So I recently decided to start an offshoot collection of the 3000 hit club. I have been collecting Clemente for a while, and have increased interest in Paul Waner and Honus Wagner, and even Cal Ripken, and knowing some of the members received the Clemente award (Mays, Brock, Rose, Carew, Ripken, Winfield, Gwynn, Biggio, Kaline, Jeter and even potential future member Pujols), it seems natural to move towards a 3000 hit club collection. I started with trying to get all of the autographs of the members. I have most of them and will post those in a follow up blog. I also have tried to get at least one vintage card of each of the members. I have most of those as well and will post those later. Recently, I decided I should try to get a bat relic card of all the members. It is somewhat easier to do than either the autographs or the vintage cards. The toughest for any of these collections to get are, of course, Cobb, Wagner, Speaker, Lajoie, and Collins. Waner and Clemente are somewhat difficult. Clemente is very tough for the autograph and I haven't splurged on one of those as of yet. Rose is very easy for the autograph, but not as easy for the relic. The fact that he is banned from baseball and the same for cards with licensing, means you have to find a card from a company such as Panini, which puts out cards without the licensing.
Some things to note about my bat relic collection:
- I didn't always get the cheapest card as you will see below on the guidelines I used to get the cards for my collection.
- I wanted a good image. Preferably one with the player in a batting stance and with as much of the full body image as possible. If that wasn't possible due to rarity, then a nice portrait would be okay. In-action images would be better than a posed batting stance. I also wanted color and design to be a factor, as I hope to frame this collection along with the autographs and vintage cards in the future.
- I didn't want any of the cards to be from the same issue. If I have one 2001 UD Hall of Famers card, then I wouldn't get another player from that same issue. It made collecting them a little more challenging.
- I also tried to get images from the team I most identify with the player. That would be up for debate in many cases, but it's my collection so I made the decisions. I am not a fan of the Yankees, so I snubbed them of Winfield, Rodriguez, and even Henderson. Jeter only played for them so I had no choice in that case. I have Molitor on the Twins, where I would rather have him on the Brewers, but that's the way it worked out. I also have Rose on the Phillies. In both those cases, I do have the autographs and vintage cards on the correct team, so I do have some diversity.
- I am not including Cap Anson in any of the collections because he played prior to the 20th century and he is also very difficult if not impossible to get any vintage cards, relic cards or autographs for.
Pete Rose - 4,256 hits
Ty Cobb - 4,191 hits
Hank Aaron - 3,771 hits
Stan Musial - 3,630 hits
Tris Speaker - 3,514 hits
Derek Jeter - 3,465 hits
Honus Wagner - 3,430 hits
Carl Yastrzemski - 3,419 hits
Paul Molitor - 3,319 hits
Eddie Collins - 3,314 hits
Willie Mays - 3,283 hits
Eddie Murray - 3,255 hits
Nap Lajoie - 3,252 hits
Cal Ripken, Jr. - 3,184 hits
George Brett - 3,154 hits
Paul Waner - 3,152 hits
Robin Yount - 3,142 hits
Tony Gwynn - 3,141 hits
Dave Winfield - 3,110 hits
Alex Rodriguez - 3,070 hits (still active)
Craig Biggio - 3,060 hits
Rickey Henderson - 3,055 hits
Rod Carew - 3,053 hits
Lou Brock - 3,023 hits
Rafael Palmeiro - 3,020 hits
Wade Boggs - 3,010 hits
Al Kaline - 3,007 hits
Roberto Clemente - 3,000 hits
I also am figuring that Ichiro and Pujols will make the club shortly. Ichiro should make it in a year, and Pujols in three years at most. After those two get in, it doesn't look like anyone else will get in for a decade at the earliest. It is too hard to foretell which players will beat the odds of not having injuries, and having a long, prosperous career. Harper? Trout? McCutchen? We shall see.
