Mark McGwire is tiring of stats and milestones, but a big one is coming up. He's just two homers from the 500 home run club. There's stats coming out of the woodwork that nobody ever knew about that I think sometimes blow things way out of proportion. He almost assuredly will break Babe Ruth's record of reaching 500 in the fewest at-bats, since he's at 5,478 and Ruth needed 5,801.
Statistics are for geeks.
McGwire entered Tuesday night's game in a sprint for 500, having hit 14 homers in 18 games, including No. 498 against San Diego on Monday night. But he acts as if there's no special incentive, even though only 15 players have reached 500, and all are in the Hall of Fame. It's going to happen one day. I don't know when. He feels the same way about Tony Gwynn's quest for 3,000 hits, which is being played out in front of him the next three days.