Welcome to my favorite day of the year. Here are your active career leaders, with all-time rankings in parentheses:

Batting:

• Games: Omar Vizquel, Tex.: 2680 (30th)
• At-Bats: Omar Vizquel, Tex.: 9745 (30th)
• Runs: Ken Griffey, Jr., Sea.: 1612 (39th)
• Hits: Ken Griffey, Jr. Sea.: 2680 (58th)
• Doubles: Ivan Rodriguez, Hou.: 524 (34th)
• Triples: Johnny Damon, NYY: 92 (193th) — second place, only two behind, is Jimmy Rollins, Phi., who was 29 years old last season.
• Home Runs: Ken Griffey, Jr., Sea.: 611 (5th)
• RBIs: Ken Griffey, Jr., Sea.: 1772 (18th)
• Walks: Jim Thome, CWS: 1550 (15th)
• Strikeouts: Jim Thome, CWS: 2190 (3rd)
• Stolen Bases: Juan Pierre, LA: 429 (56th)
• Caught Stealing: Omar Vizquel, Tex.: 156 (19th)
• Batting Average: Albert Pujols, Stl: .334 (20th)
• On-Base Percentage: Todd Helton, Col.: .428 (10th)
• Slugging Percentage: Albert Pujols, Stl: .623 (4th)

Pitching:

• Games: Trevor Hoffman, Mil: 930 (18th)
• Games Started: Tom Glavine, Atl.: 682 (11th)
• Complete Games: Randy Johnson, SF: 100 (395th)
• Shutouts: Randy Johnson, SF: 37 (58th)
• Innings Pitched: Tom Glavine, Atl.: 4413 (29th)
• Hits: Tom Glavine, Atl.: 4298 (24th)
• Walks: Tom Glavine, Atl.: 1500 (12th)
• Strikeouts: Randy Johnson, SF: 4789 (2nd)
• Wins: Tom Glavine, Atl.: 305 (21st)
• Losses: Tom Glavine, Atl.: 203 (43rd)
• Saves: Trevor Hoffman, Mil.: 554 (1st) — Mariano Rivera is second, 72 behind.
• ERA (5 yrs. minimum): Mariano Rivera, NYY: .228 (17th)

Some quick observations:

1) A lot of 1990s Mariners on the list. Would that they’d stayed together to win something. Or one thing.

2) A quarter of the traditional pitching categories are negative (hits, walks, losses), while only 2/15 of the traditional batting categories are (strikeouts, caught stealing). Seems like a raw deal for pitchers. But I guess the options for positive results from a batter (single, double, triple, homer) are so much more varied than for a pitcher (out, strikeout). Still, seems odd to tabulate the number of hits a pitcher gives up and a batter gets, but not the number of outs for both. I’ve been a fan of the game most of my life and I never realized this?

3) Jim Thome leads all active players in both strikeouts and walks, and has 541 career homeruns. Meaning in only about half (52%) of his 9029 plate appearances did the ball land in an area where a fielder had a shot at it. Wonder where he ranks in this non-category?

4) Whenever anyone talks about unbreakable career records in baseball and doesn’t mention triples (for batters) and complete games (for pitchers)? They don’t know what they’re talking about.

5) Play ball!

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