10,000

Not so long ago, Bay Area sportscasters were making much ado about the Giants getting their 10,000th victory. At the time, I thought San Francisco's PR machine was working overtime and scraping the bottom of the barrel for any random tidbit to bolster morale. I mean, considering the number of games franchises have played in the history of the sport (more than a century's worth), it would seem commonplace for teams to have five-digit win totals, right?

Not necessarily.

To verify my assumption, I donned my cap as part-time baseball statistics dork and trawled through the MLB database for answers. As the following table shows, I was wrong. Only San Francisco has reached the five-digit milestone so far.

Since all thirty teams have historical winning percentages hovering around .500, it only makes sense that the oldest teams would be closest to the 10,000-victory mark. This is true with the exception of the Yankees who have played 2,000 less games than the Giants. If the Evil Empire continue its winning ways, it is on pace to reach 10,000 faster than any other team in the league and by the year 2014.

Of the teams on the list, the next team likely to reach the meaningless milestone will be the Cubs sometime in 2007. The Giants' rivals, the L.A. Dodgers, are on pace to top 10,000 in the 2009 season. The other local team and the more successful of the two this season, the Oakland Athletics, will win their 10,000th game in 2032, when I'm 58, should I be so lucky to still be alive. By then, I would also hope the Giants had won at least one World Series title.

Of the older teams, Philadelphia has the longest way to go. No one seemed to celebrate the news that the Phillies reached the other 10,000 milestone this year. Then again, Philadelphia's PR machine probably didn't want word to spread about being the first team to 10,000 losses. They are 1,249 games away from 10,000 wins and 1,274 games under .500. Rich only has to wait 17 years for his beloved Phillies to accomplish the first milestone, but will probably have to bide his time a little longer before they break even.

Of course, if he needs something to brighten his day, he only has to think about the poor Tampa Bay fans. Their team not only has the worst historical winning percentage (.401), but the Devil Rays won't be anywhere near 10,000 wins for another 146 years. As some not-so-famous baseball commentator probably once said, "Sucks to be them."