Albert Pujols joins exclusive 500 HR/3,000 hits club
Los Angeles Angels first baseman Albert Pujols got his 3000th career hit and joined an exclusive 500 home runs/3,000 hits club.
With a soft line drive to right field off Mike Leake on Friday night in Seattle Albert Pujols notched the 3000th hit of his career, which puts him, in the exclusive 3,000 hits club. Not only is Albert Pujols just the 32nd player ever with 3000 hits, but he’s also just the sixth with 3000 hits and 500 home runs.
Albert Pujols just accomplished something that Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds and thousands of others were unable to do — imagine if he did so with the St. Louis Cardinals?
The other five members of the 500 HR/3,000 hits club are Hank Aaron, Alex Rodriguez, Willie Mays, Rafael Palmeiro and Eddie Murray. All of these players consistently banged out hits and home runs for many years, averaging nearly 3000 games played in their careers. Pujols has played just a few more than 2600 games.
Two players who came close to joining this exclusive 500 home run/ 3,000 hits club were Barry Bonds and Frank Robinson. As every baseball fan knows, Bonds had well over 500 career home runs. He’s the all-time leader with 762. He came up short in hits, though, with just 2935.
He missed out on the 3,000 hits club in part because he walked 2558 times in his career and in part because no MLB team wanted to sign him after he hit .276/.480/.565 and was worth 3.2 WAR in 2007 collusion .
Frank Robinson also had more than 500 career homers (586) but didn’t quite get to 3000 hits. Unlike Pete Rose, when Robinson was a player-manager in his final two seasons he didn’t write himself in the lineup in order to chase a milestone.
He was still an above-average hitter in 1975, at the age of 39, when he hit .237/.385/.508 in 149 plate appearances. Heading into the 1976 season, he needed 72 hits to reach 3000. That year, he only had 15 hits in 67 at-bats and finished with 2943.
It’s very rare for a player to amass enough hits and home runs to reach the historical milestones Pujols just reached. More than half of the 32 players with 3000 career hits had fewer than 300 career home runs.
This includes some all-time great players, like Ricky Henderson (297 career homers), Roberto Clemente (240), Ty Cobb (117), and Honus Wagner (101). As a group, with Pujols now included, the 32 members of the 3000 hits club hit .309/.380/.472 and averaged 189 hits per 162 games played, with 101 runs scored, 89 RBI, 18 homers and 20 steals per season.
The 27 members of the 500 HR club have a different look. This group averaged 167 hits per 162 games played, along with 104 runs scored, 112 RBI, 37 homers, and nine steals per season. All together, they’ve hit .292/.391/.548. Babe Ruth and Barry Bonds are in this group, along with Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, and Mike Schmidt.
The five players to amass 3000 hits and 500 home runs include Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Eddie Murray. Another member, Rafael Palmeiro, was on the ballot four times but fell below the five percent of the vote needed to remain on the ballot.
The most recent member, Alex Rodriguez, will be eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2020. It will be interesting to see how he does in the voting. Let’s take a closer look at the members of the exclusive 500 HR/3,000 hits club.