The best thing about baseball is that you can do something about yesterday tomorrow.
-- Manny Trillo
Before I get rolling, did anybody see the play David Wright of the Mets made on Tuesday night against the Padres? Brian Giles hit a blooper over third base into shallow left - Wright turned and sprinted back after the ball, which twisted away from him at the last second - he dived headlong, caught it with his bare hand fully extended, and somehow held on to it as he came crashing back to earth. The most amazing play I've seen in years and I've been watching the O-Dog all year long. Just breath-taking.
I'm going to see Jeremy Bonderman pitch this afternoon. It so happens that one of the very first pieces I wrote on this site was on the general subject of winning 300 games, and in the comments I named as my sleeper pick to win 300 none other than... Jeremy Bonderman.
Bonderman is still just 22 years old, and he now has 30 lifetime wins. OK, he's got a long way to go.
Anyway, Roger Clemens and Greg Maddux will not be active that much longer, one would think. If Maddux retired at the end of this season, I wouldn't be that surprised - he's still a solid rotation starter, but no longer a great pitcher, and the Cubs are going backward. Clemens has been the best pitcher in baseball this year, and there's no reason to expect a rapid decline. It's just a matter of how many more hotel rooms he cares to visit.
It hasn't been a great year for the three men closest to 300 - Tom Glavine is still a decent pitcher, but he's working for a team that doesn't help him very much - he's at 270 and moving very slowly. Randy Johnson is up to 257, but he has clearly lost some effectiveness, and is having a lot of physical problems. Mike Mussina's 11 wins have him at 222, but he's starting to break down too. Pedro Martinez, at 194 wins, is the only contender still pitching like an elite pitcher, even if it's not quite the Pedro of five years ago.
If none of these guys make it, which is quite possible, we will have no active 300 game winners. Unless someone like Bonderman and Prior, now at the beginning of their careers, eventually gets there. And it'll be quite some time before we know it.
Has there ever been a moment in baseball history when there were no 300 game winners active? (There have of course been great stretches of time when there was no one active who already had 300 wins.)
Well, sure. Anytime before 1888, which is when Pud Galvin became the first man to win 300 games. What about since then?
Galvin's career ended in 1892 - by then, two of the greatest pitchers of all time, Cy Young and Kid Nichols, had both started their careers.
Young passed Galvin as the career leader in 1903, and pitched until 1911, which was Pete Alexander's rookie year. Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson were both active as well.
Alexander left the game in 1930 - by then Lefty Grove had pitched five seasons in Philadelphia. Grove made it to 300, hanging on by the skin of his teeth, until he won his 300th and final game in 1941.
This was a close one. Early Wynn made his debut in 1939, but didn't pitch in the majors in 1940. Luckily Grove was still around. Wynn was back to stay by 1941, and was active in 1942, 43, and 44. But he missed the 1945 season. Warren Spahn made his debut in 1942, but then went to war. He didn't return until 1946 (which is when he actually won his first game.)
There we are - there were no 300 games winners active in 1945.
Since then, we haven't missed a beat. Spahn was active from 1946 through 1965. By 1965, both Gaylord Perry and Phil Niekro were active. By the time Niekro finally packed it in, both Clemens and Maddux had begun their careers.
So 1945 is the only year when there has never been a 300 game winner active, and this is entirely because of the War. Otherwise Wynn and Spahn would both have been pitching (never mind the men who might have made it to 300 if not for the war, most notably Bob Feller and Red Ruffing.)
The fact that there has always been a 300 game winner around - even if we don't yet know who it is - somehow reassures me. Even if Clemens and Maddux are both gone in two years, even if the Unit, the Moose, Glavine, and Pedro all fail to make it - someone among us almost certainly will. Because the present so often resembles the past. And the future, as the late great Dan Quisenberry once remarked, is much like the present, only longer.
Anyway, Bonderman's my sleeper! Barry Zito, by the way, didn't get the decision, in Oakland's win over the Angels last night. Zito, with 83 wins at age 27, is almost certainly not going to make it. But 200 wins is obviously within reach, as it is for Toronto's own Roy Halladay. Doc's now doubtful as far as returning to the rotation on Monday. He shut it down after pitching three simulated innings. The leg got a little stiff, although his stuff was apparently "explosive."
The schedule today:
AL
Detroit (Bonderman 13-8, 4.05) at Toronto (Downs 0-2, 5.75) 12:37
Los Angeles (Byrd 9-7, 4.04) at Oakland (Blanton 7-9, 4.10) 3:35
Tampa Bay (Waechter 4-7, 5.27) at Baltimore (Chen 8-6, 4.24) 7:05
Texas (Wasdin 1-1, 4.17) at New York (Proctor 0-0, 5.16) 7:05
Cleveland (Millwood 5-9, 3.12) at Kansas City (Carrasco 5-5, 4.29) 8:10
NL
St.Louis (Mulder 13-5, 3.79) at Chicago (Maddux 8-9, 4.57) 2:20
Pittsburgh (Fogg 5-7, 4.96) at Colorado (Francis 11-7, 5.37) 3:05
New York (Glavine 8-9, 4.50) at San Diego (Williams 5-8, 5.16) 3:35
Arizona (Webb 9-8, 3.91) at Florida (Moehler 6-9, 3.79) 7:05
San Francisco (Schmidt 8-6, 4.28) at Atlanta (Hudson 8-6, 3.43) 7:35
Washington (Drese 7-11, 5.55) at Houston (Pettitte 9-8, 2.64) 8:05
Philadelphia (Lidle 9-9, 4.58) at Los Angeles (Perez 6-6, 4.67) 10:10
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=2005081023195063