Educating Twitter: Making the Hall of Fame Case for Salvador Perez

Two milestones in Salvador Perez’s career took place on Sunday, and within minutes both of them were baked into an attempt to group him with some of the greatest catchers in history.

In the second inning of Sunday’s game between the Royals and the Rockies, Perez singled to left field. It was the 1,500th hit of his career, which is not a particularly notable accomplishment all by itself. When Perez added another single later in the game it pulled him into a four-way tie with Yunel Escobar, Aaron Hill, and Tim McCarver for 662nd place in major league history.

But it’s not a common achievement for someone who primarily played catcher. Among players who played at least half of their career games at catcher, Perez is one of just 34 to compile at least 1,500 hits, so that’s pretty noteworthy.

Shortly after the game ended, the All-Star reserves were named for this year’s game, and Perez was announced as having made the American League roster for the ninth time. That’s a lot less common than getting to 1,500 career hits. Only 105 players had nine or more All-Star selections before Perez got his, and only 12 of them were catchers.