One of a dying breed

By Austin Amoroso

On Wednesday night, a pitcher took one step closer to baseball immortality, to joining the most elite of pitching clubs and all but cementing himself in baseball lore.

Tom Glavine won the 299th game of his career that night, beating the Pirates with six innings of three-run ball. On the very same night, Alex Rodriguez also took one step closer to an exclusive and quite impressive club, slugging the 499th homerun of his career. But in media outlets everywhere, A-Rod is receiving a lot more pub than Glavine. I just can’t figure out why.

Maybe it’s because Rodriguez is the face of baseball. Or because Glavine is almost 42 and well past his prime. Or just because America (and chicks) digs the long ball. Whatever the reason, it doesn’t make much sense because what Glavine is about to do is much more special.

While the two clubs have roughly the same amount of members, eight have hit homerun number 500 in the past 20 years while only three have won their 300th game over the same span. Bottom line, the 500-homerun club is losing its distinction while the 300-win club is gaining it.

And while there are 22 300-game winners in baseball history, half of them played before 1930 when pitchers were making 45 starts, throwing 400 innings and winning 35 games a year.

So the modern 300-win club really only has 11 members, making what Glavine is about to do all that much more impressive. Two of those 11 are active right now (Roger Clemens and Greg Maddux), but Glavine might be the last one to ever accomplish the feat.

Yes there are two other pitchers, active ones at that, that joined the club just four years ago, but Glavine is one of a dying breed. In fact, after Glavine, the club might just shut and lock its doors and throw away the key forever.

In this day and age of pitch counts, lefty specialists and seven-man bullpens, it’s becoming increasingly less likely that anyone can pitch deep enough into games to get enough decisions to make it to 300. 250 is going to become the new 300.

Once Glavine does the deed, the next in line are 43-year-old Randy Johnson with 284, 38-year-old Mike Mussina with 244 and the 44-year-old David Wells with 235. Randy has a shot, but it’s looking more and more like his career is over. And Mussina, well, to be honest, I’m pretty surprised every time he pitches well enough to earn a W.

You have to go a lot further down the line to find a pitcher that has a legitimate chance to do it. All the way down to a guy with 129 wins, a guy in 332nd place on the all-time list. He just has to pass 309 more guys to join the elusive club.

That pitcher is Tim Hudson. He is 31 and has 129 wins. All he needs to do is win an average of 14 games over the next 12 or 13 years and he’ll do it. Unlikely. The only other players with even an outside shot at it right now are 29-year-old Roy Oswalt with 107 wins and 28-year-old Mark Buehrle with 104. But they’d both have to sustain an average of about 13 wins over the next 15 years. Even more unlikely.

Glavine’s first shot at 300 will come this weekend in Milwaukee. And the next time through the rotation, he’ll take the mound against the Cubs in Wrigley. Finally, after two starts, if all goes accordingly, he’ll face the Marlins at Shea. Mets disdain aside, I just hope he gets bombed against the Brewers and Cubs because I want a chance to be at Shea when history is made, to see one of the greatest feats in baseball. And to see something that may never happen again.