Much fanfare has surrounded the immanent retirements of the San Diego Padres' Tony Gwynn and the Baltimore Orioles' Cal Ripken. Lost in the shadows, if you can believe it, is the greatest leadoff hitter of all-time. While he has not officially announced his retirement, it's a pretty safe bet that the Padres' Rickey Henderson is also in the twilight of his career. But Henderson is not going to leave the game quietly, which should not be surprising - he has always been an outspoken character in a career stretching back to 1979.
Instead of using his big mouth to do the talking, however, Henderson's statistics are making the noise this time. Already the all-time leader in stolen bases and walks, Henderson is within two runs of breaking Ty Cobb's career mark and needs only five more hits to reach the 3,000 plateau.
You probably know that the San Francisco Giants' slugger Barry Bonds needs only four more homeruns in the last week and a half of play to shatter Mark McGwire's 1998 home run record of 70. What you probably don't know is that Bonds' 70th homer will put him past Reggie Jackson for seventh on the all-time home run list with 564. Additionally, if Bonds can draw nine walks in his team's final nine games, he will finish with 171 walks, breaking Babe Ruth's 1923 record for walks in a season with 170. Amazingly, Bonds has a shot at dropping Ruth to number two in yet another area, single season slugging percentage. After 153 games, his slugging percentage is a whopping .837, and with a big final week he could pass Ruth's record .847 which the slugger achieved in 1920.
While the offensive explosion that has been going on for the past decade or so has been the talk of baseball, there still are some talented pitchers out there. One is the Arizona Diamondbacks' Randy Johnson, who is also hoping to break a long-standing record - Nolan Ryan's single season strikeout mark. With three scheduled starts remaining, Johnson, who currently has 350 K's, will need to average 11 strikeouts per contest to tie Ryan's 1973 mark of 383.
On the pennant race front, the drama in the National League East is as captivating as ever. On Tuesday night, the Atlanta Braves pulled back into first place with a dramatic, 3-2, extra-inning win over the Florida Marlins. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Phillies were routed at home by the Cincinnati Reds, 8-1. The loss dropped the Phillies one game behind the first place Braves. The New York Mets kept pace with the Braves, shutting out the lowly Montreal Expos by a 2-0 margin. All three teams were victorious on Wednesday night - Atlanta Picked up a 4-1 win over Florida, Philadephia 8-0 over Cincinnati and the Mets also defeated Montreal 5-2 over. The Mets victory was the team's seventh win in eight games since baseball resumed its season following the Sept. 11 tragedy. The win was also the Mets 24th victory in their last 30 games. The Mets and the Braves will go head to head for a three game series beginning Friday night in Atlanta.
On Tuesday, the Mets won a coin flip with the Braves and Phillies, so if New York is tied for the division lead with either team at the conclusion of the regular season, it would host a one-game playoff on Oct. 8 to determine the division winner. If the Braves and Phillies were to tie for first place in the East, Philadelphia would be the home team in the one-game playoff.
Although the American League playoff will be set once the Cleveland Indians clinch the American League Central, the National League playoff picture is a mess. Currently there are eight teams vying for four playoff spots. In addition to the Braves, Phillies, and the Mets - none of which can realistically win the wild card and therefore must win the east to make the playoffs - there are five other teams vying for the three other playoffs spots. The Houston Astros, who currently have the best record in the NL, the St. Louis Cardinals, Diamondbacks, Giants, and Los Angeles Dodgers are all either leading their respective division or are within 4.5 games of their divisional leader.
