In an era of judgments made on impulse and the senseless conclusions that become of them, hearing the phrase “one for the record books” quickly loses its inner meaning. And in less than a 48-hour timeframe, baseball once again did not deliver one of these moments.
Baseball gave us three.
After a period of what may have felt like the longest eight-day home run drought in the history of mankind, Barry Bonds delivered the 755th blast of his big league career on Saturday.
While the evening’s events gave one man a piece of the greatest record in professional sports, another was doing his part to write his own chapter atop the pedestal. Mere hours before Bonds’ shot of epic proportion was uncorked, Alex Rodriguez had already done his part, becoming the youngest man ever to reach the 500 home run plateau at the age of 32.
On the very same day that Bonds nabbed his share of a record that had stood alone since Hank Aaron’s final shot in 1974, Rodriguez’s 500th suggests that the wait should not last so long the next time around.
And for this reason the tale ends here, giving way to the chief accomplishment of the weekend that was.
Bonds tied the all-time mark eleven years Rodriguez’s senior. And while potential injury concerns can always be called into question, the path for Alex Rodriguez to one day become king has been laid. Regardless as to whom the successor is the conclusion remains the same: this milestone was made to be broken.
The same cannot be said, however, about the third feat of the past two days.
On Sunday evening, Tom Glavine potentially became the last man to join baseball’s exclusive 300-win club.
Among today’s greatest arms, only Randy Johnson, owner of 284 career victories, is in immediate striking distance of the heralded guild. But Johnson, who turns 44 in September, appears to be closer to riding off into the sunset than returning from his back issues to battle for a 16-win season in 2008. You could even throw 38-year-old Mike Mussina into the mix if you must, but holding 245 wins to date, the accomplishment seems unlikely at best.
Even if by some stroke of magic both Johnson and Mussina do one day join the 300-win club, which held a mere 22 members prior to last night, Glavine’s mark should never be seen in the shadow of the achievements of either Rodriguez or Bonds.
Pushing some of the game’s aging wonders aside, the picture reveals that the most dominant pitchers of today’s era have an all but insurmountable challenge ahead of them. Roy Oswalt is 191 wins away from 300 at the age of 29. Johan Santana, 28, has 89 wins to his credit. C.C. Sabathia and Carlos Zambrano, both 26, hold 95 and 78 career victories, respectively.
Throw the exact numbers aside and the issue at hand is easy to see; great names such as these four would need to average over 15 wins for the better part of the next decade and a half to reach 300. That would push each of these four into their early-to-mid 40’s, and ask for a constant period of longevity far longer than the mere 29 seasons that Oswalt, Sabathia, Santana, and Zambrano have combined to toss at this stage in their respective careers.
The moral of the story isn’t meant to take anything away from the figures “500” or “755,” rather to show that as epic as these figures are, their likes will be seen again in the not so distant future.
And showing its face on the other side of the greatest record there ever was, “300” may have closed its doors for the final time.
Still caught up in baseball’s great home run race? Adam Loberstein is too busy to care, singing Tom Glavine’s song at aloberstein@projectprospect.com.