Paul Molitor turns 53 years old today.
Elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2004, Paul Molitor had a brilliant 21-year career. Never getting the opportunity to showcase his talents in front of a consistently large crowd, Molitor spent most of his career as an unheralded superstar.
With 3,316 career hits and a lifetime batting average of .306 Paul Molitor is one of the greatest hitters of the last 40 years. For a player that was not classified as a ‘power hitter’ Molitor quietly bashed 234 home runs. And while also never being classified as a ‘speedster’, Paul also accumulated 504 stolen bases. This multi-dimensional player was a 7-time All-star, and he won 4 Silver Slugger awards as well. Molitor finished in the Top 20 for the MVP award 9 times over the course of his career where his highest finish was coming in at 2nd place in 1993.
For his birthday, I would like to give Molitor one season in front of sold out crowds. One season with some national attention paid to him. It doesn’t matter if it’s New York or Los Angeles or Chicago or St. Louis, but Paul Molitor and the incredible career he had deserves quite a bit more attention than he got while playing for Milwaukee, Toronto, and Minnesota.
Happy Birthday Mr. Molitor!!
504 stolen bases?? I had no idea… that is magnificent! Man his numbers were far more impressive than I knew about. Thanks for the heads up.
Mr. Molitor was fun to watch in spring training. The Brewers trained in Sun City, AZ for a few years when I was growing up. I lived on the west side of the “valley” — the Brewers were the only team we could watch without having to drive 30 miles or so. Good times.