Potential Opening Day Milestones

On Opening Day across Major League Baseball many players will have a chance to either reach significant personal milestones or move up in the all-time record books. I have compiled a list of the milestones that potentially have a chance to happen on Opening Day. I grant that some have better chances of happening (i.e. John Olerud getting one walk to move into 43rd place all-time) than others (Gary Sheffield getting four HR to move past Jim Rice for 43rd place all-time) but since you never know what is going to happen in baseball – I listed all those milestones with even an outside shot of happening.

· Roberto Alomar needs one double for 499 to move into 40th place all-time passing Bill Buckner, Al Kaline and Sam Rice. With two doubles he’ll move into 39th place all-time passing Rusty Staub. Three doubles moves Alomar into 38th place – passing Goose Goslin

· With one HR – Adrian Beltre will reach the 100 HR mark for his career

· Barry Bonds needs three HR for 661 to move into 3rd place all-time passing Willie Mays

· If Barry Bonds gets four doubles for 540 then he will move into 21st place all-time passing Al Simmons. If he gets five doubles – he’ll move into 20th place passing Dave Winfield and Joe Medwick

· Greg Colbrunn needs two HR to reach the 100 HR mark for his career.

· Cliff Floyd needs three hits to reach the 1,000 hit mark for his career

· Juan Gonzalez needs three HR for 432 to pass Cal Ripken and move into 30th place all-time

· Kenny Lofton needs three stolen bases for 541 to move into 37th place all time – passing John Ward

· Edgar Martinez needs one double for 492 to move into 44th place all-time – passing Heinie Manush

· Edgar Martinez needs three HR to reach the 300 HR mark for his career

· Tino Martinez needs one HR to reach the 300 HR mark for his career

· John Olerud needs one walk for 1199 to move into 43rd place all-time passing Richie Ashburn

· Rafael Palmeiro needs one walk for 1225 to move into 40th place all-time passing Jimmy Wynn

· Rafael Palmeiro needs one double for 544 to move in 18th place all-time passing Tony Gwynn. (Potentially Palmeiro can pass Wynn in walks and Gwynn in doubles on the same day making for many rhyming headlines)

· Rafael Palmeiro needs four runs for 1552 to move into 46th place all-time passing Reggie Jackson

· Gary Sheffield needs one HR for 380 to move into 47th place all-time passing both Orlando Cepeda and Tony Perez. With three HR he moves into 45th place all-time – passing Albert Belle. With four HR he moves into 43th place all-time – passing Jim Rice and Frank Howard. (Sheffield is in a race with Jim Thome who has 381 career HR.)

· Alfonso Soriano needs two HR to reach the 100 mark for his career.

· Sammy Sosa needs two RBI for 1452 to move into 46th place all-time – passing Jim Rice. With four RBI Sosa will pass Eddie Matthews for 45th place.

· With two HR – Sammy Sosa will have 512 as a Cub – tying the franchise record held by Ernie Banks.

· Jim Thome needs one HR for 382 to move into 45th place all-time passing Albert Belle.(As mentioned above – Thome will be in a season long race with Sheffield who currently has 379 HR.)

· Omar Vizquel needs one stolen base to reach the 300 mark for his career.

Should be interesting to keep an eye out for many of these marks on Opening Day.