27 Players in MLB history have hit 3000 or more hits. 25 players in history have 500 or more home runs. Out of those 52 milestones, 4 of them happened at the HHH Metrodome while I was working.
What are the odds?
Somehow the Dome has been home to 4 of the greatest offensive milestones in MLB history.
3 players have collected their 3000th hit in the Metrodome…
Dave Winfield
Eddie Murray
Cal Ripken, Jr
1 player hit his 500th HR in the Metrodome.
Frank Thomas
I wish I could say that these games were sellouts and that everyone realized what was about to happen that night. It would be nice to share the story that 50,000 fans came out to see future Hall of Famers reach baseball immortality… It just wasn’t that way.
It is too bad, because each one of these players deserved better. They deserved a home crowd cheering them on, hanging on every pitch
Even Winfield, who was a member of the Minnesota Twins, did not have a huge crowd that night. If I remember correctly, he needed 3 hits that night to reach 3000, and no one thought it would happen. Most players struggle in their at bats approaching major milestones.…
…but not Winfield.
He went 2 for 3 and then got his 3rd hit off Dennis Eckersley in the 9th. I hung around after he got his first 2 hits, but deep down hoped he wouldn’t get it until the next night.
If he struck out tonight, that would mean a huge crowd the next day.
I wasn’t rooting against him… but rooting for him… TOMORROW.
Didn’t happen that way. Oh, well. I was “in the building”.
Murray and Ripken got their 3000th during the tough years at the Dome (1995 & 2000). “Exercise Games”. Small crowds, even with the potential to see a milestone. There were probably fewer than 15,000 those nights.
Disappointing.
In Baltimore, each probably would have played in front of sellout crowds.
Frank Thomas hit his 500th HR during a day game in 2007. It was a fun game for me because Sydney was there with her YMCA group. She got a kick out of telling all of her friends that I sold beer at the Twins games. I stopped up and said “HI”, but it probably didn’t have the impact that a visit from Wally “The Beerman” would have had.
I tried to explain to her group that they should hold onto their tickets, because Frank Thomas was only the 25th player in MLB history to reach 500 homeruns. You can imagine what that meant to a bunch of rowdy 3rd graders.
The opportunity to see a 3000th hit or a 500th homerun doesn’t happen everyday, nor are you guaranteed to see it if you attend a game.
I was lucky… I had to be there… I had to work
What are the odds?
Somehow the Dome has been home to 4 of the greatest offensive milestones in MLB history.
3 players have collected their 3000th hit in the Metrodome…
Dave Winfield
Eddie Murray
Cal Ripken, Jr
1 player hit his 500th HR in the Metrodome.
Frank Thomas
I wish I could say that these games were sellouts and that everyone realized what was about to happen that night. It would be nice to share the story that 50,000 fans came out to see future Hall of Famers reach baseball immortality… It just wasn’t that way.
It is too bad, because each one of these players deserved better. They deserved a home crowd cheering them on, hanging on every pitch
Even Winfield, who was a member of the Minnesota Twins, did not have a huge crowd that night. If I remember correctly, he needed 3 hits that night to reach 3000, and no one thought it would happen. Most players struggle in their at bats approaching major milestones.……but not Winfield.
He went 2 for 3 and then got his 3rd hit off Dennis Eckersley in the 9th. I hung around after he got his first 2 hits, but deep down hoped he wouldn’t get it until the next night.
If he struck out tonight, that would mean a huge crowd the next day.
I wasn’t rooting against him… but rooting for him… TOMORROW.
Didn’t happen that way. Oh, well. I was “in the building”.
Murray and Ripken got their 3000th during the tough years at the Dome (1995 & 2000). “Exercise Games”. Small crowds, even with the potential to see a milestone. There were probably fewer than 15,000 those nights.
Disappointing.
In Baltimore, each probably would have played in front of sellout crowds.
Frank Thomas hit his 500th HR during a day game in 2007. It was a fun game for me because Sydney was there with her YMCA group. She got a kick out of telling all of her friends that I sold beer at the Twins games. I stopped up and said “HI”, but it probably didn’t have the impact that a visit from Wally “The Beerman” would have had.
I tried to explain to her group that they should hold onto their tickets, because Frank Thomas was only the 25th player in MLB history to reach 500 homeruns. You can imagine what that meant to a bunch of rowdy 3rd graders.
The opportunity to see a 3000th hit or a 500th homerun doesn’t happen everyday, nor are you guaranteed to see it if you attend a game.
I was lucky… I had to be there… I had to work
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