More on the 4000 On Base Club

Last week, the Fan's esteemed colleague and good friend, Jonathan Mitchell, had a fantastic post on MLBDirt.com concerning the 4,000 on base club. A well written piece is one that makes you think of something you never thought about before. 3,000 hits has always been such a lofty standard that it far eclipses thinking about anything else. And once you do think about Mitchell's stat, the 4,000 on base club seems more important than the 3,000 hit club. And don't worry, Derek Jeter is already there. Since 1901, there have been 24 players reach 3,000 hits (27 if you go back further). But 41 have reached the 4,000 on base club, which, for this Fan's purposes includes hits plus walks plus HBP. The total does not include reaching on an error or on a fielder's choice. Here is the list (from baseball-reference.com):

  Player H BB HBP Times on base
  Pete Rose 4256 1566 107 5929               Barry Bonds 2935 2558 106 5599
  Ty Cobb 4189 1249 94 5532                   Rickey Henderson 3055 2190 98 5343
  Carl Yastrzemski 3419 1845 40 5304      Stan Musial 3630 1599 53 5282
  Hank Aaron 3771 1402 32 5205             Tris Speaker 3514 1381 103 4998
  Babe Ruth 2873 2062 43 4978                Eddie Collins 3315 1499 77 4891
  Willie Mays 3283 1464 44 4791              Ted Williams 2654 2021 39 4714
  Mel Ott 2876 1708 64 4648                    Eddie Murray 3255 1333 18 4606
  Frank Robinson 2943 1420 198 4561      Craig Biggio 3060 1160 285 4505
  Rafael Palmeiro 3020 1353 87 4460         Paul Molitor 3319 1094 47 4460
  Wade Boggs 3010 1412 23 4445             Joe Morgan 2517 1865 40 4422
  Cal Ripken 3184 1129 66 4379                Dave Winfield 3110 1216 25 4351
  Al Kaline 3007 1277 55 4339                  Gary Sheffield 2689 1475 135 4299
  George Brett 3154 1096 33 4283            Paul Waner 3152 1091 38 4281
  Lou Gehrig 2721 1508 45 4274               Frank Thomas 2468 1667 87 4222
  Ken Griffey 2781 1312 81 4174               Mickey Mantle 2415 1733 13 4161
  Robin Yount 3142 966 48 4156               Jimmie Foxx 2646 1452 13 4111
  Derek Jeter 2984 968 155 4107               Rod Carew 3053 1018 25 4096
  Charlie Gehringer 2839 1186 50 4075      Luke Appling 2749 1302 11 4062
  Reggie Jackson 2584 1375 96 4055         Rusty Staub 2716 1255 79 4050
  Alex Rodriguez 2728 1139 154 4021       Rogers Hornsby 2930 1038 48 4016
  Manny Ramirez 2574 1329 109 4012

As you can see, there are twenty players on the list who haven't reached 3,000 hits. Derek Jeter is one of them, but he'll get there. Once you see this list, you appreciate the numbers that Pete Rose piled up even more. Gosh, he should be in the Hall of Fame. The name that seemed to jump out the most among non-Hall of Fame players was Rusty Staub. He's not in the Hall of Fame simply because he stopped compiling numbers at the age of 34.

There are three notable exceptions to this list. Three players reached 3,000 hits without reaching 4,000 times on base. They were, Tony Gwynn (3,955), Lou Brock (3,833) and Roberto Clemente (3,656). All of the other members of the 3,000 hit club are on the 4,000 on base club. If you went back to 1876 instead of 1901, Cap Anson and Nap Lajoie also had over 3,000 hits without reaching 4,000 times on base.

Mickey Mantle had the fewest amount a hits to still make it on the list with 2,415. Robin Yount had the fewest number of walks to still make the list. Surprisingly, Mickey Mantle and Jimmy Foxx were only hit by a pitch thirteen times in their careers. Luke Appling was only hit by a pitch eleven times. Amazingly, Craig Biggio was hit by a pitch 285 times!

Alex Rodriguez has already joined the 4,000 on base club as Mitchell mentioned in his piece. He'll most likely reach 3,000 hits too if he stays healthy.

You could make this list even more exclusive if you were to call it the 5,000 on base club. There were only seven of those: Pete Rose, Barry Bonds, Ty Cobb, Henry Aaron, Carl Yastrzemski, Stan Musuel and Rickey Henderson. You can add Honus Wagner if you go back before 1901. These were truly the all time on base kings.

Why is this important? It's not the end all and be all in ranking players' all time worth or Hall of Fame worthiness. But getting on base is certainly one of the most important aspects of playing the game of baseball and these 41 (42 when adding Honus Wagner) guys did it better than anyone in baseball history.