Baseball Milestones

We witnessed two legitimate milestones last week when Craig Biggio entered the 3,000-hit club and Frank Thomas blasted his 500th home run. But while both accomplishments are impressive – and both players should be headed to Cooperstown – neither club is quite as exclusive as it used to be.
Biggio is the 27th player to reach the 3,000-hit plateau and the 11th player to do so since 1992. Barry Bonds is hot on Biggio’s heals – just 100 hits shy of 3,000 – and Ken Griffey Jr., Gary Sheffield and Pudge Rodriguez all look like reasonably safe bets to eclipse that mark if they play another three or four years.
Thomas was entrant No. 21 into the 500-homer club, but the exclusivity of that group is in serious jeopardy, too. Four other players – Alex Rodriguez (492), Jim Thome (482), Manny Ramirez (481) and Gary Sheffield (473) could feasibly top 500 this season alone. That would mean that 20 percent of the all-time 500-home run hitters collected No. 500 THIS YEAR! Six of the current 21 players in the club have entered within the past 10 years.
So, looking for a number that still means something? Try 300.
Only 22 players in baseball history have won 300 games, and just three pitchers – Greg Maddux, Roger Clemens and Nolan Ryan – have entered the group in the past 20 years. What’s more, after Tom Glavine (297) and Randy Johnson (284) pick up win No. 300 this year or next, we probably won’t see another 300-game winner for at least another decade or two.
The Yankees’ Mike Mussina is next up with 243 career victories, but sporting a 4-5 record, an ERA near 5.00 and at age 38, 57 more wins might be a long shot.
Looking deeper, there are just seven pitchers aged 30 or younger who have more than 90 career wins, a group led by Barry Zito who has 108 wins at age 29. Even assuming he wins 18 games every year for the remainder of his career, he’ll be 40 before he reaches 300. That seems unlikely.
Given the fragile health of pitchers, the lack of innings most starters turn in these days, and the preponderance of specialty relievers, it’s possible that Johnson or Mussina may be the last 300-game winner we see in our lifetimes.
So while it may have been little more than a SportsCenter highlight and newspaper footnote when Biggo and Thomas surpassed a number generally reserved for the immortals, as baseball fans, we should make sure we pay special attention when Glavine and the Big Unit join elite company over the next couple of years.
-David Hale