Answer tomorrow. It was fun for me to discover who they were. Two will seem obvious but the third one might not. I imagine alot of people will go to Baseball Reference or use the Lee Sinins Complete Baseball Encyclopedia. Two are among the all-time greats (one is a household name while the other is among baseball fans, too) while the 3rd was just very good and is probably not a household name and maybe never was.
I did this search because a question came up in the Hornsby chapter of SABR. Who are the only two guys with 1200+ RBIs, 250+ HRs, 300+ SBs and 3000+ Hits?
Answer: Willie Mays, Joe Morgan and Vada Pinson
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I did the second one first. Guessed right on it, with my first two guesses. Super easy. I did this first, because I figured that one of the two players was an overlap with the first question, and he was.
As for the first question, even allowing for players who have joined since 1990, it's an impressive list. I don't want to add any spoilers, but since 1990, the guys who joined are:
Craig Biggio
Barry Bonds
Andre Dawson
Steve Finley
(one of the players from the other question)
Gary Sheffield
Robin Yount
Yount and Dawson were basically there by 1990... neither had much left in the tank, although they did round those things out.
Also, the RBI filter is completely unnecessary. It doesn't change the list at all.
Also, the "surprise" player from pre-1990 is probably not as big of a surprise as Steve Finley. I mean, the pre-1990 guy is a borderline Hall-of-Famer. Steve Finley is not, unless you favor a REALLY big Hall. It's a good list, though.
I also published the answer (for those who can't wait) and my own thoughts on my blog, in case anyone's curious. Just click the name.
Thanks for dropping by and commenting. Great points. Interesting about RBIs. I had that in there because of the original question I mention. Finley has come up on some lists I have done like best "all-around" players. But based on career WAR, I could agree with your assessment of Finley compared to this other guy. Finley is not too big of a distance behind this other guy
No problem on putting the answer out there. What is your blog?
If we go with
H 2500
HR 250
SB 250
BB 1000
The list is even shorter
Derek Jeter
Willie Mays
Craig Biggio
Rickey Henderson
Barry Bonds
Alex Rodriguez
Gary Sheffield
Joe Morgan
I like this list since each milestone by itself is not especially great. But they are all somewhat independent stats or require different skills. Lots of hits and HRs hints at the ability to hit for power and average. SBs hint at speed and BBs hint at patience and a good eye. Yet only 8 players have managed to achieve all of them. Plus they indicate longevity. You could even make a team out of these guys. I'm sure you could turn one of them into a 1B man and guess who could catch?
You can just click on my name to go to my blog. It's a lot of random stuff, mostly baseball. Some math-neophyte-sabermetric stuff I'm proud of, some not I'm not so proud of. But it's out there.
Anyway, as a Brewers fan, I'm a little disappointed to see Robin Yount fall off the list when you add the BB requirement... oh well.
Interesting that Henderson finds his way ONTO the list.
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