More than any other sport, baseball is a numbers racket.
From 20 wins in a season to 3,000 hits in a career, there are milestones that even the most cursory fan knows are cause for celebration and adoration.
Regrettably, the stat we used to revere above all others no longer gets us in the mood for keeping count.
Home runs.
Albert Pujols is one of the great sluggers in major league history, but his pursuit of 600 homers with the Los Angeles Angels has gone largely unnoticed in recent weeks. Sure, there's a big countdown sign in center field at the Big A, currently sitting on 599, and many fans broke out their cellphones each time he came to bat Wednesday night in a 2-1 victory over the Atlanta Braves, ready to document history.