Los Angeles veteran outfielder Nick Haran had a 5-hit game yesterday against the Baltimore Lords which included 3 home runs, the first of which gave him 300 for his career.
Haran becomes just the 8th player in WPK history to reach this milestone and with his third home run he passed up Brad Tesh (who retired last year with 301 homers) for 7th all-time.
At age 37 there is much debate about how much more baseball Haran can get out of his well-worn body (Wrecked) but while he isn't among the most celebrated players in the league history (just 2 All-Star appearances and 1 Silver Slugger award) there can be no doubt that he has had a distinguished career, which at this point has given him 61.9 WAR over his 14+ big league seasons. Haran's best years came as a member of the Phoenix Speed Devils in the late 60's and very early 70's, with his 1969 8.6 WAR season, in which he led the league in runs scored, slugging, and OPS, being his finest individual single season. He also led the league in runs scored the following season and then, as a member of the San Antonio Keys, led the SJL in walks for both the 1972 and 1973 seasons. Haran no longer possesses anything more than average foot speed but he remains a good base stealer and in his earlier days he combined speed and power, having collected 232 career stolen bases also.
His defense was never great but he has a very strong throwing arm and has thrown out 86 runners from center field and another 85 from right field over the course of his career.
While Nick Haran is almost surely not a Hall of Famer, there can be no doubt that when he eventually hangs up the spikes he will be remembered as a very fine ballplayer whose peak seasons were at least nearly HOF caliber.