300 – 500 – 2000

Thursday evening Robinson Cano belted his 300th homer, making him the third second baseman and the 34th player overall to achieve 300 homers, 500 doubles, and 2000 hits. Rick Rizzs said if you get all three of those you get into the Hall of Fame.

This raises three questions.

1. Is it true that 300-500-2000 is a sure-fire ticket to the Hall of Fame?
2. If not, why would Rick Rizzs say such a thing?
3. What is the EFL track record on its players meeting this possible Hall of Fame standard?

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Question 1. Is it true that 300-500-2000 is a sure-fire ticket to the Hall of Fame?

Of the 34 people who have done 300-500-2000,

• 17 are in the Hall. (Aaron, Brett, Dawson, Griffey, Gehrig, Hornsby, Mays, Murray, Musial, Ripken, F. Robinson, I. Rodriguez, Ruth, Simmons, Williams, Winfield, Yastrzemski)
• 5 are still active (Beltre, Beltran, Cabrera, Cano, Pujols).
• 5 have not yet been retired long enough to be on the HoF ballot (Arod, Helton, C. Jones, Ortiz, Rolen).
• 3 are PED superstars (Bonds, Palmeiro, M Ramirez)
• 1 is a victim of  positional discrimination: Edgar
• 3 are probably not H of F material (Dave Parker, Jeff Kent, Luis Gonzalez).

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Question 2. Why did Rick Rizzs say such a thing?

Edgar.

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Question 3. What is the EFL track record?

I am not sure how many  300-500-2000 players have been in the EFL.  Here is what I know:

• Miguel Cabrera was drafted in the first EFL Rookie Draft by the old Victoria Roses. The Roses shamefully refused a generous Old Detroit trade offer which caused Cabrera to be lost to us forever when the Roses disbanded. (The Roses also refused to trade Roy Halladay. Tsk.)
• Edgar Martinez was on the 2004 Old Detroit roster and retired as a Wolverine.  I presume he will go into the Hall wearing a Wolverine cap. (Yikes! I need to design a Wolverine cap! How about a curly cursive W? It could be old gold on navy blue to dodge a Nationals’ trademark lawsuit.*)
• Adrian Beltre was a Wolverine for a time, as well as at least one other EFL team.

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I am pretty sure I am leaving someone out. Beltran? Helton? Kent? Rolen? I. Rodriguez? I can’t remember them in the EFL but maybe they were at some point.

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*Actually, it’s the Nationals who might have the trademark problem.  The Wolverines were born in 2004. The Expos became the Nationals in 2005.  So all I need is an original Wolverines cap from 2004 with the curly W.  Surely one of you has on in the back of some closet. Could you please check?  I have one that looks that old, but inconveniently it’s white on scarlet red…

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