Column: Enjoy baseball's milestones
Published Sept. 18, 2007
This past weekend, a great achievement was reached in baseball. But you probably didn't take notice because, these days, milestones in Major League Baseball are more common than a Kansas City Royals loss.
This particular feat happened to be the 500th career home run for Chicago White Sox slugger Jim Thome, a slugger with an adequate .280 batting average and less than 2,000 career hits.
Twenty years ago, Thome's shot would have literally been heard around the world, as it was once a feat reserved for the elite. But in today's power-driven realm of professional baseball, Thome's milestone is hard to find on sporting Web sites and is missing all together in the national news.
How have we gotten here?
Ironically, in a year supposed to be dedicated to acknowledging and chastising Barry Bonds' record-breaking home run, Bonds' peers have done their fair share to take away the attention.
Craig Biggio became the 28th player in MLB history to get 3,000 hits, Tom Glavine became just the 23rd pitcher to win 300 games and Thome became the 23rd batter to say goodbye to 500 baseballs.
But Biggio is the sixth player to join the 3,000 hit club in the last eight years, Glavine is the third pitcher to reach 300 in the past five years and Thome is the third to achieve 500 home runs in this year alone.
It doesn't take a genius to realize that records are being matched and broken at an astounding rate, especially considering the game of baseball is more than a century old.
Many critics attribute these milestones to steroids and human growth hormone, as we have adopted sweeping generalizations in sports to the point of becoming pessimists. No longer can we hold on to the hope that heroes in athletics still exist, for what was once believed to be super-human ability is now deemed as a result of over-the-counter supplements.
Even players like Rick Ankiel of the St. Louis Cardinals, who has overcome unbelievable adversity and the most difficult position change, are now credit-less when evidence of HGH use is brought up, even though he used it to recover from Tommy John surgery on his elbow.
So what should we make of Thome, Ankiel and other achievers? Should we celebrate it as if 500 home runs actually means something these days or should we point to steroids as the only way that an average Joe could become Superman? The answer should be an accepting one — the game is advancing and leaving us in the dust.
Players today are stronger and better than ever before, no longer classified as five-tool players, as they all have seven at their disposal. And steroids or not, these players are the 750 best in the world at what they do.
Thome has devoted 17 years of his life to baseball. After years of playing a game, he did it well enough to make history.
Just as we hope for recognition and that gold watch when the primes of our careers conclude, we should honor him and offer our appreciation.
Don't allow Thome to enter the record-books in front of closed eyes. Open them wide, and maybe you'll enjoy what you find.