50 Fun Facts About 3,000-Hit Club

Pete Rose became MLB's all-time hits leader in 1985 by breaking which Detroit Tigers legend's record?

Ty Cobb was the first player to reach 4,000 hits, in 1927, and his record stood until Rose's 4,192nd hit on September 11, 1985.

Pete Rose, MLB's all-time hits leader, was declared permanently ineligible in 1989 for doing what?

Betting on baseball while managing the Reds brought the ban. Rose denied it for 15 years, then admitted in a 2004 book that he had bet on his own team.

Roberto Clemente, who finished with exactly 3,000 hits, died flying earthquake relief to which country?

Nicaragua had been struck by a massive earthquake, and Clemente chartered a DC-7 to deliver the aid. It crashed off Puerto Rico on New Year's Eve 1972.

Ichiro Suzuki tripled for his 3,000th MLB hit in 2016 while playing for which team?

Miami Marlins was his third MLB club, and the hit came off the right-field wall at Coors Field, after 1,278 earlier hits in Japan.

Which comedian starred in the 2004 film Mr. 3000 as a retired slugger who comes up three hits short?

Bernie Mac played Stan Ross, a Milwaukee Brewers star who quits right after hit 3,000, then learns a double-counted game left him at 2,997.

Stan Musial in 1958 became the first player to collect his 3,000th hit while appearing in which role?

Pinch hitter was not the plan: Musial had wished to reach the milestone at home in St. Louis, but he came off the bench in Chicago and doubled in a run.

Which Tampa Bay Devil Rays veteran became the first player to hit a home run for his 3,000th hit?

Wade Boggs was a singles hitter with five batting titles, yet he went deep on August 7, 1999. In 1998 he had also hit the first home run in Devil Rays history.

Which Houston Astros star was thrown out at second base trying to stretch his 3,000th hit into a double?

Craig Biggio lost the base but kept the hit: drawing the throw let a run score, and he finished the game with five hits.

Miguel Cabrera, who reached 3,000 hits in 2022, is the hits leader among players from which country?

Venezuela's previous hits leader was shortstop Omar Vizquel. Cabrera passed him, then reached 3,000 with a first-inning single against Colorado.

Which MLB slugger would still have more than 3,000 hits even if all his home runs were removed?

Hank Aaron finished with 3,771 hits and 755 home runs, which leaves 3,016 hits that stayed in the park.

Which San Francisco Giants star collected his 3,000th hit against Montreal in July 1970?

Willie Mays retired three years later with 3,293 hits and 660 home runs, which was then third on the all-time list.

Which Baltimore Orioles star, famous for playing 2,632 straight games, got his 3,000th hit in 2000?

Cal Ripken Jr. had to wait for it: an injury ended his 1999 season when he was only nine hits away, so the milestone came the next April in Minnesota.

Which San Diego Padres hitter, an eight-time batting champion, singled for his 3,000th hit in 1999?

Tony Gwynn got both his 2,000th and 3,000th hits on August 6, which is also his mother's birthday.

Which San Diego Padres leadoff man doubled for his 3,000th hit in his team's final game of 2001?

Rickey Henderson is baseball's career stolen base leader, and in that same 2001 season he also broke the all-time records for walks and runs scored.

Which Angels slugger, a three-time MVP in St. Louis, got his 3,000th hit against Seattle in 2018?

Albert Pujols was once a 13th-round draft pick, taken 402nd overall in 1999, before winning three MVP awards and passing 700 home runs.

Which New York Yankees slugger homered off Detroit's Justin Verlander for his 3,000th hit in 2015?

Alex Rodriguez had sat out the entire 2014 season under suspension, and the homer made him the 29th player to reach the milestone.

Which Kansas City Royals legend was picked off first base moments after his 3,000th hit in 1992?

George Brett was chatting with Angels first baseman Gary Gaetti when pitcher Tim Fortugno threw over and caught him.

Which Boston Red Sox star became the first American League player with 3,000 hits and 400 home runs?

Carl Yastrzemski reached hit 3,000 off the Yankees' Jim Beattie in 1979 and spent his entire 23-year career in Boston.

Which 19th-century Chicago first baseman is generally regarded as the first player to reach 3,000 hits?

Cap Anson's exact total is still argued over, partly because a rule used only in the 1887 season counted walks as hits.

Which Texas Rangers star became the first Dominican-born player to reach 3,000 hits, in 2017?

Adrián Beltré hated having the top of his head touched, yet in the on-field celebration of the milestone he let each teammate tap it.

Which Panamanian batting champion singled for his 3,000th hit in 1985 against his old club, the Twins?

Rod Carew was born on a train in the Panama Canal Zone, and he got the hit for the Angels off Minnesota left-hander Frank Viola.

Which Minnesota native, playing for the Twins, was the first player to triple for his 3,000th hit?

Paul Molitor got the hit in Kansas City in 1996, and he is one of only five players with 3,000 hits, a .300 average and 500 stolen bases.

Which outfielder, drafted in three different sports, singled off Dennis Eckersley for his 3,000th hit?

Dave Winfield was picked by teams in baseball, basketball and football in 1973, and the NFL's Vikings chose him though he never played college football.

Which Milwaukee Brewers star, a Brewer for all 20 of his seasons, reached 3,000 hits in 1992?

Robin Yount was the third-youngest player to reach the mark, and he is one of the few to win MVP awards at two different positions.

Which Baltimore-born Detroit Tigers great doubled off the Orioles' Dave McNally for his 3,000th hit?

Al Kaline retired soon after with 3,007 hits and 399 home runs, a single homer short of another round number.

Which St. Louis Cardinals star got his 3,000th hit in 1979 against the Cubs, who had traded him away?

Lou Brock came to St. Louis in 1964 for pitcher Ernie Broglio, a swap still considered one of the most lopsided deals in baseball history.

Which switch hitter got his 3,000th hit as a Cleveland Indian in 1995 and later reached 500 home runs?

Eddie Murray got the hit in Minnesota off Mike Trombley, and he has driven in more runs than any other switch hitter in MLB history.

Which Baltimore Orioles slugger received a steroid suspension only days after his 3,000th hit in 2005?

Rafael Palmeiro had denied ever using steroids under oath at a Congressional hearing that March. He later fell off the Hall of Fame ballot with 4.4% of the vote.

Which Pirates shortstop, pictured on the famously rare T206 card, was the second player to 3,000 hits?

Honus Wagner was 40 when he got there in 1914, and he won eight National League batting titles along the way.

Which San Francisco Giants slugger hit 762 home runs yet retired 65 hits short of the 3,000-hit club?

Barry Bonds finished with 2,935 hits and also holds the career records for walks, with 2,558, and intentional walks, with 688.

Derek Jeter became the Yankees' all-time hits leader in 2009 by passing which legendary first baseman?

Lou Gehrig's total had stood at 2,721 since illness ended his career in 1939, and Jeter's 2,722nd hit finally moved past it.

Which Red Sox star finished with 2,654 hits after military service twice interrupted his career?

Ted Williams served in both World War II and the Korean War, yet he still finished with 521 home runs and a .344 career batting average.

Pete Rose hit in 44 straight games in 1978, the year of his 3,000th hit, chasing whose record of 56?

Joe DiMaggio's mark had stood virtually unchallenged for 37 years before Rose's run, which lasted from June 14 until August 1.

Pete Rose reached 3,000 hits with a dominant 1970s Cincinnati lineup known by which nickname?

Big Red Machine lineups also featured future Hall of Famers Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan and Tony Pérez.

Miguel Cabrera, a 3,000-hit club member, achieved which rare batting feat in 2012, the first in 45 seasons?

The Triple Crown means leading a league in batting average, home runs and runs batted in, and Cabrera did it with .330, 44 and 139.

Which baseball commissioner banned Pete Rose in 1989, then died of a heart attack eight days later?

Bart Giamatti, a former president of Yale University, was only 154 days into the job when he died at age 51.

Derek Jeter homered for his 3,000th hit in 2011 off which Tampa Bay Rays pitcher?

David Price had history with Jeter: the first hit he ever allowed in the majors was also a Jeter home run.

Ichiro Suzuki's 262 hits in 2004 broke which St. Louis Browns star's single-season record from 1920?

George Sisler had held the record with 257 hits for 84 years, and his daughter was at the game when Suzuki passed it.

Which Cleveland center fielder, MLB's career doubles leader with 792, reached 3,000 hits in 1925?

Tris Speaker was Cleveland's player-manager at the time, and he singled off Washington's Tom Zachary to become the fifth member.

Which White Sox second baseman, a clean member of the 1919 Black Sox, reached 3,000 hits in 1925?

Eddie Collins hit only 47 home runs in his career, the fewest of any player with 3,000 hits.

Which second baseman reached 3,000 hits in 1914 for a Cleveland team that fans had named after him?

Nap Lajoie's club became the Naps, short for Napoleons, after a newspaper poll in 1903, and it took the name Indians once he left.

Which former Pirates star, whose brother Lloyd is also a Hall of Famer, got his 3,000th hit in 1942?

Paul Waner and Lloyd, nicknamed Big Poison and Little Poison, hold the record for most hits by brothers, with 5,611.

Which longtime Washington Senators outfielder retired in 1934 only 13 hits short of the 3,000-hit club?

Sam Rice said he would probably have stayed to reach the mark if broadcasters of his day had recited records the way later ones did.

Pete Rose's record-breaking 4,192nd hit in 1985 was a single off which San Diego Padres pitcher?

Eric Show sat down on the mound with his arms folded during the long ovation that stopped the game.

Ichiro Suzuki collected 1,278 hits in Japan before his MLB debut, all for which Pacific League team?

Orix BlueWave kept him in the minors for most of his first two seasons because his manager refused to accept his unorthodox swing.

Stan Musial became known as Stan the Man thanks to chants from which rival team's fans in 1946?

Brooklyn Dodgers fans at Ebbets Field greeted each of his at-bats with a chant about the man, and a St. Louis sportswriter put it in his column.

After Roberto Clemente's death, baseball writers waived which Hall of Fame rule to elect him in 1973?

The five-year wait was set aside because of how he died, and a special election then gave him 393 of 424 votes.

Roberto Clemente's 3,000th hit in 1972 was a double off Jon Matlack, who pitched for which team?

New York Mets pitcher Matlack gave up the fourth-inning double, and Clemente never added to that regular-season total of exactly 3,000.

Pete Rose collected both his 3,000th hit and his record 4,192nd at which Cincinnati ballpark?

Riverfront Stadium had been open for only two weeks when Rose featured in an infamous play there at the 1970 All-Star Game.

Derek Jeter's 3,000th hit came in a 2011 game in which he also did what at the plate?

Went five for five, which made Jeter only the second player to collect five hits on the day of his 3,000th.