career hits Archives - All Mississippi Baseball

something special

Congrats to former Mississippi State standout Adam Frazier, who got his 1,000th career major league hit on Thursday night. And it wasn’t just a garden variety knock. It was a home run, a solo shot, and it came with his team, the Kansas City Royals, in an early hole and in need of a spark against the Los Angeles Angels. The Royals, a contender in the American League wild card chase, hit three more solo homers and won 4-3 at Kauffman Stadium. Frazier’s second-inning bomb came against Kyle Hendricks, against whom he was batting .412 with two homers (per The Baseball Buffet). A 10-year MLB vet, Frazier has been a catalyst for K.C. ever since the club traded for him in July. The lefty hitter, who can play virtually anywhere, is batting .298 with three homers, 17 RBIs and 15 runs in his second stint with the team. A .264 career hitter — 66 homers — with five MLB clubs, he set an MSU record for hits in a single season in 2013, the year he was drafted by Pittsburgh. He got a hit in his first big league at-bat on June 24, 2016, and was an All-Star in 2021 with the Pirates. He had a down year with the Royals in 2024 and went back to Pittsburgh as a free agent in the off-season. The Royals traded a minor leaguer to the Pirates for Frazier on July 16, an under-the-radar move that has paid dividends. … For the record, the leader in career hits among MSU alums is Rafael Palmeiro with 3,020. Will Clark got 2,176, Buddy Myer 2,131, Hughie Critz 1,591 and Del Unser 1,344. Among active ex-Bulldogs, Nathaniel Lowe trails Frazier with 780 hits, and Brent Rooker is at 471.

anniversary time

Several of the Magnolia State’s brightest big league stars have debut anniversaries to celebrate this year. Claude Passeau, one of the state’s great pitchers, debuted in 1935. Boo Ferriss broke in with the Boston Red Sox 80 years ago, throwing a shutout in his first game on April 29, 1945. Don Blasingame, the Corinth Comet, debuted 70 years ago. Chet Lemon, one of the best defensive center fielders of all-time, played his first MLB game in 1975. Paul Maholm, a recent Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame inductee, broke in 20 years back and Jacob Lindgren — whose promising career was marred by injury — 10 years ago. But the spotlight here is on Buddy Myer, the Ellisville native and Mississippi state alum, who launched his 17-year career 100 years ago. A middle infielder, he played in just four games for the old Washington Senators in 1925 but got the first two of his 2,131 career hits, the record for Mississippi natives in the majors. He made the team’s roster for the ’25 World Series and got two more hits in the loss to Pittsburgh. He went 6-for-20 in the ’33 World Series, also with the Senators. Myer won a batting title in 1935 and hit .303 for his career; only Negro Leagues star Cool Papa Bell (.325) holds a better average among Mississippians. Myer scored 1,174 runs, hit 130 triples, stole 157 bases and posted a 48.4 WAR (fourth-best among Mississippi-born players) in 1,923 games. Remarkably, he walked (965 times) more than twice as many times as he struck out (428). Indeed, it was a very different game a hundred years ago. Myer — a two-time All-Star who got MVP votes in four seasons — played it very well.