First player to reach 3000 hits not to make the HOF?

[orioles93]

Originally Posted by seanofjapan

The second route would be a guy who has a lot of great seasons but is always overshadowed by an even bigger star at the same position whose career by coincidence happens to overlap with his. I'm not really sure who the prototypical player meeting this description would be, but probably there are a lot of first basemen out there who fit the bill.

But do you think this is even a possible accomplishment?

I think this is the answer. The all star game is great, majority of the time it shows the greatest players at that time. But it also turns into a popularity contest sometimes. It also doesn't show position weakness any given year. So basically one, a player can become extremely popular and just make the all star team every season, not because they are the best at their position that year, but because they are popular and get voted in. Or two, that specific position was weak that season and the person voted in was just the best of the bunch, not necessarily great. So an example, a mediocre second baseman who is just the best out of a bunch of mediocre players at 2B can have an all star appearance, meanwhile an outfielder having a great season gets beat out by a handful of other great OFs, doesn't get the all star appearance, even though he is a far superior player and has far better stats than the second baseman. It all depends what position you play and who else is playing that position that season. Not necessarily what you do personally, but what everyone else does as well. That is why all star appearances is a terrible way to judge players abilities or career accomplishments.