Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Updating the 3,000 Hit Club

Episode Date: May 20, 2020

Back out on the road, D.C. Lundberg continues to update the 3,000 hit club player-by-player, taking each member of the club who played through either the 1981 strike, the 1994/95 strike, or both, and projecting out their season and career hit totals as if the strikes never happened. The city in which he recorded this episode has the smallest population of any city in which he's recorded so far. Tim Wallach has more career home runs that this city has inhabitants. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Here's your host, D.C. Lundberg. You bet. Thanks, J.M. This is Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network brought to you by Belt Bar. I am D.C. Lundberg, the Lockdown Network's king of the road, continuing our party in the panhandle. Coming at you today on location from a town whose population is 257, war-loyal. Idaho, yes, warly Idaho, ladies and gentlemen, down the road apiece from Cortal Lane, south on Highway 95. Please remember to download, rate, and subscribe to Locked-on Mariners on Google

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Today, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to continue updating the 3,000 hit club to see what it may have looked like if the 1981 and 1994 players' strikes had never happened. It was a project that I accidentally started last week, and I didn't think that I would be getting into it that much, at least not on the show. But I've been curious for a while what player stats may have looked like if the 94 strike hadn't erased part of the season, and the beginning of 1990. But in any case, let's get back to it. Going to start today with a player who's probably not going to gain very many hits

and a player who was later busted for performance-enhancing drug use. And that player is Alex Rodriguez, who ended his tainted career with 3,115 hits. His service time is interesting here. He had been called up in early July 1994 and started 17 games in a row at shortstop, with Felix Fermin moving to second base during that time frame. The Mariners were having problems at second base that season.

Rich Amarol was hitting, but his defense was very bad, and he lost his starting job to Luis Soho, who wasn't hitting as well with marginal defense of his own. So the Mariners called up an 18-year-old Alex Rodriguez to play short. Fermin moved from short to second, and the experiment did not last very long. Alex was sent back down before the strike was called. He hit 204 in his 17 games, all of them starts,

and was sent back down at the end of July. I have a hard time imagining that he would not have been called back up in September, though. The M's had 50 games remaining when the strike was called, and 29 games scheduled after the rosters could be expanded on September 1st. With the M's out of it, he may have been put in there to start the majority of the games. I don't know. Maybe he wouldn't have. I imagine he probably would have started most of them, though. So I'll arbitrarily say he starts 24 games and gets five days off,

which would be a little bit more than a day off per week. And I'm not sure his numbers prior to getting sent down would be representative of what he may have done after being called back up. So I'm going to project this one differently. I'll take his final 12 games of the 1994 season and his first 12 games of the 1995 season add those together to mimic the missing games at the end of 1994.

During these 24 games, he adds 68 at bats and 18 hits. in 1995, Alex began the year with Tacoma, but he was called up rather quickly and appeared in the M's 10th game of the season. However, he wound up being sent back down and recalled a few different times, so he wouldn't have gained very many more games at the beginning of the season, if any. For the sake of argument, I'll give him a half dozen more games, which would be one-third of the 18 games erased from the 1995 schedule. I'll use his first six games from 1995 to do this,

and he gains 18 more at bats and five hits, bringing his overall gain to 222 hits in 86 at bats. And his career hit total goes to 3138. His batting average remains at 295, and he gains no home runs. But again, he served a couple of PED suspensions, so take these numbers with a grain of salt. Speaking of taking numbers with a grain of salt,

I'll get the other PED All-Star out of the way before getting on with the rest of the list, and of course I speak of Raphael Palmero, Who wound up with 3,020 hits. Who knows how many of them tainted. He was suspended for PEDUs mere weeks after joining the 3,000 hit club. I was at the game in which he got his 3,000th hit off Joel Pinero at Safeco Field. Still have the ticket stub as a matter of fact.

I can't tell you how disappointed I was to learn that it was assisted. Anyways, Palmero was in his first season with the Baltimore Orioles in 1994, who completed 112 of the originally scheduled, 162 games, leaving 50 to go by the wayside. Palmyro missed only one game, so for the sake of using even numbers to make these projections, I'll say he plays all 50 of his team's remaining games. I'll project his make-believe end of the season, the same two ways I've been doing it all along. First, by simply taking the final 50 games and duplicating them, then taking the final 25 games

and duplicating them twice to get 50. In his final 50 games of the 1994 season, Palmero accumulated 56 hits in 200,000. at bats. In his final 25 games, he got 28 hits and 104 at bats. Doubled, it's the same number of hits, but slightly fewer at bats. Since the hit total is tied, I'll see how many home runs were hit during these sample sizes. Palmyro hit seven home runs in his final 25 games, but 10 in his final 50. So we'll take the smaller sample size, since that would add 14 home runs to his career totals. Moving on to 1995, Palmyro again missed only one game, and it was almost at the exact same point of the season as he missed the year before, early June. So he very likely plays all of the missing

18 games at the beginning of the season. He gains 70 at bats, 22 hits, and six more home runs. His career hit total is now 3,098, and his home run total is 589. But once again, his career ended on a very sour note after being busted for PED. use. Remember how he defiantly pointed his finger at Congress and bark that he had never used steroids? Pretty comical now that you think about it. He was a pretty good liar. He ought to be in politics himself. One more quick one before we go to break, and it's going to be someone I had completely forgotten played through the 1981 strike, and that would be the venerable Carl Yistremski. He didn't have the best season at age 41, but he did pretty well the following two years

before retiring after the 1983 season. Anyways, his Red Sox played 108 games in 1981, leaving 54 unplayed. Yaz was getting regular days off here and there, and he played 91 games, or about 84% of his team's total. If he plays 84% of the missing 54 games, he would have played 45 more games. So I'll take his 22 games prior to the strike and the 23 games after the strike, and call those the 45 games, he would have played 45 more games. have played if the season hadn't been interrupted. In those 22 games leading up to the strike, he was hitting at a 289 pace, significantly higher than his overall season batting average of 246, but pretty

close to his career average of 285. He went to bat 76 times and collected 22 hits. In his final 23 games following the strike, he was hitting even better at a 313 clip, 25 hits in 80 at bats, so overall he gains 47 hits and 156 at bats plus five more home. home runs. His career hit total is now 3,00466, and his home run total is 457. I'll update the all-time hit list at the end of the show, and we'll go now to the Mariners trivia question. Again, it has nothing to do with the 3,000 hit club or either strike. But since I talked about Felix Fermin more than I had planned, the question will be about him. He was not known to walk or strike out and was a fairly adept fielder. Which did he have the fewest of in his two seasons in

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fielding errors as a mariner. 16 errors, 17 walks, and 28 strikeouts. More locked-on mariners from Worley, Idaho, after the following. This podcast is sponsored by the audiobook edition of 24 life stories and lessons from the Say Hey Kid. In this reflective and inspirational memoir, the legendary Willie Mays shares the inspirations and influences responsible for guiding him on and off the field. Widely regarded as the greatest all-around player in baseball history, the beloved Willie Mays offers people of all ages, his lifetime of experience, meeting challenges with podcast. positivity, integrity, and triumph.

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Continuing to update the 3,000 hit list, as if the 1994 and 1981 player strikes never happened. Let's get back to it right at this exact moment. We have a handful of players left, and I was going to kick off the second half with the all-time hit king. But I'm going to save him for last, so we'll round out the list tomorrow with him. At this time, we're going to go to one of the absolute all-time greats. And I say that as if, None of the players were talking about were all-time greats. Well, maybe not Raphael Palmero since he got some help. But anyways, we're going to talk about Ricky Henderson and see what he may have done had the 1981 and 1994 strikes never happened.

And he played through both of them. As a matter of fact, he led the American League in hits in 1981. Incidentally, Pete Rose led the National League in hits with 140. Back to Henderson, though, who also led the A.L. And runs scored and stolen bases in 1981, not to mention caught stealing. Of the A's 109 games in 1981, Henderson played in 108 of them. Just for laughs, I'll say he gets one more day off during the missing games in the middle of the season, giving him 52 more games.

In his 26 games prior to the strike, he was hitting at a 358 clip, almost 40 points ahead of his season-ending batting average of 319. He went to bat 95 times and collected 34 hits. In his 26 games after the season resumed, he hit at the exact same 358 clip. Amazing. Here he gets another 109 at bats and 39 hits for an overall gain of 204 at bats and 73 hits. He also gains two home runs, both hit in the second set of 26 games. Now for the second strike, beginning with 1994. After spending time with the Yankees, coming back to the A's, and spending a partial season in Toronto, Ricky was back in Oakland in 1994. Of the last,

Of the A's 114 completed games, Ricky appeared in 87 of them, but it looks like he may have spent a stint on the 15-day disabled list, so I won't count that against him. Adding the games missed, Ricky may have played in about 88 and a half percent of the unplayed 48 games, so we'll give him 42 more. Same as everyone else at the end of 1994. I'll project his season end two ways and use the more favorable projection. First, his final 42 games of the season earned him 36 hits in 140 at bats, which is pretty much the exact same pace he had the whole season. In his final 21 games, he got 16 hits and 68 at bats, which doubled would only be 32 hits, so we will use the first projection. In 1995, it looks like he spent another stint injured, but he was also getting more frequent days off. Excluding the injury time, he played about 81% of the A's games, so we'll give him 14 more.

games during the missing 18 at the beginning of the season. During that time, he got 14 hits and 50 at bats. Overall, he gains 394 at bats, 123 hits, and one point on his career batting average. He goes from 3,055 hits to 3,178, and his batting average goes to 280. He also gains seven home runs, making him a member of the 300 Club. His total goes from 297 to 304. His stolen base total goes from 1,406 to 1,049, and he now has scored 2,380 runs, as opposed to the 2,295 he has in real life. We will examine two more players before we wrap up for the day, and it'll be two players who played through the 1881 strike only. These two men were both rookies in 1974, both played for only one team, and both retired following the 1993 season. For these reasons, there's a link between these two.

in a lot of people's minds. I speak, of course, of Robin Yount and George Brett. We will begin with the Milwaukee shortstop and center fielder. He missed 11 games in a row in mid-May in 81, but only two others all season, and he played in every game after the season resumed after the strike. His Milwaukee Brewers played 109 games with 53 erased by the strike. I have no problem saying Yount would have played all 53 games, but for the sake of argument, let's say he gets one more day off just prior to the All-Star break or something, and plays

52. In the 26 games leading up to the strike, Yunt collected 31 hits in 102 at bats for a 304 average, better than the 273 average he ended the season with. In addition, his average went from 194 to 259 during that stretch. In the 26 games following the strike, he cooled off somewhat and had a 250 average during those games, 24 hits and 96 at bats. So overall, he gains 198 at bats and 55 hits. His career batting average stays right where it is at 285, and his hit total goes from 3,142 to 3,097. Next is the part owner of the Spokane Indians, and the man who got into a sticky situation in Yankee Stadium in 1983, the one, the only, George Brett. After hitting 390 in 1980, he hit 314 in 1981, and he played 89 of the 103 games the Royals played that, season. It looks like he spent about a week sitting out so I won't count that string of

games against him while calculating how many of the Royals missing 59 games will give him credit for. It comes to about 93% of the games played, which would be about 55 more games. In Brett's 27 games leading up to the strike, he was on a tear, 36 hits and 102 at bats for a 353 average during that stretch. In the 28 games following the strike, he was in something of a slump, only hitting in a 252 clip, 28 hits, and 111 at bats. Overall, a gain of 213 at bats and 64 hits. His 305 career batting average also remains the same, and his hit total goes from 3154 to 3,21818. Recapping the all-time hit list before we get out of here for today, Pete Rose's total is

going to change tomorrow, but he's still on top. Ty Cub number 2, 4189, Hank Aaron, number 3, stand usual 4, 3630, Tris Speaker, at number 5, 3514. And it's at this time, ladies and gentlemen, that I'm realizing that radio is a terrible medium for this. In any case, Carl Yostremski has jumped up to the number six spot with 3466, surpassing Derek Jeter's hit total of 3465 by only one. Following Jeter as Cap Anton at 3435.

Paul Molitor's updated total of 3423 is number nine, followed by Honus Wagner, and Eddie Murray at 3,400 exactly. Eddie Murray was number 11 with his updated total and he's followed by Eddie Collins, Willie Mays, Nap Lejoy and Tony Gwyn at number 15 with 3239. He's followed by George Brett's updated total of 3218 and he himself is followed by Albert Pujols, who currently has 3202, but he's still in active players and he could jump up many spots on this list. Pujols was followed by Robin Yount at number 18 and is updated 3197.

Yount is followed by Cal Ripkin Jr., whose 3184 will change tomorrow. Dave Winfield follows Ripkin with 3180, and he's followed by Ricky Henderson with an updated total of 3178. Adrian Beltrae has 3166, and he follows Henderson at the number 22 position, and he's followed by Paul Wainer, who predated these strikes by many, many years, and he has 3152. Wainers followed by Craig Beggio at 3141, which is the same total Tony Gwynhad, before we updated his list. Bizio is followed by Alex Rodriguez at the number 25 position with 3138. Rod Kruh has 31220 and he follows Alex Rodriguez.

Raphael Palmero follows Kro with the number 27th spot with 3,09. Wade Boggs has 3,09, and he's followed by Ichiro Suzuki, who is 389. Lou Brock is number 30 at 3,023, Al-Kaline, 307, and the 3,000 hit club is, of course, rounded out by the late great Roberto Clemente. For an explanation as to why Cobbs, Wagner's, and Anson's total differ here from the official MLB list. I explained that on last Saturday's show. So please listen to that if you have not. Tomorrow we'll wrap up updating the 3,000 hit club, and we've got only two players left,

the all-time hit king Pete Rose and my all-time favorite player, Cal Ripkin Jr. We'll do that in the first half. Then in the second half, look at some other players who were affected by the strikes and see what their numbers may have looked like if they never happened. In the interim, please remember to download, rate, and subscribe to Locked-on Mariners on Google Podcast, Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, whichever podcasting app is out there. We're probably on it. Follow the show on Twitter at L.O. underscore Mariners.

Follow me on Twitter at D.C. underscore Lundberg. I hope you've been enjoying this project. We'll see you tomorrow as the Locked-on Mariners party in the panhandle continues. Have a great day. This is Joey Martin. Join us tomorrow for the next edition of Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Ask your smart device to play Locked-on MLB upon the conclusion of this program.