If the main criteria for the Hall is perseverance and effort then Rusty Staub should have been a first ballot Hall of Famer.  His hard work resulted in over 2,700 hits in a Major League career that many people who saw him early on would never have pegged him for an amount that high.

1,800 career hits and a lifetime .266 Batting Average sound like a good career but not necessarily a Hall of Fame one.  A closer look at the overall body of work of Bobby Grich indicates he is a lot closer than you would think.

One of two things could happen when you play with a collection of superstars.  Either you get lost in the shuffle or you become incorrectly elevated among them.  Neither was the case for the Dave Concepcion who became nationally known playing alongside Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, Johnny Bench, and Tony Perez, but deserved the attention that came with it.

Al Oliver came to the league in 1969 as a line-drive hitter and for eighteen years consistently smacked the ball for hits.  He had over 2,700 hits in his career, and despite not being a genuine power hitter, he had a plethora of RBI’s.