Up
next on my thread celebrating the Major League’s 100th birthday in 1976
is the first player to win the batting Triple Crown, Paul Hines:
Hines put together an arguably Hall of Fame career between 1872 and 1891
playing in the National Association, National League and American
Association.
Over the course of those 20 seasons he collected 2133 hits and batted .302, with 1217 runs scored and over 550 extra base hits.
In 1878 he also became the first player to lead the league in all three
“big” categories, when he batted .358, “slammed” four home runs and
drove in 50.
He would also go on to lead the league in batting the following year
when he hit .357, while also leading the league in hits and total bases.
When you consider that he collected those 2133 hits in “only” 1658 games
spread out over 20 years, you can easily see how this guy could hit!
He averaged only 80 games a year for his career and still reached over
2000 hits, no imagine if he could have even averaged 120 games a year.