Baseball... Then and Now: Gold Standards

News Item: June 16, 1989 – Sammy Sosa makes his major league debut for the Texas Rangers.

Some misguided souls may try to tell you that hitting 600 home runs has become a devalued feat. Don’t believe them! Do not, under any circumstances, let such naysayers in any way, shape or form take anything away from what Ken Griffey, Jr. accomplished recently. Because 600 home runs is still a very rare and special milestone. 

Maybe a case can be made that the 500 home run mark has been debased and defiled since destart of say, de90s. There are currently 24 individuals who have hit 500 or more home runs, and Gary Sheffield, with 483, is poised to join them, if not later this season, then in 2009. A-Rod, The Big Hurt and Gentleman Jim Thome all hit their 500^th last year. Manny was just being Manny when he hit his 500^th recently. That’s four out of 24 within a year. Is that debasement of the standard? Consider that 10 of the 24 had major league careers that ended after 1990. Is 42 percent since the start of the last decade debasement? Fans of just relatively long memory will recall when the 500 Club was very exclusive indeed… and every fan knew who they were… Ruth, Foxx, Williams and Ott. And that was it, at least until the second half of the 1960s, when they were joined by the Mick, Willie, Hammering Henry and Mr. Cub – none of whom need any further introduction. Still a pretty exclusive bunch. Now it seems as if every Eddie and Raffy have hit 500.

Nonetheless, you might get an argument on this one should you ask Fred McGriff, Lou Gehrig (theoretically, of course), Stan Musial, Willie Stargell (again, theoretically), Dave Winfield, Jose Canseco and Carl Yastrzemski what they think. Or, ask Sheffield should, by chance, his body give out on him before he gets to 500. All eight of these worthies were/are within 10 percent to 500 home runs, and only Sheffield has the opportunity to still make it. Think they all might like to have a few more swings to make it to 500? Maybe they might think it’s still a pretty exclusive group. After all, there have been an awful lot of power hitters who, for various reasons, never got as close as the eight previously mentioned, even if they did win the genetic lottery to have the ability to hit large number of baseballs traveling at a high rate of speed some 350 feet or 400 feet. Jeff Bagwell, Juan Gonzalez, Mike Piazza, Billy Williams, Duke Snider, Dale Murphy, Johnny Bench, Frank Howard, Jim Rice, Albert Belle, Orlando Cepeda, Tony Perez, Matt  Williams, Rocky Colavito, Gil Hodges, Ralph Kiner, Joe DiMaggio, Johnny Mize, Dick Allen, George Foster, Boog Powell, Darryl Strawberry, Hank Greenberg, et al.

You can argue both ways over the 500 home run standard. But, there’s no way you can argue over 600… a figure than has now been reached exactly six times in baseball history. Just in case you’ve been asleep…

Barry Bonds 762

Hank Aaron 755

Babe Ruth 714

Willie Mays 660

Sammy Sosa 609

Ken Griffey, Jr. 600

Now maybe there should be a couple of asterisks or codicils in there, but, either way, that’s it. And if you still think that having three of those six reach the mark since the turn of the century makes 600 less of an accomplishment, take a look at how it compares to some of the other career batting marks. In some areas you’ll find that there is an upper echelon of accomplishment wherein the leader boards have been seriously effected by individuals who have played into the 1990s or beyond. In others, the Gold Standard is still pretty much the Gold Standard.

The most obvious example of the former is 3000 hits. Long the career Gold Standard for hitters, a case can certainly be made that this plateau, like 500 home runs, has been somewhat eroded over the past few years. There are now 27 players who have 3000 or more hits, and 11 of them (Molitor, Murray, Ripken, Brett, Yount, Gwynn, Winfield, Biggio, Henderson, Palmeiro and Boggs) made it there since 1990. Similarly, 5000 total bases isn’t nearly as rare as it used to be. With Griffey poised to become the 18^th player to reach this mark (he has 4975 at the moment), no less than six others (Bonds, Murray, Palmeiro, Winfield, Ripken, Brett) have made it that far since 1990. If you prefer RBIs, you’ll find that 1800 used to be a significant number, but that Bonds, Murray, Winfield and Palmeiro have all reached that standard, and Griffey stands at 1730. There are now 17 in that group as well. The same thing has happened with doubles – 600 used to be pretty rare, but now there are 14 who have topped that mark, the most recent being Biggio, Brett, Molitor, Ripken and Bonds.

So you can postulate that hits, total bases, RBIs and doubles are all hitting stats that have been somewhat devalued in recent years. However, there are other career hitting marks that are just about as rare as a 600^th tater. They are…

1700 Walks – 8 players

2000 Runs – 7

2400 Singles – 7

1300 Extra Base Hits – 5

Although Bonds and Henderson have invaded some of these lists in recent years, these are still rare accomplishments. You can also push up the standards for some of the marks that have become more common to thus obtain rarer lists…

3500 Hits – 5 players

2000 RBIs – 3

700 Doubles – 4

The truth is, just how good a standard is sort of depends on where you draw the line. Three thousand hits isn’t that big a deal anymore, just like 500 home runs is getting sort of common. But, if you change the focus to 3500 hits and 600 home runs, that’s a different story. It would seem fairly safe to say that any career statistical standard that has been reached 10 times or less in the almost 140 years of major league baseball is pretty damn special. And while these Gold Standards may well be forced to change upwards (or not change – the only player above 175 triples who played since World War 2 is Stan Musial) over time, for now we can and should celebrate Junior’s accomplishment as being truly historic, one worthy of “The Natural.”

---