461, Sorry, bro.
DH - Jim Thome
He was the first guy I looked up when I saw the recommended 3Bs. No dice.
I was saddened to also note Rusty Staub didn’t play 600 games at first, to my admitted amazement.
I’m also suprised Schmidt only played 159 games there. I guess the Rick Schu experiment didn’t last as long as I had remembered.
Frank Thomas.
Thome played 492 at third base.
Gregg Jefferies didn’t have 600 games at any position.
Oh, hey, Lance Berkman is a possibility for the outfield - even has 160 games at center field.
I think by virtually every metric worth discussing, Ruth’s pitching abilities would have matched up well with any era. At the very least, I think it safe to say that, had he stayed on the bump instead of being called into double duty as a pitcher/fielder (not entirely uncommon during WWI), his name would be mentioned in the same breath as Cy Young, Christie Mathewson, and Walter Johnson – he was certainly well on that path before his abilities with the bat changed the way baseball is played.
I was very surprised as well when I looked that up. I was sure he spent more time than that at one bag at the end of his career, but it apparently seemed longer than it was.
Here’s a question I had about Ruth’s pitching. Why did he stop?
I mean, it’s obvious why he didn’t remain solely a pitcher - the bat was too good to not play every day. But why not pitch every 5th day and then play in the field the other days?
They tried that for a while, but it became too much for him to do both.
I think that is overstating it just a bit. It is possible that Ruth would have had a hall of fame career on the mound, but history is littered with guys who had a few great seasons and fizzled out. The odds would not have been in his favor.
Berkman has 545 games as an outfielder. The Cardinals are playing him roughly 80% OF, 20% 1B. Assuming he gets his 600 early next year, he’s definitely on the list.
Oh, I considered DH a position at which Thome played 600 games.
Keith Hernandez won 11 gold gloves. He was pretty good.
And Todd Helton. And Willie McCovey. And Kent Hrbek. And like Hernandez, all not qualified by the standards of the OP.
Willie Stargell would be another contender in the outfield.
At what other position did Keith Hernandez play 600 games?
Still haven’t read the OP, huh?
Yup, Stargell qualifies.
That’s 545 as a left fielder - 954 as an outfielder overall. He was pretty much exclusively an outfielder until Bagwell got too hurt to play.
You are correct. I meant to say he has 545 games (give or take) at first base, so he should be elegibile early next season.
Dave Kingman had 603 games at 1B. He’s your DH. And, if you like, your pitcher, too - he had 2 appearances with a 0.00 ERA.
Baseball reference has him at 737 for 1B (699 starts).
I’ve got to say, barring an injury to Pujols, I think your projection is way over optimistic. (I’m assuming that any time the game situation is such that Pujols is pulled early for a rest, when Berkman might finish at first, the latter is also going to be pulled to rest.)
What the Cardinals have been doing is starting Berkman at first when Pujols had a day off. Of course, Pujols did go on the DL this season, so my projection may indeed be optimistic.
But it’s irrelevant because **Tom Scud **is right. I completely misread Berkman’s career totals.