The remarkable Julio Franco

He probably is 52, already.

 

It is nice to see an old Julio be successful for a change.

 

Aside from him being on an LCS team, which has more to do with other people than singularly him, there's nothing you could write about Franco now that you couldn't have written a year or two ago.

 

The question should be ... if Julio stays active long enough to get to 3K hits ...


Is he a HOFer? Or did he queer the deal by playing longer than his prostate did?

 

Not. A. Chance.

Never considered the best player on his own team, let alone his position or the league or the era, at any point in his career.

One batting title, 2,500 hits are his only credentials. And the latter is only because he played until he was about 50. That's not nearly, nearly enough to warrant consideration for Cooperstown.

Still a great story. And by all accounts, a great guy.

 

He probably would have made things really interesting if he'd played in the majors in 1995 and most of 1998-2001 instead of in various other countries.

Fortunately, no one's tested my "3,000 hits is a lock" theory yet. Take that, Harold Baines (2,866)!!! And Steve Finley (2,531) will need nearly four more seasons similiar to this one (105 hits) to reach 3,000. And even if he's found the "fountain of youth" *cough* friends with Barry Bonds and played in roid central in Houston in the '90s *cough cough* he'll have a hard time doing that until he's 45.

 

Julio= 2,566 hits.

I thought he was farther up the food chain. In that case, never mind.

Now, if he played to age 52 and got there ....

 

He's not gonna reach 3,000 hits, so it's moot.

But I believe that however you get 3,000 hits is incredible enough of a feat to get you in.

 

Franco's retirement has been mentioned on another thread, but I thought I'd dig up the old Julio thread in honor of number 14's retirement. Thanks for the memories, Dominicano.


My favorite Franco moment- 1990 All-Star MVP- also the game when Reagan called him "Joo-lee-o."

 

Just caught Ryan's seventh no-hitter on ESPN Classic the other day. Was interesting to see Franco playing second for the Rangers, and thinking he had already been in the league almost a decade by then.

 

And as someone put on the other thread...the last remaining player from RBI Baseball.

 

Julio Franco taught Ryan Sonner how to design pages.