755, 500, 300

6 August 2007



Baseball Has Week-End of Milestones

This past week-end, Major League Baseball hit a trifecta of milestones. The most controversial of the three was Barry Bonds tying the all-time home run record of Henry Aaron at 755. The most exciting was Alex Rodriguez hitting his 500th homer. The most impressive was Tom Glavine’s 300th career win as a pitcher.

Barry Bonds has been carrying around the stigma of steroid use for years. The argument over his record and a possible asterisk beside it is as tedious as it is irrelevant. He’s also an arrogant wanker on the order of Ty Cobb. Nevertheless on 755 occasions, he has hit the ball out of the park. Hitting a round ball with a round bat, as Ted Williams maintained, is perhaps the hardest thing in sports. Would true fans prefer someone else broke Mr. Aaron’s record? Of course. But for now, Mr. Bonds is the active home run champ, and this is probably his last year.

Fortunately for those who dislike Mr. Bonds, A-Rod managed to hit his 500th the same day Mr. Bonds tied Mr. Aaron. If Mr. Rodriguez stays healthy and plays until he’s 43, as Mr. Bonds is now, he needs to average fewer than 30 home runs per year to challenge whatever Mr. Bonds’ final mark will be. He could well be the first man in the Majors to hit 800. By the way, neither man has ever won a World Series Title.

Finally, there is Tom Glavine’s 300th career win as a pitcher, coming last night when the Mets beat the Cubs at Wrigley Field in Chicago. And the Cubs fans cheered the winning pitcher, proving that they are true fans not just of their club but of the game itself. The idea of a pitcher getting credit for a win is rather silly, all things considered. After all, a pitcher can throw a great game and lose 1-0 or a weak game and win 10-9. Be that as it may, 300 wins is much more unlikely than 500 homers.

Pitchers don’t go much past the 7th inning anymore. Their multi-million dollar arms are protected, and the set-up pitcher and the closer have become specialties in the last generation. As a result, there are more no-decisions. Add to that the fact that 300 games means 15 seasons of 20 wins or better, and it starts to take on iron-man qualities. Tom Glavine, as fine a pitcher as ever took the mound, has been fortunate to play for teams that win division titles, league pennants and the World Series. A pitcher with as much talent playing in Seattle and Kansas City these days hasn’t a prayer of 300 wins. On the whole, a pretty good week-end for baseball.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

Home

Google
WWW Kensington Review







Amazon Honor System Click Here to Pay Learn More