300

It's the hottest DVD in America right now, and it's how many career victories Tom Glavine has, thanks to tonight's 8-3 win, in Chicago, against the Cubs.

Glavine was vintage Glavine. He got ahead of hitters, got a few generous strike calls from the home plate umpire (earned by being in the zone all night), and changed location and speed with the veteran savvy of a savvy veteran.

Glavine is the guy every father should make his son watch the first time Sonny Boy asks how hard he was throwing on the radar gun in his high school game. He should sit him down, pop in tonight's game, or just about any of Glavine's other 299 wins, and show Junior that you can throw 85 and still make good big league hitters look bad. If that speed works against Alfonso Soriano and Derek Lee, 70 will work just fine against the J-V team.

In this generation, Glavine will probably be thought of after guys like Clemens, Maddux, and Randy Johnson (rightly so). But he ranks well above pitchers like Schilling, Pedro, Pettitte, Smoltz, and Mussina for, if nothing else, his consistency.

Glavine is now the 23rd member of the 300 club (Gerard Butler is not one of the other 22), and the big question is, will he be the last? As I've said before, there aren't too many pitchers right now with a decent crack at 300. Since my post a few weeks ago, Johnson's season has come to an end, without another win. So he'll need 16 next year, after major back surgery, and at age 44. It's possible, but it'll be tough. And I don't see Johnson pitching for anybody in 2009.

Mussina's 2006 made it look like he had a lot more career left than he appears to have left in 2007. He's 55 wins away and has never had 20 in a season, meaning he's going to need to pitch for at least 4 more seasons. Again, not impossible, but not likely.

Realistically, after Moose, it's Pedro who needs 94 more at age 35, and Pettitte who's the same age and 109 away. Personally, I don't think it's going to happen for any of those guys, meaning it may be Roy Oswalt, C.C. Sabathia, or Johan Santana who ends up getting close.

Or who knows? Maybe it's the 13-year-old who just finished up watching Glavine's 300th and now has a newfound appreciation for pitching rather than just lighting up the gun, who's going to be the next to join the list, some 30 years from now. That, friends, is what makes this game so great.