Roger Clemens wins 350th career game

Roger Clemens won his 350th career game today. This ranks 8th all time. Greg Maddux's 340 wins rank him 10th.

Here is a good exercise that will give you an excellent idea of just how special these two players have been. Take a look at the years in which all the other members of the top 10 played:

1. Cy Young: 1890-1911
2. Walter Johnson: 1907-1927
3. Pete Alexander: 1911-1930
4. Christy Mathewson: 1900-1916
5. Pud Galvin: 1875-1892
6. Warren Spahn: 1942-1965
7. Kid Nichols: 1890-1906
8. Clemens
9. Tim Keefe: 1880-1893
10. Maddux


Let's think about this for a second. Maddux and Clemens are the only guys on this list who are still alive. Aside from them, the most recent player on the list (Warren Spahn) retired in 1965. The second most recent (Pete Alexander) retired in 1930.

In sum, wow! This isn't like the homerun leaders in which many of the guys are recent (which will be increasingly true for the next several years). We haven't seen anything like this in a very, very long time.