Dave Winfield and Kirby Puckett were teammates in Minnesota when Winfield recorded his 3,000th hit in 1993. Puckett, he noticed, was 12 years old when Winfield got his first hit. Their careers ended in 1995 and they retired five months apart the following year.

Only one 3,000-hit player reached the milestone at an older age than Winfield, who was little more than two weeks shy of his 42nd birthday. The eldest was Cap Anson, who was 45 when he accomplished it on July 16, 1897. Only Carl Yastrzemski needed more games than Winfield to reach the milestone, and Winfield only beat Yaz by eight games.

In terms of at-bats, only Yaz and Ripken had more than Winfield when they reached the 3,000-hit mark. Keep in mind, though, that at-bat marks aren't known for the first seven members of the club.

Winfield holds plenty of marks of his age, many of them positive. He became the oldest player to hit for the cycle as a 39-year-old on April 13, 1991. The following year, he became the oldest player to drive in 100 runs in a season that included a record 32 RBI in August.

Few players with 3,000 hits were as effective into their forties as Winfield. Even Hank Aaron's best season as a 40-something was his first, a .269-20-69 campaign in part-time duty the year he broke Babe Ruth's career home-run record.

Anson also made a late charge toward the 3,000 mark in the 1890s, hitting no lower than .331 for a three-year stretch in his 40s and driving in at least 90 runs from age 41-44. Ty Cobb hit .357 and drove in 93 runs the year he turned 40. Stan Musial batted .330 with 19 homers and 82 RBI in 135 games as a 41-year-old Cardinal. George Brett drove in 75 runs at age 40. Paul Molitor plated 89 and hit .305.

Heck, few great hitters are even playing full-time into their 40s, let alone batting in the heart of the order for the World Champions like Winfield did with the 1992 Blue Jays.

Run like the Winfield

Before Barry Bonds redefined the criteria for a power hitter with speed, Winfield was trying to follow in the tracks of Willie Mays.

When Winfield left the Padres for the bright lights of New York, he had only 18 more home runs than steals. He also had more 20-homer, 20-steal seasons (2) than 100-RBI seasons (1).

Moreover, Winfield ran at a remarkable success rate as a Padre. He stole 23 bases in 27 tries in 1975, his second full season in the big leagues. The next season, he swiped 26 out of 33. For his San Diego career, he stole 133 bases and was caught 50 times, good for a 73 percent success rate.

By comparison, the Padres' opening day leadoff hitters over Winfield's San Diego years (Enzo Hernandez in 1973, Bobby Tolan in 1974-75, Johnny Grubb in 1976, Gene Richards from 1977-79 and Ozzie Smith in 1980) swiped 208 bases in 288 tries for a 72 percent success rate.

Notice the D at the end

Bill Mazeroski and Kirby Puckett made a significant part of their Hall of Fame cases on defense, but Winfield has no reason to be ashamed in that category. Few sluggers of Winfield's caliber can claim seven Gold Glove awards.

Though he never led league outfielders in fielding percentage, he matured into one that consistently finished well above the league average after a rough start. Though he posted 11 assists in his first full season of 1973, he committed 12 errors. In fact, he averaged almost 10 errors a season during his first four years in the majors.

During that time, however, he saw plenty more activity than the average outfielder. Winfield's range factor -- assists plus putouts divided by games played -- ranked above the league average in all of those seasons and accounted for three of his four personal best single-season marks for his career. His strong arm recorded 92 outfield assists in his San Diego tenure, including 20 in his final season of 1980.

Winfield's putouts edged down starting in 1978, but so did his error totals. From 1978 until 1991, his last full season in the outfield, he beat the league average in fielding percentage 10 out of 12 times. He didn't play the outfield in 1989 and manned just 12 games there in 1990. His .994 mark in 1984 accounted for two errors against 306 putouts.

Even more numbers

0 -- Days Dave Winfield spent in minor-league baseball before reached the majors.

2 -- Players with more hits, home runs and stolen bases than Winfield: Hank Aaron and Willie Mays.

3 -- World Series appearances for Winfield, only one of which came with the Yankees. He was a member of the 1995 Indians but did not make their postseason roster.

4 -- Pro sports teams that drafted Winfield. The Padres selected him fourth overall of baseball's 1973 amateur draft, the Vikings picked him in the 16th round of the NFL draft, the Atlanta Hawks drafted him in the fifth round and the ABA's Utah Stars chose him in the fourth round.

55.3 -- Winfield's score on the Hall of Fame Career Standards Test, as created by Bill James and updated by baseball-reference.com's Sean Forman. Used to tally a player's Hall of Fame value over the volume of his career, the top possible score is 100 with the average Hall of Famer scoring at 50.

118 -- RBI by Winfield in 1979, setting a Padres single-season record that stood until Ken Caminiti shattered it in 1996.

162 -- Games played by Winfield in 1980, making him the first Padre to play every game in a season.

500 -- Dollars posted by Winfield as bond to an Ontario Provincial Police station after being charged with cruelty to animals for accidentally killing a bird with a thrown ball on Aug. 4, 1983 at Toronto. The charges were dropped the next day.