I've never understood why it is such a big deal for a baseball player to have to have 3,000 hits opposed to just having 2,999 and how baseball media members seem to think that if they don't get that last hit, it will make that player's career that much less remarkable. It's as if that last hit will somehow immortalize that player and change history, but the real truth is that if a player goes from 2,999 hits to 3,000 hits it will only move them to a tie for 27th all-time with Roberto Clemente.
Let's look at a better example. Fred McGriff, aka The Crimedog, had a great career and hit 493 career home runs. However, because he didn't hit the 500 Home Run Milestone, he is currently not getting enough votes to make the Hall of Fame. Let's say that he did hit 500 homers, do you know how many spots he would jump up on the All-Time Home Run List? Zero. He is currently tied with Lou Gehrig, so if McGriff hit one more homer, nothing would change other than that he would no longer be tied for 26th for career homers, he would just be 26th by himself. So, tell why it matters whether he hit 500 or not. It's stupid that he might not make the Hall of Fame because of 7 home runs. Oh, and he his career just so happened to occur during the Steroid Era and considering he looked like a string bean, you know he wasn't juicing which makes his career home run total even more impressive. (Side note - I did not know that home run was actually two words until today, I always just assumed it was one word even though I've seen it spelled a thousand times.)
Another good example is the career of Dale Murphy. The Murph played for the Atlanta Braves from 1976 to 1990 and made 7 All-Star Games, won 5 Gold Gloves, 4 Silver Sluggers, and 2 MVP Awards. But because he only hit 398 home runs in his career, he is not in the Hall of Fame. Dale played for the Braves for 15 seasons and during that stretch, they won one division title, finished second once, but were last in their division eight times and second to last another three times, which is well over half of the seasons he was in Atlanta. Think about that, the two seasons his team finished in the top 2 in the division, he won an MVP Award, but since his team was awful the rest of his career, he probably didn't have any other players around him to help boast his stats. And because he couldn't boast his stats, he didn't hit 400 homers and the Hall of Fame committee is holding that against him. If anything, they should praise him for sticking with such a shitty team and put him in because he was an incredible player and considered one of the nicest guys in baseball (unlike that steroid-infused prick, Barry Bonds).
What I really want to know is what is the Hall of Fame going to do when none of the current pitchers hit the 300 Win Club. That is the pinnacle of a Major League pitcher and as of right now, not a single current player has over 200 wins. Roy Halladay has 198 wins, but he doesn't have that many seasons left in him, so he's not getting to 300. CC Sabathia has 189 wins in 11 seasons and if he stays with the Yankees, he might have a shot at 300 wins, but then again, he is a 6'7, 300 pound monster who can't possibly last until he makes the 300 Win Club. Are the Hall of Fame voters going to lower their expectations in the near future? Otherwise, we won't see many pitchers making the Hall anytime soon.
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| "This is not photo shopped, it is a real fire that happened in the Braves clubhouse on the same day that the Braves acquired Fred McGriff and these two players took the opportunity to snap one of my favorite sports photos ever." |
