Craig Biggio quitting baseball on Sept. 30

Ichiro will finish this season with about 1,570 hits (barring injury).

He turns 34 this October. If he plays another seven years, and can average 200 hits a year, he'll get to 3,000. And if he gets 225 or so hits for the next three years, it's not hard to see him averaging 200 hits over that span.

Yes, he gets a lot of leg hits and those will decrease as he ages. But he's a fitness freak, has been extremely durable, has a nice, easy swing, and bats leadoff and doesn't walk much so he gets plenty of hit opportunities.

If Ichiro gets 3K hits it will be amazing because he got such a late start in MLB. Sorty of like Spahn winning 363 when he didn't become a full-time MLBer until he was 26 or 27.

 

I would bet serious coin on Ichiro falling short of 3,000 hits, but he doesn't need to get there to get into the HOF.

 

Sheffield has a shot at 3000. He's five short of 2,500 right now.

 

BYH, would Ichiro's years in Japan factor into his HOF nomination?

 

Craig Biggio played with Roger Clemens for the 2004 Houston Astros

Roger Clemens played with Tommy Lee Jones in "Cobb" (1994)

Tommy Lee Jones played with Kevin Bacon in "JFK" (1991)

 

No they would not. It's the National Baseball Hall of Fame And Museum.

 

Wow.

Wow. That's some good work.

Buckdubs, you continually blow us away.

 

No way does Ichiro get anywhere close to 3,000 hits... I like how it's just assumed that he can average 200 hits a season even late into his 30s... He'll be lucky to get to 2,500 simply because he got a very late start...

He'll be in Cooperstown though... No question about that...

 

Do you really think that Sheffield, who has had more than 170 hits in a season twice in his career, and will be 39 in November,can average more than 150 hits a year for 3 more years after this?

Highly doubtful

 

Just had to dispel the original poster's statement that Jeter and ARod are the only two players with a shot.

Both Ichiro and Sheffield have a shot, even if it's not a great shot. And there probably is one or two that nynjSportsJournalists.com have forgotten as well.

 

So we can indeed trace Albert Goodwill Spalding and Harry Wright to Kevin Bacon....

Good work all!

To recap
Harry Wright played on the Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first professional baseball team in history, and was the manager of the Boston Red Stockings in the first season of the first professional baseball league and was a teammate of Albert Spalding in 1871
Albert Spalding played with Deacon White played on the 1876 White Stockings
Deacon White played with Frank Scheibeck on the 1888 Detroit Wolverines.
Frank Scheibeck played with Ty Cobb on the 1906 Detroit Tigers.
Ty Cobb played with Charlie Gehringer for the 1925 Detroit Tigers
Charlie Gehringer played with Barney McCosky for the 1939 Detroit Tigers
Barney McCosky played with Roy McMillan for the 1951 Cincinnati Reds
Roy McMillan played with Nolan Ryan for the 1966 New York Mets
Nolan Ryan played with Craig Biggio for the 1988 Houston Astros
Craig Biggio played with Roger Clemens for the 2004 Houston Astros
Roger Clemens played with Tommy Lee Jones in "Cobb" (1994)
Tommy Lee Jones played with Kevin Bacon in "JFK" (1991)

 

re: Ichiro

No way he sniffs 3K.

No way he doesn't get in the Hall. A lock if I ever saw one.

No, his Japanese League career has no bearing on his Hall chances. Otherwise, Oh and Nagashima would have been in 25 years ago. Ichiro will get in on his MLB merits alone, and those will be more than enough.