MLB

When it comes to elite, powerhouse teams, there suddenly seems to be a void in Major League Baseball this season. At least, that's what the numbers indicate.

Only one team, the 76-50 (.603) Los Angeles Angels, is playing .600 ball through Thursday's games. That's a lofty winning percentage to meet, but it reinforces what feels like an increased level of parity in the sport.

Let's go back 25 years to Aug. 22, 1989, to appreciate Nolan Ryan doing something that hadn't been done before, hasn't been done since and may never be done again.

Ryan, then a 42-year-old veteran in his first year with the Texas Rangers, began a game against the Oakland A's needing six strikeouts to reach 5,000 for his career. Hardly a tall order for The Ryan Express, so the only real question was who would help him make history.

The 2014 season is nearing its final month, so that means it may be time to start thinking of what the New York Mets' 2015 team could look like.

Most of the current team should return next season unless any potential trades happen during the offseason. Some trades at certain positions would be nice, but if next season's roster is very similar or identical to the current roster, here is what a likely 2015 Opening Day lineup could look like.

Already the all-time leader in strikeouts, Nolan Ryan became the first pitcher to ever record 5,000 strikeouts when he fanned future Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson on August 22, 1989.

Now 25 years later, that looks like a mark that will never be reached again, and it's not the only milestone that may never be touched.

For the sake of argument, we'll consider the modern era to be everything that happened after the 1919 season.

It's now been 25 years since Pete Rose accepted a permanent ban for betting on baseball, and it's still one of the most hotly debated topics in all of professional sports.

Rose retired following the 1986 season as the sport's all-time leader with 4,256 hits and 3,562 games played. It was his tenacious style of play that made him a fan favorite and the heart and soul of the Big Red Machine.

There is no jockeying back and forth at the top of the wild-card standings for these teams. Not yet, at least.

But just because these teams face sizable deficits in those races with about six weeks remaining until Game 162 doesn’t mean their chances are flatlined.

Dark horses? Sure. Long shots? A couple of them. Time to look to 2015? Eh, not quite.

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When an early morning team meeting is needed just before facing a team 20 games under .500 in your own house, it might be time to start choosing pallbearers.

The New York Yankees won Thursday, a fine shutout against the Houston Astros, but let’s be real here: When this is the win a team hopes turns around a lackluster season, it’s just going to keep going in the same direction.

The Los Angeles Angels suffered a potentially crushing blow Wednesday night when they lost ace Garrett Richards for the next six to nine months with a torn patellar tendon in his left knee.

The divisional race died in 1994. And the wild card killed it. 

When a second-place team can sneak into the playoffs, what does first-place matter? Sure, there's home-field advantage (and bragging rights) to consider. The idea of going all-out for the division flag, though, was buried two decades ago.

Or so the story goes.

In the immediate aftermath of Thursday evening's team-record-tying 10th straight victory, it's apparent that the Washington Nationals are finally living up to their potential and putting the rest of the National League, if not all of baseball, on notice.