Randy Johnson will be the last 100 CG pitcher ever

In baseball, the Reds became my second team when I was too far from the Pirates in college. So I noticed the other night when Greg Maddux threw yet another complete game, this time at the expense of los Redlegs. How many CGs is that, you ask? The answer is 109 -- or a complete game roughly every 43 innings.

This struck me as beyond imagination here in 1990s ForbesAmerica. The numbers suggest that Randy Johnson has a chance to reach 100 (he's at 98 now), but after him, we will never see another 100-complete game pitcher again. The candidates:

1. Curt Schilling, 82 complete games. He checks in at one per 39 innings, but he is very old and talks excessively.

2. Mike Mussina, 57 complete games. For real -- after Clemens (118), Maddux, Johnson and Schilling, the next guy is way back at 57. Even if he weren't Mike Mussina, a handicap it'd be tough for anyone to play through, the average here is one complete game per 57 innings -- a substantial drop-off.

3. Tom Glavine, 55; David Wells, 54; John Smoltz, 53; Scott Erickson (retired? alive?) 51; Pedro, 46. No, no, no, no, no.

Down the chart at 42 complete games, we have a live one: Livan Hernandez. Pro: only 32. Con: currently averaging one CG per 53-ish innings. Would have to pitch 5300 innings, then, according to the new math, to reach 100 complete games. Whoops -- only six guys have done that (Cy Young, Pud Galvin, Walter Johnson, Phil Niekro (the non-Joey Galloway pride of Bridgeport, Ohio), Nolan Ryan and Gaylord Perry). Clemens, who has been successfully pitching for more than two thousand years, is only up to 4817.

Several slots below Hernandez, there's Mark Mulder, 25 complete games at age 29, throwing a CG every 52-ish. A stretch.

Finally, we arrive at our last, best hope: Dontrelle Willis -- 15 complete games. At 25 years old, he has time. Only four and a half seasons into his career, he should still have the arm. He's pitching one complete game per 58 innings -- arguably with more time than Livan has to change the pace in a way that would be statistically significant.

Who are we kidding?

Save the stub if you're there when the Big Unit does it. No one you will know will see it again.