The very first Hall of Names story on Batter's Box appeared way back on March 15, 2003 ... if you don't remember (and I barely do myself), it was the All-Food Team.
Since then, nearly five years have passed, a full Baker's Dozen of
Bauxites (that means 13) have stepped up to contribute to the series,
which as of this writing, now stands at a count of 299. (If you care, they're all archived right here. )
But on to the business at hand, a Hall of Names team worthy of baseball's magic number, 300 (does that make this more of a Lobby of Numbers entry? Nah, that's Magpie's turf. Anyway ... )
That's right, 300 is one of baseball's most sacred numbers ... on the offensive end, there is great renown for the .300 hitter, while only consistent sluggers can reach 300 homers ... from the mound, well, of course there's the career milestone of 300 wins, not to mention that of 300 saves ...
And while this is not the "last" of these Hall of Names entries -- not by a long shot! -- we are today going to build a team -- with the usual thanks and kudos to the greatness that is BaseballReference.com -- of players who finished their careers with some notable stat (career or seasonal) sitting exactly at 300 (or .300 or 3.00, give or take a decimal) on the nose.
Sure, there will probably be some duplication. For instance, did you know that 13 players -- hey, another Baker's Dozen! -- have retired with (or have so far compiled) a career batting average of exactly .300? That ranges from Carl Furillo's (and Frank Demaree's) .2995 to Lance Berkman's .3004 (through 2007) -- but just one man, Emmet Heidric -- a turn-of-the-last-century OF mostly with the Cardinals and Browns -- retired with a batting average of exactly .3000. Okay, actually he was at .299967, but we'll round that up ...
With all due respect to Berkman, who is by all measures a heck of a ballplayer. we're only going to consider retired players for career 300 totals, as Berkman (and fellow active .300 hitter Juan Pierre) are quite likely to move off that mark in one direction or another.
And while we will consider active players for single-season 300 totals -- after all, those numbers can't move, either -- in order to limit our seemingly endless pool of candidates (suffice to say, there are far more than, to pick a number at random, 300), we will only consider single-seaons totals that also led the league in that category during that particular year. The one outlier to our rules allows us to find a backup catcher, and while we all love Da Kid, alternate nominations are hereby invited and sought!
Let's see what we can come up with as we meet a team you might otherwise find in an "alley" somewhere ...
The 300 Gamers
** indicates Hall of Famer
* indicates All-Star
LINEUP
C Deacon McGuire (300 doubles, 1884-1912)
1B Carlos Delgado* (300 times on base, '03 TOR)
2B Roberto Alomar* (.300 average)
SS Rabbit Maranville** (300 sacrifice hits)
3B Pedro Guerrero* (.300 average, mostly 1B/OF)
LF Chuck Klein** (300 homers)
CF Ty Cobb** (300 times on base, 1911 DET)
RF Paul Waner** (300 times on base, 1927 PIT)
DH Jason Giambi* (300 times on base, 2002 NYY)
BENCH
C Gary Carter** (.300 batting average in 11 All-Star Games)
IF Frank Taveras (300 SB)
OF/IF/RHP Oyster Burns (.300 average; all but C)
OF Enos Slaughter (.300 average)
OF Emmet Heidric (.3000 average)
UTIL Gregg Jefferies* (300 doubles; all but P, C, SS)
ROTATION
RHSP Early Wynn** (300 wins)
LHSP Lefty Grove** (300 wins)
RHSP Curt Schilling* (300 K, '98 PHI)
LHSP Tom Browning* (300 starts)
RHSP Jay Hughes (3.00 ERA; 83-41, 1898-1902)
BULLPEN
CL-RH Bruce Sutter** (300 saves)
RH-SET Ron Reed* (300 games finished)
LHRP Sid Fernandez* (300 starts; almost exclusively SP)
RH-LONG Doc Scanlan (3.00 ERA; 65-71, 5 saves, 1903-11)
RH-LONG Bill Bonham (300 appearances, 214 starts, 1971-80)
Others on the list of possible roster invitees include Jeff Bagwell
(maybe he should play 3B instead of Guerrero?), Wally Berger, John
Kruk, Ethan Allen, Earl Sheely, Oyster Burns, Billy Goodman and Carl
Furillo.
So given that information, Bauxites -- or any other "300" candidates you can drum up -- how can this team be better?
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20080204230206220