Ok, not really, but former Phillie Ron Gant is on the 2009 ballot for the Hall of Fame, this being his first year of eligibility.

Mr. Gant won’t sniff the Hall, due in no small part to his lackluster career .256 batting average and his less than impressive career 112 OPS+. However, he finished his 16 year career with over 1000 runs and 1000 RBIs, as well as over 1500 hits. But that stat line has also been achieved by 194 other players, many of whom are not, nor will they ever be, Hall of Famers.

But I thought I’d have some fun with Lee Sinins’ indispensable Baseball Encyclopedia, and isolate a longer stat line for Gant, cherrypicking his best career numbers, and seeing how many other players had the same achievements. I didn’t include batting average, OBP or OPS, since they don’t help Ron at all (.256/.336/.806).

I pumped in the following stats that Gant does have that are worth comparing to see how many other players had the versatility to achieve all of them:

1000 RBI
1000 Runs
300 HR
1600 Hits

90 players have achieved all 4 of those milestones in their career. Pretty select company, but there are still plenty of folks in that group who will not make it to the Hall (Ellis Burks, Jack Clark among others).

When you add 240 SBs as a fifth filter to the above 4, the list of 90 plummets to just 9 players who have achieved all 5: Alex Rodriguez, Willie Mays, Barry Bonds, Gary Sheffield, Andre Dawson, Steve Finley, Bobby Bonds, Don Baylor and Gant.

It’s relatively elite company, with 5 HOFers or potential HOFers on the list. Mays is already enshrined, of course. Barry Bonds should be a first ballot HOFer, but BALCO could put a damper on that. A-Rod will be a shoo-in. Andre Dawson has a good chance after reaching 66% of the votes in 2008 when 75% are needed. Gary Sheffield also has strong Hall credentials.

Ron won’t get the Hall call now or probably ever, but you gotta like some of those career numbers.