Ranking Every Pittsburgh Pirates Hall Of Famer Player

Number Seven
Jake Beckley (1971)

Jake Beckley is the earliest Hall of Famer from the Pirates. Purchased from the Western Association in 1888, Beckley played with the Pirates before they were the Pirates. He was around when they were still the Alleghenys and the Burghers. Beckley played eight of his 20 MLB seasons in Pittsburgh but also saw a handful of seasons with the New York Giants, Cincinnati Reds, and St. Louis Cardinals.

For his career, Beckley batted .308/.361/.436, leading to an OPS+ of 125. Beckley fell just shy of the 3000 hit club. He ended his career with 2938 total hits. I think that if 3,000 hits had been such an important milestone then like it is today, he definitely would have come back and played another year. When Beckley retired, there was only one member of the 3000 hit club, Cap Anson.

Beckley was a first baseman with a range factor per game of +10.52 when the league average was +10.45. He also stole 315 bases. Beckley, George Sisler, and Frank Chance are the only players ever to have played first base in over all of their games played with an OPS+ of 120 or greater and at least 300 stolen bases. Beckley ended up having a +61.3 bWAR for his career. Beckley was elected into the Hall of Fame via the Veterans Committee in 1971.