An important stat in a player's career is extra base hits. It's an important stat because it means the player is either knocking runs in or getting into scoring position to be knocked in. Andre not only excelled in this stat because of his unique blend of speed and power, but is 24th all-time in this category.*
The Hawk dominated this stat in the early 1980s, leading the NL in 1982 and 1983 and finishing second in 1980 and 1981. He also finished in the top 10 in 1979 (8th), 1987 (3rd), 1988 (4th) and 1990 (10th).*
His 1039 total extra base hits is better than several Hall of Fame players, including: Mike Schmidt (1015), Rogers Hornsby (1011), Mr. Cub Ernie Banks (1009), Honus Wagner (993), Robin Yount (960), Paul Molitor and Willie Stargell (953), Mickey Mantle (952), and Billy Williams (948). And that is just the Hall of Famers in the top 50 all-time that Andre's total number exceeds.*
Maybe even more impressive, almost 40% of Andre's hits in his career were for extra bases (37%). A better percentage than these notable Hall of Famers: Dave Winfield (35%), Eddie Murray (34%), Carl Yastrzemski (34%) and Ty Cobb (27%).*
Just one more reason Andre is due his recognition as one of the all-time greats by being enshrined into the Hall!
* - www.baseball-reference.com
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Great idea for a blog. I was pissed as hell when he failed to get in again this past year:
ReplyDeletehttp://424tales.blogspot.com/2009/01/what-hawk.html
I'll definitely be checking back in to see more pro-Andre material. Keep it coming!
That's an outstanding stat, especially considering the state of his knees--not exactly beating out a lot of Shawon-Dunston doubles to shallow left center. Every player will have a good number of cheap or lucky singles in his career, but with a few exceptions you have to earn your extra base knocks.
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