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Last night turned out to be a pretty busy night. Not only did one of the most anticipated NBA drafts in recent memory take place, but Frank Thomas hit his 500th career home run and Craig Biggio collected his 3,000th career base hit. That's quite a night full of highlights right there.
There weren't a whole lot of surprises in the draft last night. Oden went first, Durant went second, Kobe went nowhere. Teams stayed pretty conservative with their picks but some teams did pull the string on various trades (i.e. Ray Allen, Zach Randolph, etc.) The draftees haven't proven anything professionally as of yet so I'll talk about a couple fellows who have held their own against top level competition for many years below. The NBA isn't necessarily my forte so I'll leave the heavy lifting to Jack.
Big Frank Thomas became the 21st player to join the 500 home run club last night against the Blue Jays. To add some icing to the top, Frank was also ejected from the game in the ninth. Frank and his theatrics, you gotta love it. To me, it's actually somewhat surprising that it took Frank this long to get to 500 homers. In the mid 90's he was well on his way to 500, averaging just over 30 homers a year and then the injury bug hit him. Towards the end of the 90's and into the new millennium, Frank had quite a few injury problems that slowed his pace. If he was able to stay healthy and follow the 30 dingers a year clip he would have joined the club sometime in 2005. But 500 isn't what it used to be with Sammy and Griffey right around 600 and A-rod, Thome, Ramirez, and Sheffield all knocking on the door of 500.
Little Craig Biggio made a big splash last night also collecting his 3,000th hit while going 5 for 6 against the Rockies. Biggio is the 27th player to achieve this milestone and is also the 9th player to get every one of those hits with only one team. After the momentous occasion, Biggio dragged long time teammate Jeff Bagwell onto the field to share in the revelry. Unlike the 500 club, the 3,000 hit club is more exclusive among active players with only Barry Bonds within striking distance (104 hits shy) in the next season or two.
So are these two guys now locks to make the Hall of Fame after reaching these epic milestones? I would say that they both will be called upon by the Hall, but Rob Neyer isn't so sure. He's sure of Biggio(ESPN Insider)making it but not quite so sure that Thomas (ESPN Insider)will make it due to the fact that the 500 club has been somewhat overrun as of late. But seeing as none of us here at the Brigade get a vote, I suppose it's pointless to worry about.
You can contact Buck Rampage at buckrampage@gmail.com.
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Neyer has some interesting points...I never thought that voting into the Hall should be based on a position by position basis, and it seems that he is taken this route. I always thought that the Hall is the "best" players in the game, compared to the all the rest of the players in the game. That being said, I still feel that without question, a player with 3000 hits should be HOF bound. I mean, there are only 27 players in the history of the game to reach this milestone...that is astounding if you really think about it.
500 homeruns only has 21, that is even more amazing. I cannot see a player that has 500 homers not be inducted, it just doesn't make sense. They are without question one of the best players to play this game and have proven it 500 or more times over...
I think Big Frank is a lock. 500 homers will get him in. Wasn't he also MVP a couple times? Biggio I think will get in, maybe not on the first try though. Its really impressive that biggio has lasted this long through several position changes not to mention being drilled by the pitch more times then anyone. He'll get in, just a matter of time.
The positional analysis seems to be how Neyer rates all HOF inductees along with the majority of voters. There are some merits to voting this way because it makes a smaller sample to to compare to but then there are other places where it doesn't fit. For example, look how much the SS position has changed on the offensive side in the last 10-15 years. You can't compare any of today's great shortstops with old guys.
But then it's hard to compare on any level current players to past eras. It seems that every 10-20 years there are significant shifts in the game. I think Neyer might have been saying that in the 8-10 years when Thomas can be inducted that the 500 level will be less of an achievement. I mean by that time there should be over 30 guys on that list and it doesn't look like that the number of 500 guys is going to slow down.
I think Biggio is in for sure, and so should the Big Hurt. He was one of the top 5 players in MLB for nearly a decade.
I agree with you, I also think that you really can't compare current players to the older ones, there is just too much discrepancy in the game itself. I maybe wrong, but I believe that I have heard in recent years, the voters are generally comparing to the other players in their respective eras...?
Where is the "Mike Maroth is still GOD" article?