The Arbitrary ChuckJerry

Rafael Palmeiro got his 3,000th hit yesterday, which makes him one of 4 players in history to have both 3,000 hits and 500 home runs. The only other members of that club are Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Eddie Murray, all hall of famers, and all considered to be among the elite hitters of the game.

Palmeiro is never mentioned as one of the super-duper stars of the game, but he clearly is. He started with the Cubs, but has basically played for the Orioles and the Rangers in his career, flip flopping between the two teams twice each, and he has made each a legitimate team when he has been with them.

He's always played with other mega stars, and he eschews a lot of the attention aimed at him, so he has sortof gotten overshadowed, even though everyone knew he was a great player. In Texas he played with Ivan Rodriguez and Juan Gonzalez, who was winning MVP awards at the time, and in Baltimore he played with Cal Ripken, who was the face of the franchise, and the face of baseball for a couple years there.

Anyway, just wanted to shout out Raffy because this is one of the most incredible accomplishments in baseball history.