New high for a molitor/trammell psa 10

[freakhappy]

Originally Posted by the 'stache

As somebody that grew up a Brewers fan, one having seen Paul Molitor play in person many times, I have to respectfully disagree. Molitor was one of the best players of his generation.

Between 1978 and 1987, his prime years, Paul missed nearly 500 games due to injuries. Think about where his career numbers would have ended up had he not missed them. Hell, he got 2,116 hits after age 30, hitting .316, scoring 1,106 runs.

He's a member of MLB's All-Time team for a reason. He's one of four players in the history of baseball with a .300 average, 3,000 hits and 500 stolen bases, and the only player from the modern era to do it (the others, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner and Eddie Collins were all retired by 1930). Molitor played 21 seasons, and averaged 200 hits per 162 games played. That's better than Pete Rose and Ted Williams, and equal to Rod Carew and Roberto Clemente.

Wow! I always loved Molitor and knowing that he made the 3k hit club makes him very special in my book, but I never knew some of the stats that you posted...I have a whole new respect for him now. I had no idea he stole 500 bags during his career, I just thought he was a very solid hitter. Thanks for posting this info!

[the 'stache]

Ya, a lot of people don't know Molly is 9th all time in hits with 3,319. Imagine if he'd played those 500 games he missed due to injury. That's 3 full seasons in his prime. To age 30, he averaged 193 hits per 162 games played. That's 579 more hits, which would give him 3,898. Now, he's knocking on 4,000 hits.

There's no guarantee he would have played as long if he'd not been hurt early, but I watched him in his first few years in the majors, and even when he was playing, a lot of the time he was dinged up. When he was healthy, he was one of the most dynamic players in the game.

Molitor also had the 7th longest hitting streak in MLB history at 39 games (5th longest since 1900). He was a 7 time All Star (Brewer players didn't get voted in to the All Star game a lot back then. Hell, his Brewer teammate Robin Yount, also a Hall of Famer, was only voted to the All Star game three times, if you can believe that. He wasn't even voted to the game in 1989, when he was the American League MVP!

Yount and Molitor had 4,736 hits as teammates. I don't know where that ranks them all-time as a duo, but they're up there.