Stats Geek: Pirates Hall of Famers

Wednesday, 20 March 2013 00:00

Written by Brian O'Neill

Only one franchise in baseball can say that all of its top 10 in career hits are in the Hall of Fame. That’s your Pittsburgh Pirates.

It’s true. Even the Yankees and Cardinals have top 10 hits leaders without plaques in Cooperstown. Derek Jeter and Albert Pujols should be locks once they retire, but Bernie Williams and Don Mattingly are unlikely to get the call. Ditto for Ken Boyer and Curt Flood, despite more than 1,800 hits apiece.

No, the Pirates are unique in this regard. The Yanks and Cards each have seven Hall of Famers among their top 10 hitters, the Red Sox and Reds six, and the Cubs, White Sox, Indians, Tigers and Giants five apiece.

The quiz today, ladies and gentleman, is to name the top 10 in career hits for the Pittsburgh Baseball Club. The low man has 1,638 hits and the top man an even 3,000. (If you don’t get him, you’re on the wrong site.) See how many you can get.

The only hint I’ll offer is that nine of them are dead. So start firing away, but no peeking at other sites for answers. I’ll give the answers this afternoon.

While you’re waiting for that, here’s a more contemporary question you might try: Which three players are in the top 10 in career hits for two different franchises? Big confusing hint: Two of them are Angels and two of them played for the Montreal Expos, and all three are in that clue somewhere.