Thursday, April 30, 2020

How to reach a milestone

OK, so this post starts out talking about some simple MLB history, but I am going to try to tie it in to my collection, so hopefully it will be worth the wait.

Growing up, I loved baseball statistics and history, and one of the first things that caught my eye was the 3000 hit club.  At that point, it was a pretty exclusive club, with only 15 players ever to have accomplished the feat.  And one of my favorites, Rod Carew, was getting awfully close.

At that point, the only type of hits that had been a player's 3000th were singles and doubles.

Since that day in the early 80's, 17 more players have joined the club.  Out of those 17, Ichiro and Paul Molitor's 3000th were triples.  And Wade Boggs, Arod and Jeter knocked the ball out of the park for their big hit!  Here's the list:

Player
3,000th hit
Pete Rose
Single
Ty Cobb
Single
Hank Aaron
Single
Tris Speaker
Single
Carl Yastrzemski
Single
Eddie Collins
Single
Willie Mays
Single
Eddie Murray
Single
Albert Pujols
Single
Cal Ripken Jr.
Single
George Brett
Single
Paul Waner
Single
Robin Yount
Single
Tony Gwynn
Single
Dave Winfield
Single
Craig Biggio
Single
Rod Carew
Single
Lou Brock
Single
Cap Anson
Single
Stan Musial
Double
Honus Wagner
Double
Nap Lajoie
Double
Adrián Beltré
Double
Rickey Henderson
Double
Rafael Palmeiro
Double
Al Kaline
Double
Roberto Clemente
Double
Paul Molitor
Triple
Ichiro Suzuki
Triple
Derek Jeter
Home run
Alex Rodriguez
Home run
Wade Boggs
Home run

And here is a cool pic of all of the current members of the club




So I am also coming up on a big (for me) milestone in my collection.  Not quite 3000 hits, but I am pretty sure I will never get to 3000, so 1000 will have to do...

With recent additions from Jeremy over at Topps Cards That Never Were. I am up to 989 unique Mark McGwires.  1000 is in sight!!  And that got me wondering, what will the 1000th be?  Will it be a base card (single)?  Or a parallel or common insert (double)?  Or a serial numbered/refractor/rare insert (triple)?  Or could I be like Wade Boggs, and have the unlikeliest event, a relic or auto card (HOME RUN!)?

Another thought.  Craig Biggio got hit 3000th hit, a single to the outfield.  Must have been quite a rush, because he just kept on trucking and got thrown out at 2nd, going for a double.  Talk about your buzz kill!!  So in card terms would that be like getting a 1985 Topps Tiffany McGwire RC, but it has a huge crease in it and a mustache drawn on Mark's face????  Hilarious!!



Now of course, none of that really matters.  At all.  I'll be super glad with whatever card gets me to 1000!  And no matter how much the rest of the blogging community doesn't want to read any more posts about Mark 'Roid Boy' McGwire, you can bet I will be posting when it happens.

1000 McGwires is 1000 McGwires. And 3000 hits is 3000 hits.

3000 hits get's you into the Hall of Fame.  All 1000 McGwires gets me is 8th place on the McGwire's collections over at TCDB.com (for some reason, this link takes a while to load).  But to me, its pretty exciting!  Wish me luck!

And though I am not soliciting you to send me McGwires, I am always interested in trading for anything not already marked on my TCDB list.  Thanks for reading!

3 comments:

  1. I'd be more interested in reading a post about Mark McGwire than another one about blog darlings Jose Canseco or Tony Gwynn or Mike Trout. Go to it! I'll be reading.

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  2. I used to be a Mark fan, til I found out about his cheating but I am a fan of player collectors and numbers being one myself. Good luck on getting to 1,000 , that's a huge milestone!

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  3. 989 is very impressive. Can't wait to see #1000... more specifically... which card will be #1000. As for McGwire... I'm an A's fan, so I like him. I even rooted for him when he was chasing 62.

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