Editor’s note: This is a bonus Weird and Wild. To read the main W&W column, click or tap here.Is 2,500 hits the new 3,000?Asking for a friend, who may or may not be named Freddie Freeman.While we await your answer, at least our long, two-year national nightmare is over — thanks to the Dodgers’ sweet-swinging first baseman, who collected career hit No. 2,500 Tuesday night in Pittsburgh.So why is that a big enough deal for the Weird and Wild Department to weigh in? Well, through all of 2024 and 2025, the prestigious club room of the 2,500-Hit Club was pitch black — and populated by more cobwebs than actual humans, since none of those actual (active) humans were in that club.And that’s partly Miguel Cabrera’s fault. When Miggy took his 3,174 hits and went home after the 2023 season, he left this sport in a strange place. It was weird (and wild) enough that baseball had no active 3,000-hit men for the first time since 2010. But no active hitters with even 2,500 hits? That’s a place baseball hadn’t found itself for a very long time.Luckily, then Freeman showed up.
2,500 career hits for Freddie Freeman!
He makes it a 10-run inning for the @Dodgers 🤯 pic.twitter.com/KYj3DCWWHJ
— MLB (@MLB) June 10, 2026His historic hit ended a run of more than two full seasons without a single active member of the 2,500-Hit Club. And that is undoubtedly weirder (and wilder) than you might think. Let’s break this down for you.Clean out the cobwebsYou might think baseball history is filled with many similar ebbs, flows and no active stars stopping by for drinks and snacks at the 2,500-Hit Club. But if you think that, think again!There have been only three stretches in history when nobody, among active players, had rolled up at least 2,500 hits:2024-26 — As we mentioned, Freeman finally ended this drought Tuesday.1951-55 — Luke Appling (2,714 hits) retired after the 1950 season. It took until June 20, 1955, for Stan Musial to reach 2,500. The lights of the 2,500-Hit Club would then stay lit for nearly seven full decades. So that four-year gap back in the 1950s was the only 2,500-hit void in the modern era (since 1900) until 2024. But long before that, there was …1871-1891 — Whenever you believe the “major leagues” first came into existence — 1871 or 1876 — at least there was a good excuse for this drought. Before that, the entire planet had forgotten to invent baseball yet! Finally, in 1891, Cap Anson burst through the doors of the 2,500-Hit Club and changed the world. Since baseball was just beginning, should we even count that 19th-century drought? OK, sure. Why the heck not?Cristopher Sánchez vs. Jacob MisiorowskiJayson StarkOne and doneBut now we find ourselves in another strange time — because we still have only one active hitter with 2,500 hits (or more). We haven’t seen many periods like that, either. Here’s a rundown of the only one-and-done stretches for this club since 1900:
