Number 7:George Brett gets his 3000th hit - October 1, 1992
So this is another instance where I was probably too young to fully appreciate the magnitude of this moment but after some deliberation I realized just how monumental of a deal this really is.
There are only 27 players in the 3000 hit club in the history of baseball. Baseball has been around for over 100 years and has had thousands upon thousands of players take their hand at greatness and only 27 people have been able to accomplish this feat.
Brett's greatness had been showcased his entire career. To this day he is still the only player in MLB history to win the batting title in 3 different decades ('76, '80, '90). In 1980 he came close to hitting .400 and wound up hitting .390, which was the highest since Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941.
Brett solidified himself as one of the greatest hitters of all time by punching his ticket into this elite club on that October day in 1992. My memories of this event are vague but I do remember it happening, I remember the newspaper clipping and I remember my parents sending it in to the KC Star to get it mounted and framed, a display which still remains in my parents house today.
Kansas City often gets left out of most media coverage especially when it comes to sports. However, there are certain inescapable facts that the media cannot ignore and one of those facts is that George Brett is one of the greatest baseball players to ever play the game. Brett would later go on to be inducted into the Hall of Fame on his first try and with the 3rd highest percentage in history (roughly 98%). No matter who you are or where you're from, you know the greatness of George Brett and he is the unequivocal face of the Royals franchise.
Brett would terrorize pitchers around the league until 1994 when he retired. A sad day for Kansas City sports fans everywhere but certain to lead to happiness soon as Brett would become the first and only Royal (at this point anyway) to make the Hall of Fame.
Why this made the list:
For being someone who is admittedly not the biggest fan of baseball this the second baseball moment on my list. This, if nothing else, should show the impact and greatness of this moment on my sports life. Growing up with someone like George Brett as a fixture in the sports scene in KC (he came and spoke at my high school!) you kind of take for granted the greatness of such an individual. Brett was always just a fact, he was a Royals player, the face of the franchise, and he was great, but his true greatness I had to learn about from tales of my father. Then this happens, followed by his induction into the HoF and all of the sudden it hits, one of the greatest players of all time was on your team, in your hometown, and you even got to see him play (and he spoke at your high school)!
When you see players like Derek Jeter, and Alex Rodirguez, and others and wish they were on your team, it takes a step back to realize, that was what Brett was. Every other team in the majors would have killed to have a player like that on their team and he was a Royal for his entire career. This realization of his greatness and this event being a key to such greatness is why it made the list.
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