Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Well, the Braves' streak of division titles officially ended Wednesday, and in all likelihood the Mets will clinch the division tonight in Pedro's return appearance.

I did realize that they are clinching earlier in 2006 than in 1986 - in 1986 they did not clinch until Sept. 17 despite amassing 108 wins.

On top of that, the Braves have not gone without winning the division since 1990. So being the retrospective person I am, I was thinking about what was different then and started a list:

• Rickey Henderson has just become the all-time stolen base leader with 939. The record is now 1406, an increase of 50%.
• Ken Griffey, Jr. was a rookie. This was also the rookie season for Frank Thomas, Curt Schilling, David Justice, Tino Martinez, JOEY (Albert) Belle, and Luis Gonzalez.
• Only two players hit 40 home runs - Ryne Sandberg (40) and Cecil Fielder with an out-of-nowhere 51 homers.
• Davey Johnson was fired and Bud Harrelson was hired. Immediately after the firing, the Mets won 11 games in a row. Despite the turnaround, Pittsburgh wins the first of three consecutive division titles before losing to eventual champ Cincinnati, led by "Nasty Boys" and future flameouts Norm Charlton, Rob Dibble, and Randy Myers.
• Ex-Mets Gary Carter and Keith Hernandez retired in desolate locations - San Francisco and Cleveland. Bill Buckner also retires, from Boston, after three years with California, then Kansas City.
• The Yankees finished with the worst record in the AL East, at 67-95. Amazingly, this is glossed over on the Yankees' website. George Steinbrenner is suspended for "life" thanks to Howie Spira - which turns out to be two seasons. The only bright spot is rookie Kevin Maas and his 21 homers - who is a raging disappointment thereafter - and Andy Hawkins' no-hitter - a 4-0 loss thanks to three eighth-inning errors. On the bright side, the manager was named Stump.
• Dave Stewart won 20 games for the fourth season in a row. He would never win more than 12 again. He was overshadowed in 1990 by teammate Bob Welch, who went 27-6, teammate Dennis Eckersley, with 48 saves and a 0.61 ERA, and by Roger Clemens, who went 21-6 and led the AL in ERA at 1.93, but imploded during the ALCS against Oakland.
• Greg Maddux won 15 games, for the third year in a row during a streak that would last 16 seasons.
• Bobby Thigpen set the single-season saves record at 57, destroying Dave Righetti's old mark of 46 saves from 1986.
• Nolan Ryan throws his 7th no-hitter and his 12th 1-hitter. He also wins his 300th game.
• Tim Leary barely avoids losing 20 games for the Yankees, going 9-19.
• No one had 200 hits.
• George Brett won the AL Batting title, becoming the only man at that point with batting titles in three different decades.
• At the end of 1990, Barry Bonds had 117 home runs - he now has 732 and about 50 more pounds. He won his first MVP award.
• Julio Franco was in his ninth major-league season.
• Darryl Strawberry, in his last season as a Met, hit 37 HR and 108 RBI before declaring he wanted to be the richest player in baseball and left for Los Angeles. Oops.
• Sammy Sosa hits 15 HR in his first full season for the White Sox, after being traded by the future President. He would be traded again and magically find big muscles and tops of champagne bottles.
• A Bush was in the White House and we were worried about oil prices that could reach (gasp) $40 A BARREL! because Saddam Hussein commits state-sponsored terrorism by invading Kuwait. Oh wait, that was an act of war. My bad.
• By the way, it is currently $64 for a barrel of oil. And that is after a 20% drop in the last month.
• The World Wide Web debuts.
• Germany is reunited.
• Nelson Mandela freed.
• The USSR dies.
• Buster Douglas defeats Mike Tyson. Evander Holyfield then beats the snot out of Buster Douglas.
• David Dinkins was sworn in as New York City mayor, beginning one of the high periods in the city's history.
• Marion Barry, another shining example of a big-city mayor, busted in a crack sting. The bitch did set him up, though.
• Atlanta is chosen to hsot the 1996 Summer Olympics.
• David Souter named to SCOTUS.

Feel old now?

So do I.

Feel free to add more.