1000 K Club

A thousand strikeouts over 1055 innings in his major league career. Not a bad stat for Josh Beckett, a week shy of his 28th birthday. Chicago's Kerry Wood holds the record for the fewest innings needed to hit the 1000 K mark. Wood did it in an amazing 853 games, but then as you know, his history of arm injuries held him back and certainly diminished his ability in recent years.

Of course, it's the next thousand that will be tougher for Beckett, who was the 422nd pitcher to reach the milestone. There are only 62 players to reach 2000 Ks, and just 16 pitchers who have topped the 3000 K list. Nolan Ryan, the King of the K, holds a record in MLB that will never be broken: 5714 strikeouts. The move to a 5-man rotation in the 70s combined with the more liberal use of the bullpen won't give today's pitchers the opportunity for innings that Ryan had back in his heyday. Not to take anything away from Nolan. For his career, he racked up his 5714 strikeouts over just 5386 innings. To finish an MLB career at age 46 averaging more than one strikeout per inning is remarkable.

For Josh Beckett, who grew up idolizing fellow Texans Ryan and Clemens, he downplayed the significance of his feat. "It's a cool milestone. It means you've been around for a while and gotten your share of strikeouts."