Milestones On The Horizon

By Brendon Rosenau
Love of Sports Correspondent

Baseball has always been a sport of numbers.  56, 61, 755, 1918, 1908, 42 … all these are numbers permanently etched into the minds, hearts and souls of baseball fans.

It doesn’t matter if your favorite team is the Boston Red Sox or the old Cleveland Spiders, you know how the holy trinity of numbers has always been, and always will be, 56, 61 and 715.

That being said, as the Grapefruit and Cactus Leagues give way to the Senior and Junior Circuits, there’s some more number chasing that shouldn’t go unnoticed.

We’ll start on the mound, where Randy Johnson could be the last hurler to reach 300 wins in our lifetime (and I’m just 28). Johnson comes into the year with 284 wins. While 16 wins is certainly a reach for the Big Unit this season, it’s certainly not impossible. He posted win totals of 16, 17 and 17 before missing most of the past season with back trouble. If Johnson can make 30 starts, the total could be reached in September.

This figures to be his last year. Johnson will be 45 in September, and another major injury means we won‘t be seeing him again until he’s in Cooperstown. But let’s say he gets 14 wins this year. At that point, it’s guaranteed he’s in a major league uni again in ‘09.

One thing that’s almost certain is that when he does finally hang up the long laces, he’ll do so as the second-most prolific strikeout artist in baseball, as his insane total of 4616 whiffs is just 56 shy of Roger Clemens for sole position behind Nolan Ryan.

Greg Maddux will likely become just the ninth pitcher in history to reach 350 career wins. With an exceptional year, he could sneak into the Top 5 all-time. Impressive stuff. He has 347 career wins with Pud (insert sophomoric nickname here) Gavin fifth on the list with 364. Clemens is fifth on this list at 354.

A former teammate of Maddux will be looking to join the 3,000-K Club before April’s over. John Smoltz has 2,975 strikeouts and is a lock to become the 16th major leaguer with 3,000. Incidentally, he’d be the fifth active player (excluding Clemens) in that club.

The home run always brings about conversation, and this year three players will reach rarified air. Gary Sheffield and Manny Ramirez will likely become members 24 and 25 in baseball’s most prestigious and powerful club.

Sheffield has 480 home runs, and with 20 more he’ll spark another lively debate about whether or not 500 = Hall of Fame. Ramirez is just 10 shy of the milestone and could also reach 1,700 RBI with just 96 more. Criticize Manny all you want for the “Manny being Manny” antics, but the man can flat out rake and is a no-doubt first ballot Hall of Famer.

Speaking of the Hall, Ken Griffey, Jr. needs just seven dingers to become the sixth player to hit 600. With 16 more, he’d move past Slammin’ Sammy for fifth all-time.

Other home run notables are Chipper Jones (386), Andruw Jones (368) and Vladimir Guerrero (365). And Albert Pujols is only 18 homers shy of 300 at the ripe old of age 27.

Finally, a subject most people will ignore, but if Barry Bonds plays this year he will establish himself as the greatest statistical hitter of all-time. Bonds could end his career with 800 home runs (currently at 762), 3,000 hits (2,935) and 2,000 RBI (1,996).

Bonds is already the career leader in walks (by over 350) and could become the all-time leader in runs as well. Ricky Henderson’s the record holder with 2,295 and Bonds has 2,227. Oh yeah, don’t forget his 500 steals as well!

The bottom line is that Barry Bonds has compiled numbers no one in the game has been able to achieve now or likely ever. Will he hook on with a team to make that happen, though?