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04/09/2007 Archived Entry: "Milestones: Week 1"
Opening Day-April 7
By Michael Toeset
On the Reds’ Opening Day, the mighty Adam Dunn hit his 200th home run. The past three years, he’s averaged 42 homers a season. While he strikes out like Dave Kingman and plays defense like Kingman, Dunn is a much more productive batter (Kingman really only had one season that’s comparable to Dunn).
Craig Biggio moved up the hit list twice during Opening Week. Hit No. 2,931 on April 2 moved him into 31st place, past Rogers Hornsby and Jake Beckley. Two days later, Biggio moved into 30th place, past Willie Keeler. Next up is Frank Robinson (2,943).
Kenny Lofton stole his 600th base on April 2. See previous entry.
Todd Jones pitched in his 875th game on April 2, moving him to No. 22 on the all-time list. All those games have come in relief save one – a one-start experiment in 2003. Next on the list is Jeff Reardon, with 880 games.
Barry Bonds moved up the all-times steals list on April 3, swiping No. 510. With all the focus being on his home runs, fans tend to forget how good of a base stealer Bonds was. He’s 32nd all time right now, and he needs six more to catch Jack Doyle. Bonds’ best SB season totals: 52, 43 and 40.
Billy Wagner recorded save No. 325 on April 3, breaking a tie with Troy Percival. Roberto Hernandez is next, with 326. Wagner’s best saves totals: 44, 40 and two 39s.
Armando Benitez pitched in game No. 700 on April 4. He also is gunning to move up the saves list. With 281, he needs six more to pass Rod Beck.
On April 6, Sammy Sosa drove in his 1,576th run, breaking the tie he shared with Beckley. Next up are Al Kaline (1,583), Harmon Killebrew (1,584) and Hornsby (1,584). And possibly Frank Thomas, who has five more ribbies than Sosa.
Jason Isringhausen lodged save No. 250 on April 6. Remember when Izzy came up the majors and was supposed to be the next Tom Glavine? Good thing he converted to a reliever; no one remembers a starter with a losing record and a wild ERA.
Alex Rodriguez hit home run No. 466 on April 7, moving him past Dave Winfield to 28th all time. The next non-active players on the list are Willie Stargell and Stan Musial, both with 475.
Melvin Mora collected his 1,000th career hit on April 7. Mora seems to be in the twilight of his career – just three years after his monster .340-27-104 season – so he probably won’t be reaching any more hits milestones.
