3,000 hit club badasses

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Membership in the 3,000 hit club has reached 28 players. Still prestigious, still elite. Entry into the club may not be baseball's ultimate inner circle of hitting, because, for one reason or another, Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Barry Bonds, Rogers Hornsby, and some other legends are not in there, but it is exclusive to A-list hitters. Longevity is a big reason. Williams and Bonds both probably walked too much, over 2,000 times each. There are a bunch of hits in those walk totals, if only they weren't so disciplined. Bonds walked over 2,500 times, which is more than a thousand more times than he struck out. He came up 65 hits short of membership.

But there are sluggers in the club. Less than half of the 28, though, hit 300 career home runs. Ten players in baseball history can boast 3,000 hits and 300 home runs:

Hank Aaron
Stan Musial
Carl Yastrzemski                                          
Willie Mays                                            
Eddie Murray
Cal Ripken
George Brett                                                        
Dave Winfield
Rafael Palmeiro
Al Kaline


Four of those players also finished their careers with batting averages over .300:

Stan Musial    .331
Hank Aaron   .305                                          
George Brett  .305
Willie Mays    .302


Only three of those players put up a career OPS of .900 or better:

Stan Musial   .976
Willie Mays   .944                                  
Hank Aaron  .928

Is Stan Musial the most underappreciated badass of all time?


I have to also point out that two players in the 3,000 hit club posted career OPS of over .900, but without even 300 career home runs:

Ty Cobb        .936  (.424/.513)
Tris Speaker  .917 (.417/.500)