Jose Miguel Cabrera Torres was born in Maracay, Venezuela on 4/18/1983, and just 5 days after his 39th birthday accomplished a feat only 2 before him have done.
“Miggy” as he is known got his 3000th career hit in his first at bat on Saturday 4/23/22. In August of 2021 he hit his 500th career home run.
Major League Baseball (MLB) started play on 4/22/1876. over the last 146 years, 20,025 players have played the game. 33 have achieved 3000 hits, 28 have accomplished 500 Homeruns. Only 7 now have ever done both. Miggy did it in the fewest number of plate appearances as them all at 11,031 plate appearances. On top of that only 3 of the 7 did it with a career batting average over 0.300.
7 to have both 3000 hits and 500 HR:
Hank Aaron, Willy Mays, Eddie Murray, Rafael Palmeiro, Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez and Miguel Cabrera
3 to do both and hit over 0.300:
1. Hank Aaron did it in 1970, had 13,941 plate appearances to di it, hit 0.305 for his 23 year career
2. Willie Mays did it in 1970, had 12.545 plate appearances to do it, hit 0.301 for his 23 year career
Miguel Cabrera did it in 2022, had 11,031 plate appearances to do it, hit 0.310 for his 20 year career and is still going
This is Elite company, the top 99.99986% of all 20,025 players to ever play the game.
Congratulations Miguel, It has been a pleasure to watch one of the greatest players of all time.
