How Soon We Forget: Milestones

On Thursday, baseball history was made once again as Craig Biggio collected his 3,000th hit and Frank Thomas hit his 500th homerun. In the moments that followed, especially the coverage of both these milestones, I was disappointed to hear how much focus was on these two numbers as litmus tests for the Hall of Fame. It was as if everyone forgot how good Biggio and Thomas were as overall players.

Biggio, nicknamed Pigpen for his pine tarred helmet and simply messing his uniform constantly, and Thomas, aka Big Hurt for his power and sheer size, were two of the best players in the 1990s. I haven't seen that written or said anywhere as a result of both their milestones--and honestly even before they reached them, they were always going to be two of the best from that decade.

I'll prove it to you. For anyone who's familiar with the work of Bill James, who's essentially the father of sabermetrics and arguable the most influencial outsider to the game of baseball, he developed a system to rate players called Win Shares back in 2002. I'll leave it to James to explain what a Win Share is:

"Win Shares are, in essence, Wins Created..or actually, thirds of a Win Created. Win Shares take the concept of Runs Created and moved it one stop futher, from runs to wins."--Bill James, Win Shares (2002)

Basically it's a measure of an individual player's contribution to a team's overall win total. For example, last year the Yankees won 97 games and Jeter put up a terrific year. Of those 97 wins, how many can be attributed to Jeter. Well, Jeter totaled 32 Win Shares and doing the math (32/3) Jeter contributed 10.6 wins to those 97 wins.

When you look back to a player's career or even a decade of baseball, this concept allows you to see how valuable a player was. During the 1990s, Biggio and Thomas rank exactly 2nd and 3rd in terms of total Win Shares for that decade.

Bonds 523
Biggio 342
Thomas 308

Yes, they rank ahead of such players as Ken Griffey, Jr, Rafael Palmeiro, Mark McGwire, Greg Maddux, and even Biggio's old teammate Jeff Bagwell. I'll let you do the math (just divide by three) and compare it to their respective team's win totals during that decade to see their value. I'm sure you're suprised A) that Biggio is ahead of Thomas but moreso B) Biggio was the second best player in the 1990s. This certainly isn't something the media would point out because no one would ever say Biggio was the 2nd best. He wasn't a homerun hitter, never won a batting title, never won an MVP--so what's up with that?? Well, if you disagree with my assessment--or Bill James' rather--send me a comment or email (rivalryredux@gmail.com), but you should also read the Win Shares book to know what you're getting into.

But back to my original point--we're talking about two milestones, that are very big ones, but the focus on them ignores how great Biggio and Thomas are.

I compiled a run down of some key and also interesting stats and factoids for Biggio and Thomas. First Biggio's notables:

• Biggio was (and continues to be) a very durable player. He played in over 1,800 games without landing on the DL until tearing up his knee in 2000. Additionally, he played in over 1,300 straight games and some people thought he would challenge Cal Ripken, Jr's consecutive games streak.
• Seven time All-Star ('91-'92, '94-'98)
• Won four consecutive gold gloves at 2b ('94 to '97). Biggio actually started his career as a catcher before switching to 2b in 1992. In my opinion, this certainly saved his career and kept him going into his 40s.
• Biggio was a leadoff hitter and holds the NL record for leadoff homeruns (27)
• Ranks 14th all time (1,822) in runs scrored and is just 66 runs behind Lou Gerhig who is 10th on the list
• Ranks 2nd all time (284) in being hit by a pitch. He needs just four more plunks to be number one.
• Is 27th all time in extra base hits (999), which is ahead of such Hall of Famers at Paul Molitor, Mickey Mantle, Eddie Matthews, and Joe Dimmagio.
• Has 413 career steals with a 77% success rate
• Hit into NO (zero) double plays in the 1997 season

And Frank Thomas:

• Won back-to-back MVPs in 1993 and 1994
• Excluding the two MVPs, Thomas was in the top ten voting for MVP seven times
• From 1991 to 1997, Thomas was in the top three in OPS in the AL, being the leader in '91, '92, '94, and '97
• Speaking of OPS, Thomas ranks 11th all time in OPS, ahead of some all time greats such as Mickey Mantle, Stan Musial, Willie Mays, and Mel Ott
• Thomas was known for having an excellent hitting eye and getting on base. His career OBP (.423) ranks 18th all time
• Also 12th all time in walks
• Hit 40 or more homers five times in his career, 30 or more eight times
• Has 100 or more RBIs in 11 seasons (including eight in a row from '91 to '98)
• Is just the 21st player in baseball history to hit 500 Homeruns. As the argument these days goes, is 500 HRs an automatic guarentee a player gets in the HOF, especially considering how many players (McGwire, Sosa, Bonds, Palmeiro, Griffey Jr) have made the club since the late 1990s (with Thome, Manny, A-Rod, and Sheffield soon to be). But give me a break--steriod allegations aside--being just the 21st player in a game 100+ years old is impressive.

Did you Forget Already?

Of course like typical Americans with a short attention span, we forget too easily and too quickly all these other accomplishments. We remember other things though--the negatives--of players such as these two. Like Biggio never winning a World Series or Frank Thomas' series of injuries from 1999 onward. Or that Biggio keeps getting signed to one-year contracts each season so he could get the 3,000 hits. Or even that Thomas' relationship with the White Sox organization went very sour.

Both these ballplayers are going into the Hall of Fame though--first ballot or not, they will get in. But while both ballplayers certainly have declined since the 1990s, as they continued to play into the next decade they are up there with some of the best that ever played the game.

And what I found the most interesting about these milestones the other day was how both Biggio and Thomas emphasized that they played the game the way it should be played. Maybe this was a knock on players who took steriods and have reached even greater heights as a result of that. But I'll end it here with their quotes:

"Honestly I just feel that I play the game the same way that the guys before me played the game. They ran everything out--ground balls, fly balls, no matter what--even the guys that aren't on that list. Frank Robinson's of the world, guys like that, they played the game the right way. And I feel that I did my part, I've been doing my part to play the game the same way they did and that's why I'm honored--with all these names that we've been associated with because of that reason alone, because they played the right way." --Craig Biggio on becoming part of the 3000 hit club



"It means a lot to me because I did it the right way. I could care less what others have done," --Frank Thomas on hitting his 500th homerun