As of this point, 29 players in MLB history have reached the 3000 hit plateau, with Alex Rodriguez being the most recent entrant. It was on this day in 1897 when the 45 year old Cap Anson, playing for the Chicago Colts, became the first player to notch his 3000th base knock. At least, that was how it seemed at the time.
During the early days of baseball, Cap Anson was one of the biggest stars of the game. A popular player with both the fans and his teammates, Anson spent seventeen seasons as the captain/manager of the teams he played upon, and helped create such ideas as the modern idea of Spring Training, developing the hit and run strategy, and was also directly responsible for the White Sox being in Chicago. While his moral code and blatant racism may be reprehensible in modern times, Anson was an icon in the MLB during his heyday.
By this time in 1897, Anson was playing out the string. In the final season of his 27 year career, Anson managed to become the first player to reach the 3000 hit plateau in the Majors, connecting for a single against Baltimore Orioles pitcher George Blackburn. Or so it was thought until a couple of decades ago.
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As time went on, that mark would become embroiled in controversy. During the 1990’s, when it was realized that the 1887 season had counted walks as base hits, Anson would have had sixty hits removed from his total, dropping him down to 2995 for his career. That mark, however, does not include his 423 hits in the National Association, the precursor to the National League.
This leads to a bit of confusion when looking at Anson’s career totals. The MLB does not recognize the National Association as a legitimate major league, so their official tally has Anson sitting at 2995 hits for his career. Other sites, such as Baseball-Reference, recognize those hits, giving him a total of 3435 hits.
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Regardless of whether or not he is considered to have 3000 hits in his career, Cap Anson was one of the true stars in the early days of the MLB. On this day in 1897, based on the rules at the time, he also became the first player in MLB history to reach the 3000 hit plateau.