the playermanager and kept himself on the bench for most of the final three seasons of his career.
Likewise, Frank Frisch had become a player-manager and kept himself on the bench most of his final seasons. He was 39 when he decided to become a full-time manager, still 120 hits short of qualifying for the club.
You get the picture? There’s a pretty impressive list of great hitters who didn’t manage 3,000 for their career. Perhaps it’s time to give an extra round of applause to the 33 people who actually did.
A FEW STATISTICS (Wednesday’s games not included): On Sunday Cardinals pitcher Ryan Helsley threw a pitch that was clocked at 103 mph, the fastest this year in the major leagues. However, it was not the fastest pitch thrown that week. That distinction went to University of Tennessee relief pitcher Ben Joyce, who fired a four-seamer measured at 105.5 mph…April isn’t supposed to be a good month for hitters but that didn’t stop Eric Hosmer of the Padres from batting .389…When Francisco Lindor of the Mets was hit by a pitch Tuesday he became the 22nd Met to be plunked this season. When he subsequently scored a run he did something none of the other 21 accomplished…The Yankees have swatted 34 homers. The major league average is 21…The Angels have outscored their opponents, 27-11, in the first inning of games…The Mariners have won 12 games with four of them being credited to starting pitcher Logan Gilbert whose record is 4-0 and whose ERA is 0.64…Sheldon Neuse of the Athletics is 6-for-9 with two out and runner(s) in scoring position. Those hits account for 10 of his 14 RBIs.