Ichiro and 2500 Hit Teammates

With Ichiro‘s arrival in the Bronx, he joins Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriquez as Yankees with 2500 or more career hits.

How unusal is that? I’ll take a look after the jump.

In fact, yesterday’s Mariners/Yankees tilt was the first major league game in almost 84 years featuring 3 players on the same team already over the 2500 hit plateau. It was also the first game in over 85 years with a starting lineup with 3 such players.

Manager Connie Mack started 3 future HOFers on August 30, 1928, as his As hosted the Red Sox. Those three were not the 2500-hit players, but young up-and-comers Al Simmons in left, Jimmie Foxx at 3rd base, and Mickey Cochrane behind the plate. Three other future HOFers (Ty Cobb, Eddie Collins and Tris Speaker) appeared as pinch-hitters, all unsuccessfully. This would be Speaker’s final game. Cobb followed him with his finale two weeks later, again making an out as a pinch-hitter. Collins would hang on for 2 more seasons, but he had already played his final game in the field. Incidentally, a seventh future HOFer also appeared in this game – Boston pitcher Red Ruffing pinch-hit in the 9th inning and delivered a double to plate the tying and winning runs.

The last time a starting lineup featured 3 players over 2500 hits was a year earlier, on July 13, 1927, with the White Sox hosting the As. The Athletics started 6 future HOFers, three 2500-hit players (Cobb, Collins and Zack Wheat) plus Simmons, Cochrane and starting pitcher Lefty Grove. The opposition also provided a 7th HOFer, their starting pitcher Ted Lyons.

Since 1928, a number of teams have had two 2500-hit players on their rosters but, until now, never three. I’ve found these ones (let me know of any I’ve missed).

There were also no teams with three 2500-hit teammates prior to the 1927 As. These are the only teams from the early days with two such teammates.

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Mike L
Mike L
12 years ago

Love the Rabbit Maranville Babe Ruth combo in 1935. Wonder what their Similarity Scores might be.

Ed
Ed
12 years ago
Reply to  Mike L

Great question Mike L! Assuming I did the calculation correctly, their similarity score is 10! That’s without taking into account the position adjustment which would push it to about -100.

Vinnie
Vinnie
12 years ago

The 28 A’s had Cobb, Speaker and Collins.

Vinnie
Vinnie
12 years ago

Check that. Jumped the gun.

birtelcom
Editor
12 years ago

How many teams will Ichiro end up playing for? Among about 150 guys who spent their first 11 seasons with one franchise and racked up at least 4,000 PAs over that time, Tim Raines, Dave Parker, Ivan Rodriguez and Willie Davis all played for six different franchises from their twelfth season on, and Eddie Murray, Dan Driessen, Jim Wynn, Vada Pinson, Lloyd Waner and Rogers Hornsby all played for five franchises from their twelfth year on. Of course, Ichiro is older than most guys in their 12th season in the majors.

cowbell
cowbell
12 years ago

Looks like the 1996 Giants were the closest to almost have three 2500ers. Vizquel finished that season with 2472 hits. On the 2008 Yanks with Jeter and Pudge, Arod was about 100 behind at just over 2400.

Jim Bouldin
12 years ago
Reply to  cowbell

??
1996, Giants, and Vizquel don’t go together.

RJ
RJ
12 years ago
Reply to  Jim Bouldin

I think he meant 2006.

BryanM
BryanM
12 years ago

2009 Braves Garret Anderson ,Chipper Jones?

BryanM
BryanM
12 years ago

check that – can’t subtract. No Jones

William Tasker
12 years ago

Excellent post. Was wondering about all this on Twitter the other day and here are all the answers.

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
12 years ago
Reply to  Doug

The Waners came close on the 1944 Dodgers. When Lloyd was released on 6/14 he had 2449 hits while Paul had in excess of 3000 at the time.

J.D. KaPow
J.D. KaPow
12 years ago

The 1983 Phillies came incredibly close, but Morgan didn’t reach 2500 until the next season.

leatherman
leatherman
12 years ago
Reply to  J.D. KaPow

And in 1984, Al Oliver and his 2500+ hits arrived in Philly, but Rose and Perez had already left.

Doug
Doug
12 years ago
Reply to  leatherman

Ironically, Rose had taken his 2500+ to Montreal, from whence Oliver had just departed.

Raoul
Raoul
12 years ago

Fascinating stuff. Next question – where will it happen next? If a big spender pushes second half season I suppose the Angels could add in a year or two to Pujols, but I suspect this is a unique one, thanks to the Yanks having 2 legends finishing together and having a World Series push worthy of adding another legend at bat. If Ichiro had been around since he was 23…