Card of the Week 8/6

The Card of the Week this week was originally scheduled to be my favorite card from the Allen & Ginter Box I busted ( Torii Hunter, if you're interested) but Tom Glavine got one of those round number milestone thingys over the weekend. Ok, so this is a BIG round number milestone thingy. Home run milestones are being passed right and left and the most hallowed record in sports is about to fall. In the age of bulked up bodies, Quad-A pitching staffs and bandbox ballparks, homers are easy. 300 wins is hard.

Tom became the twenty-third member of the 300 club with a victory over the Cubs on Sunday night. There may not be a twenty-fourth for quite some time. The closest active player to 300 is randy Johnson with 284. Unfortunately Randy's not so active right now with a bad back and at 43 years old, time is not on his side. Behind Randy is Mike Mussina with 246 wins, and at 38 he has an outside shot if he can stay healthy and effective for at least three or four more years. After that is a collection of pitchers the wrong side of 40 and Pedro Martinez who is still 94 wins shy at 35. You'd think an Atlanta fan would be more excited about this, but sadly, I'm not.

Even though most people find it to be inconceivable, there are a subset of die-hard Braves fans who just can't stand Tommy Glavine and I'm one of them. This isn't the time to go into a diatribe on why I'm no longer a fan, this is a great baseball achievement and it's time to honor it. 300 wins is one of those 'automatically punch your ticket to Cooperstown' numbers (and sadly, unfairly keep them out as well) so I have to tip my hat to him. Besides, Tom might be up at 350 wins if not for the ineptitude of his bullpen over the years. This card from 2004 Fleer Hot Prospects isn't really my favorite card of Tom (Topps Gallery Heritage rookie reprint) but it's certainly my most expensive, which Tom would appreciate.



See? The Onion agrees with me.