The 3,000-Hit Club

Jason Michael Barker

With Tony Gwynn and Wade Boggs each nearing the magical 3K-hit mark, what better time to take an inside look at one of baseball's most exclusive clubs? Entering this season there were 21 members of the club, from Pete Rose and Ty Cobb all the way down to Al Kaline and Roberto Clemente.

The Youngest: Ty Cobb
When the Georgia Peach collected his 3,000th hit on August 19, 1921, he was just 34 years, eight months, and one day old. His closest competition is Hank Aaron, who was nearly a year and a half older than Cobb when he got hit number 3,000. Cobb went on to play seven more seasons, mostly with Detroit, and finished his career with 4,189 hits, a record until Pete Rose came along years later.

The Oldest (and First): Cap Anson
Not only was Anson the oldest player to reach 3K hits, he was also the first achieve the milestone. Primarily a first baseman during his career, he recorded his 3,000th hit on July 18, 1897, at the age of 46 years, two months, and seven days. That season, his 27th and final in professional baseball, Anson also became the oldest man to homer in a big-league game when he hit two on the final day of the season. Perhaps most interesting about his career is that he walked over three times as often as he struck out (952 BB vs. 294 K).

The Last: Paul Molitor
Molitor became the most recent player to join the 3K-hit club, when he got his hit on September 16, 1996. He ended his career with 3,319 hits, eighth most all-time.

The Most: Pete Rose
Rose, who played from 1963 to 1983, finished his playing days with 4,256 hits, 67 more than Cobb.

The Least: Roberto Clemente
Baseball's great humanitarian ended the 1972 season with exactly 3,000 hits, and tragically never played in another game. Clemente was killed in a plane crash during the off-season, on his way to deliver food and supplies to his native Puerto Rico.

3K and the Hall of Fame
With four exceptions, all the members of the 3K-hit club are in the Hall of Fame. The four are all-time hit king Pete Rose, who cannot be elected because he's on baseball's ineligible list, the aforementioned Molitor, who has not been retired long enough to be eligible, Eddie Murray (also not yet eligible) and Dave Winfield, who will be eligible next season. Winfield, Murray and Molitor are good bets to be elected in their first year eligible, while it appears Rose may never get a shot.

Age
Not surprisingly, those players who reach 3K hits are pretty old when they finally do. The average age of the 21 members of the 3K-hit club when they reached the mark is 39 years, one month, and five days -- six players were 39 when they reached 3K, five more were 40.

Two in One Year
In over 100 years of baseball history, there are just 21 players with 3K or more hits. It is a bit surprising, then, to find that on four separate occasions two players got their 3,000th hit in the same season. The first time was in 1925, when Tris Speaker reached 3K on May 17, followed by Eddie Collins on June 6. Some 45 years later, two of the greatest players of all-time joined the club in the 1970 season, Hank Aaron on May 17 and Willie Mays on July 18.

Just nine seasons later in 1979, Carl Yastrzemski and Lou Brock both recorded hit number 3,000 -- Brock on August 13, Yaz on September 12. Two of this year's Hall of Fame Class, George Brett and Robin Yount, duplicated the feat in 1992, Yount on September 9 and Brett exactly three weeks later on September 30.

History should repeat itself this season when Gwynn and Boggs each reach 3K, marking the fifth time two players have achieved the mark in the same season. If Baltimore's Cal Ripken Jr., currently on the 15-day disabled list, can get the 32 hits he needs for 3K it would mark the first time in baseball history that three players have reached 3K in the same season.

By Decades
The majority of 3000-hit club members have joined up in two decades -- the 1970s and the 1990s. The '70s, in addition to disco, were home to seven 3K-hit men: Rose, Aaron, Yastrzemski , Mays, Brock, Kaline and Clemente. The '90s have seen five in Molitor, Brett, Yount, Winfield and Eddie Murray, and we should be able to add Gwynn, Boggs, and Ripken to that list soon enough to bring the total to eight.

Finally, here's a look at the 21 members of the 3000-hit club:

Player	Career Hits	Player	Career Hits
Pete Rose	4,256	Nap Lajoie	3,252
Ty Cobb	4,191	George Brett	3,154
Hank Aaron	3,771	Paul Waner	3,152
Stan Musial	3,630	Robin Yount	3,142
Tris Speaker	3,515	Dave Winfield	3,110
Honus Wagner	3,430	Cap Anson	3,081
Carl Yastrzemski	3,419	Rod Carew	3,053
Paul Molitor	3,309	Lou Brock	3,023
Eddie Collins	3,319	Al Kaline	3,007
Willie Mays	3,283	Roberto Clemente	3,000
Eddie Murray	3,255

about the author

Jason Michael Barker reminds you that quibbling over the fact that 3K hits should technically be 3,072 hits is going to get you just as far as your dogged determination to celebrate the millennium on 12/31/2000. He'll accept your party invitations anyway.