On Deck Players approaching significant milestones Player Stat Needs Milestone Barry Bonds BB 121 2,190* Rafael Palmeiro AB 438 10,000 Rafael Palmeiro H 217 3,000 Fred McGriff HR 9 500 Ken Griffey Jr. HR 18 500 Andres Galarraga HR 2 400 Barry Bonds HR 2 661 Jim Thome HR 19 400 Gary Sheffield HR 20 400 Mike Piazza HR 39 400 Ellis Burks HR 49 400 Greg Maddux W 11 300 Randy Johnson K 123 4,000 Rod Beck Sv 14 300 Troy Percival Sv 16 300 Mariano Rivera Sv 16 300 Jose Mesa Sv 50 300 * ML record

Barry Bonds is just a couple of swings away from launching his way into sole possession of third place on baseball's career home run list. It's a very nice accomplishment. Impressive, even. Practically historic.

With all this trumpeting going on, though, with this pitch-by-pitch dissection we're getting every game, you'd think Bonds was about to break a time-worn, dyed-in-the-books record. It's weird. It's a little out of place. It's a classic case of the game's manic obsession with numbers.

There's a difference, of course, between reaching a milestone and breaking a major league record. A record's a record. It's practically sacrosanct, no matter how funky it might be. Quick example: 755. Hank Aaron's home run mark. The record of all records. Everyone knows that. Another one: 16 straight years with at least 15 wins (Greg Maddux). It's a little funky. But no one's ever done it before, so it's a record.

A milestone ... well, it's something that's on the way. Five hundred homers is a milestone. Seven fifty-five is still the record. A milestone, remember, is not a record. But a record certainly is a milestone.

Bonds will not set any home run records this season (unless he goes for 74). I'm betting he won't even get to Babe Ruth's 714 homers for second place (which would be another milestone anyway, not a record).

Still, other records can be set this year. And a lot of milestones will be reached, both funky and non-funky.

Stay with us ...

• With 118 more walks, Bonds will have 2,191 for his career, breaking the major league record held by the greatest walker -- not to mention one of the best talkers -- of all time, Rickey Henderson. Bonds has averaged nearly 140 walks a season for the past nine years. He owns the record for most free passes in a season (198 in 2002). On the Top 10 list of most walks in a single season, Bonds' name appears three times. So get the pitch-by-pitch dissection ready. Cue the live break-ins. This record is all but done. Unless, of course, Rickey works his way back onto a roster somewhere. Rickey, as Rickey will tell you, doesn't give up easily.

• Cincinnati's Ken Griffey Jr. needs 18 home runs to hit the magic 500 for his career. Fred McGriff, if he finds a job, needs only nine for 500. Philadelphia's Jim Thome started the season 19 dingers short of 400. The Yankees' Gary Sheffield is 20 round-trippers short of 400. These are all great accomplishments. These are all milestones. These guys are all a loooong way from the record.

• If the Phillies lose 80 games this season, Larry Bowa's head will explode. If it's not chopped off first. Either would be notable. Neither would be a record.

• Maddux is just 11 wins shy of 300. Given his track record during the past 16 years, 11 wins seems a lock for the future Hall of Famer. The way things are going, Maddux may be the last to reach 300 for a long, long time. If anyone ever gets there again. Tom Glavine is next on the list, with 252 wins after his Opening Day victory over the Braves. But Glavine is 38 years old. And he plays for the Mets. So who's kidding whom here? Anyway, when Maddux makes 300, he'll still be 211 wins short of Cy Young's major-league record -- or, at Maddux's win pace, about 14 more years of work. Impressive milestone, though. He'll be only the 20th player ever to win 300 games.

• The Yankees' Mike Mussina, who has 199 career wins, already has lost his first two starts this year, both to the Devil Rays. Has anyone ever lost his first two starts of the season to the Devil Rays? Does that make it a record? Because it's sure not much of a milestone.

• The Detroit Tigers need only 40 wins to equal their win total for all of 2003. If they won them all in a row ... heck, yes, it'd be a record, breaking the mark of 26 consecutive victories set by the 1916 New York Giants. But the Tigers should just shoot for 40 wins before the end of June, or maybe before the All-Star break. It wouldn't be a record. It would, however, be a miracle.

• With 68 more victories, the Devil Rays will reach a milestone of sorts: a 70-win season. It may be routine for a lot of teams, but Tampa Bay has never been there before. It'd be a Rays record. For whatever that's worth.

• Arizona's Randy Johnson started the season needing 129 strikeouts to hit a memorable milestone for pitchers: 4,000 Ks. Only three pitchers are in the 4K club: Nolan Ryan, Steve Carlton and Roger Clemens. Once the Unit hits 4,000, he'll have a mere 1,715 more to go to break Ryan's record.

• With three more balls hit over the head of the Yankees' Kenny Lofton -- end of the month, at the latest -- George Steinbrenner will start looking in earnest for a center fielder who actually can play center field. The Boss, of course, is a longtime record-holder for fastest trigger finger.

• With just 165 more stolen bases, Lofton will get exactly halfway -- halfway! -- to Rickey's major league record for stolen bases in a career. Of course, he won't get that far. (If he did, Lofton would wipe out Rickey's single-season stolen base record of 130.) Given Lofton's theft rate over the past two seasons, in fact, it would take him roughly 5 1/2 years -- at which point he'll be 42 -- to reach the halfway point of Rickey's record (now standing at 1,406). That would put Lofton in 11th place. No records. It just shows that Rickey could run.

• Texas' Eric Young needs 64 steals -- 10 more than he's ever had in a season -- to reach 500. That would put him about 36th on the all-time list. But 500's a nice round number.

• It should be three or four months, max, before people finally begin to realize what a stud Kansas City's Carlos Beltran is. He has at least 100 RBIs in all four of his full seasons. Last year, he became just the sixth player ever with three seasons of at least 100 runs, 100 RBIs and 30 stolen bases. And he's only the third to do it in three consecutive seasons. Those aren't exactly milestones, and they're sure not records.

But they are nice ... facts.

John Donovan is a senior writer for SI.com.