Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, two of the greatest players of all-time, never reached 3,000 hits

I know people are tripping over themselves in an effort to heap accolades on the New York Yankees Derek Jeter after his 3,000th hit. The worst part was the tendency for the media to constantly point out that he’s the only Yankee to ever attain 3,000 hits. Let me just point out one thing: 3,000 hits or not, Jeter isn’t in the same class as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, or Mickey Mantle.

After Jeter’s accomplishment, I checked out the list of career hit leaders. Here’s a list of the 28 men who reached 3,000 hits:

1. Pete Rose 4256
2. Ty Cobb 4189
3. Hank Aaron 3771
4. Stan Musial 3630
5. Tris Speaker 3514
6. Cap Anson 3435
7. Honus Wagner 3420
8. Carl Yastrzemski 3419
9. Paul Molitor 3319
10. Eddie Collins 3315
11. Willie Mays 3283
12. Eddie Murray 3255
13. Nap Lajoie 3242
14. Cal Ripken 3184
15. George Brett 3154
16. Paul Waner 3152
17. Robin Yount 3142
18. Tony Gwynn 3141
19. Dave Winfield 3110
20. Craig Biggio 3060
21. Rickey Henderson 3055
22. Rod Carew 3053
23. Lou Brock 3023
24. Rafael Palmeiro 3020
25. Wade Boggs 3010
26. Al Kaline 3007
27. Derek Jeter 3003
28. Roberto Clemente 3000

When you look at that list, are you surprised? There are some great players on that list, but there are some players that I wouldn’t consider among the greats. Excellent player, but not great players. In that list, I would include, George Brett, Robin Yount, Al Kaline, Craig Biggio, Tony Gwynn, Wade Boggs, Paul Molitor, and Derek Jeter. For many, 3,000 hits was the result of longevity mixed in with some strong years, not greatness.

If you think I’m wrong, then consider that Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrig, and Ted Williams are not on that list. Are the members of the 3,000 hit club somehow superior? I don’t think so, especially when you consider that some players missed substantial at-bats. For example, Babe Ruth was a pitcher who had limited at-bats early in his career, while Ted Williams missed a few years while serving our country as a fighter pilot.

Remember: Round numbers like 3,000 don’t always tell the whole story.

Amazing. Even Barack Obama’s pitches are far left!

Mark McGwire’s apology seems sincere, but to me, it’s meaningless. His cheating and drug use has made a mockery of the game in general, and its records and history in particular. Him and other suspected and confirmed steroid users such as Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Andy Pettite, Jose Canseco, Roger Clemens, Ken Caminiti, and Alex Rodriguez have devalued the game and its history. The beauty of baseball was the constant comparisons of teams and players from differing eras. With a generation of baseball sullied by cheaters and drug users, those comparisons are largely null and void.

The only easy thing is how I will explain this to my children one day. I will tell them about a man named Roger Maris who holds the single season home run record, and another man named Hank Aaron, who is the all-time career home run leader. He or she might point to the record books and tell me that I’m wrong, that other people broke their records, and I’ll have to explain what happened. I’ll need to explain how a group of greedy men cheated and dishonored baseball’s past, while Roger Maris and Hank Aaron used nothing but hard work and determination.

If you watched Mark McGwire testify before Congress, any doubts you might have had about potential steroid use were confirmed. He didn’t deny using illegal substances, and from what I’ve seen, didn’t refute the charges. So, what do you do with someone who cheated and made a mockery of baseball’s most sacred statistics? Give him a job, of course!

What I find most disgusting is that once you took the power numbers away, McGwire was a marginal hitter at best. In 16 seasons, he hit over .300 just three times and hit just .201 in 1991. He also has 300 more career strike outs than walks, which shows that he wasn’t the most selective of hitters. Also, keep in mind that these numbers would have been far worse if you take away a stretch in the late 1990′s where he was frequently walked intentionally. Of course, he was walked intentionally so often because of his power, which was the result of cheating.

You might say that Mark McGwire deserves to be a hitting coach based on his home run total (583), but this is a deceptive total. 193 of those home runs came between 1997 and 1999, when McGwire was at his (steroid) peak. Take away those three years, and Mark McGwire is nothing more than a glorified Dave Kingman. Of course, Dave Kingman didn’t need to cheat to hit over 400 home runs.

It’s ridiculous that Pete Rose was banned for life for betting on baseball games he had nothing to do with, yet Mark McGwire is welcomed back by Bud Selig. Mark McGwire compromised the integrity of every game he played in and the record books, and now he is being rewarded. What a great message to send to children.