Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth
Since 1901 or so 300 wins and 3000 hits have been pretty steady milestone numbers. 500 HR got devalued a bit in the steroid era, but I am guessing that reverts to being pretty meaningful too. We have had since 1939 to judge the 19th century guys, and we have had since the 1950s to judge players like Joe Gordon who for the life of me I can't understand as a Hall of Famer with his .268 average and 1500 or so hits. Enough!!
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Peter, that's wrong.
For example, Sam Rice retired in 1934 with 2,987 hits. The reason? He didn't even know how many hits he had. 3,000 hits was not some special milestone at the time so there was no reason to play another season and shoot for it.
3,000 hits later became a special milestone, but that didn't happen until at least the late 1930's, maybe even the early '40's. Once people, particularly sports journalist types, started taking a harder look and those darned old statistics, the "milestones" began to become important. I suspect it is probably no coincidence that 3,000 hits as a milestone accomplishment occurred after the HOF opened and not before.