There’s been a week to reflect upon Nolan Arenado hitting the 350th home run of his career last week. That number alone is impressive, but there have been 102 other fellas to do it as well. But you pair it with 10 Gold Gloves, and you have one of the most exclusive clubs in all of baseball. Seven men in history with the names Mays, Bench, Kaline, Schmidt, Griffey Jr., Andruw Jones, and now Mr. Nolan Arenado, have accomplished this double feat.
This led my thinking to this question; What is the most exclusive club in baseball history? Hint, it has St. Louis roots.
The clubs I will be talking about today will be exclusive to position players and not include pitchers.
The WOW Clubs
These clubs, though not the most exclusive, are borderline unbelievable and most likely to have no new members ever.
700 Homeruns and 3,000 Hits
This club has only two names in it.
- Albert Pujols: Albert finished his career in style back where he belonged in the STL. When all was said and done, he closed the door on his career with 703 dingers and 3,384 hits. Absolute insane production. For the record Albert is currently 10th all-time in hits, 4th all-time in home runs, and 2nd all-time in RBIs. WHY DID HE GO TO ANAHEIM??!! Anytime I saw that it was like seeing Patrick Ewing in a Seattle Supersonics jersey.
- Henry Aaron (He didn’t like being called Hank): Mr. Aaron is the most underrated superstar in the history of Major League baseball. We all hear Willie Mays this, Ted Willams that, and Babe Bambino Ruth. All Aaron did was be more productive than all of them while being a gentleman the entire time. He’s 3rd all-time in hits, 2nd all-time in home runs, and 1st all-time in RBIs. Is there anything else you want? (Required reading for any Henry Aaron fan is the biography The Last Hero by Howard Bryant)
*Side note, guys with 700 home runs, 3,000 hits, multiple MVPs and multiple WS titles? Pujols alone.
4,000 Hits
Again, only two men have reached this plateau.
- Tyrus Raymond Cobb: By all accounts Ty Cobb was the second greatest baseball player of all-time through 1950 behind only the Babe. But, by many accounts he was a rage filled bigot and was, what some would classify as, a psychopath. He retired with 4,189 hits and a 151.4 WAR which is 4th all-time. Tommy Lee Jones was amazing.
- Pete Rose: Look, I wrote my heart out this spring in my piece Pete Rose’s Grandmother Had a Pet Monkey Named Pete…read that and you’ll know the full scope of the man. He could hit, and hit he did. He still has what I believe is an unbreakable record of 4,256 hits. A kid could start his career at 20 and have 200 hits every season until he was 40 and still not pass Pete Rose. Can you imagine being that consistent, and healthy, in your 20s and 30s? I can’t…and lord knows I wasn’t. I work at a desk and was hurt more than these guys.
500 Home Runs and 10 Gold Gloves
This club, though a little less exclusive, is more impressive as it pairs destroying the ball with destroying hopes and dreams of would-be hitters with magnificent defense.
- Willie Mays: Read the book I recommended about Henry Aaron earlier and you’ll like Willie a little less as a person. But, as a player there have been few as good. Mays ended his career with 660 round-trippers and 12 Gold Gloves. His 156.1 WAR is third all-time, his 660 dongs are 6th all-time, his 3,293 hits are 12th all-time, and his 12 Gold Gloves are tied for 6th all-time with Roberto Clemente. One of the greatest New York Mets ever!
- Mike Schmidt: The mustachioed man from Philly had a helluva career. He finished with 10 Gold Gloves, 548 home runs, and 1,594 RBIs. Plus he won the World Series MVP in 1980 by absolutely destroying the Kansas City Royals to the tune of a .381 batting average, 2 home runs, and 7 RBIs for an OPS of 1.176 in a six-game win. Mac and Charlie want you to put respect on his name!
- Ken Griffey Jr.: Kid Dynamite is a god in the eyes of anyone that came of age watching baseball in the 1990s. He was the epitome of cool. The backwards hat, the prettiest swing every, the leaping grabs in center. He was perfection in a baseball uniform. He ended his career with 630 bombs, 13 All-Star appearances, and 10 Gold Gloves.
One off Clubs of One
These are insane clubs to be a part of, but don’t really have the pop and pizzazz of the ones we just went through.
1,000 Stolen Bases
- Rickey Henderson: He is the king of the stolen base, speaking in the 3rd person, and hitting lead-off home runs. Rickey was a complete player, closing his 24-year career with 3,055 hits, an MVP, a Gold Glove, 10 All-Star Games, 3 Silver Sluggers and he won 2 World Series Rings. He is also the all-time leader in runs. Wild production. He led the league in steals 12 times, the last coming at age 39 in 1998 with 66 swipes.
500 Homeruns and 500 Steals
- Barry Bonds: This is an awesome club, no doubt…but…ya know? Just Google “Barry Bonds head size before and after.”
The Most Exclusive Club of All
There is only one point to sports. One and one only. WINNING. Play to have fun? Is losing fun? EXACTLY. Every player listed above would trade every one of those clubs and stats to join this one man in HIS club.
10 World Series Rings
- Yogi Berra: The pride of The Hill played in 14 Fall Classics and took home a ring in 10 of them. He wasn’t some Robert Horry type, showing up now and then with a big shot and walking away with more rings than Jordan, Magic, Bird, Lebron, and Steph. Yogi was a 3-TIME AL MVP, 18-TIME All-Star, with 358 career home runs.
In all, in the World Series Mr. Berra hit .274 with 12 dingers and 39 RBIs with an .811 OPS. In the 1956 Series alone he hit .369 with 3 home runs and 10 RBIs, 2 of those homers in a game 7 win! Why didn’t he win the MVP? They gave it to Don Larsen for throwing a perfect game in game 5. BORING.
10 titles! 10! That’s 7 more than Stan Musial, 8 more than Albert, 9 more than Henry Aaron, and 10 more than Barry Bonds.
The Future for Arenado
Arenado can climb farther up the ladder of baseball immortality if he keeps hitting. Get to 400 home runs and he enters the club of 400 and 10 Gold Gloves which currently only has Mays, Schmidt, Kid Dynamite, and Andruw Jones. Get to 500, not likely, but that would be amazing. I’m in for the ride with Nolan as long as he is in the Birds on Bat. He can still hit it a bit and can really pick it over at third.
Enjoy every minute of him, nothing lasts forever.
Follow Will on the Twitters @WillSaulsbery and follow @ScoopsNetwork for all your STL sports needs.
– Will Saulsbery
Born and raised in St. Louis, Will Saulsbery is a multitalented writer and musician. A graduate of the University of Missouri, Saulsbery has established himself as a prominent ghostwriter, with his work appearing in top-tier publications like Forbes, Fast Company, Tech Crunch, Entrepreneur, The Observer, and The Hill. He recently Co-Authored You Wouldn’t Believe Me If I Told You: An Unforgettable Memoir of Golf, Grit, and a Blue-Collar Kid on the PGA Tour with the great Jay Delsing.
