I’m sure a senile Joe Morgan is going to say, “I know he got 3,000 hits but his OPS isn’t what it should be, not to mention his black and grey ink.”

GA doesn’t stand a chance of making the Hall without 3,000 hits. But if he were to collect 3,000 hits, he probably would also be very close to 600 doubles. Even if we give you every benefit of the doubt (that somehow GA could put those raw numbers up and not be first ballot), or that the writers never elected GA to the Hall on subsequent ballots, he’d then become the darling of the veteran’s committee and he’d be a lock via that route.

I’ll acknowledge that GA probably doesn’t reach 3,000 hits or the Hall. But to say that GA could could collect 3,000 hits/550+ doubles and not get into Cooperstown is, officially, the most bizarre GA criticism one could hope to read or hear.

I could see debating whether a guy who reached 3,000 hits is or isn’t a first ballot HOF’er but you seem to be stating (with confidence ill-fitting the historical evidence to the contrary) that GA could be denied the Hall at all were he to achieve those numbers.

The majority of Baseball Writers (let’s remember, Rob Neyer doesn’t vote for the Hall of Fame) would free-pass those numbers without even thinking about it twice. Again, even if they didn’t, the next generation of veteran’s committee leadership would make it priority one.

It’s interesting to me the extent to which Angel fans go to deride GA. This line of reasoning now takes the cake. Congrats.

Funny, too, how you use his current black and grey ink to determine his worthiness for future consideration, as if his black and grey ink would not have changed substantially with the milestones that would go along with reaching 3,000 hits (and more than 500 doubles). For example, his numbers under these (not widely considered by baseball writers) metrics will increase significantly when he reaches 2,500 hits and 500 doubles, both of which are almost assured to happen this next season. If you’re going to spout the metrics, it seems that you may want to at least acknowledge these CRITICAL underpinnings. Or, I’m not sure, maybe spend some more time studying their bases.

3,000 hits is still hallowed, always will be. It would take something like a fundamental shifting of thought among the vast majority of baseball writers, in a very short time, for this dynamic to change in even the next ten years.

As for your Lou Brock reference, I guess that really depends on your universe. In the real baseball “universe,” for example, he’s neither mocked nor excluded from the Hall of Fame. Among the still small contingent of hyper-obsessed history revisionists, Lou Brock is considered to have substandard statistical achievment. Fortunately for baseball and its fans, though, Lou Brock (and his game-changing, revolutionary style of play) are enshrined in Cooperstown.

I’m still chuckling at the idea of a player (any player, seriously) finishing his career with 3,000 hits and near 600 doubles and not being a first ballot Hall of Famer. Now that’s an interesting “universe.”