I recently posted on the very long-term and continuing growth in the prevalence of the strikeout in the major leagues over many decades. For example in 1982, there were an average of 5.04 strikeouts per game in the major leagues, as compared to 7.10 strikeouts per game in 2011. All the more remarkable, then, that Reggie Jackson has continuously held the all-time career strikeout record for a hitter since 1982, with the 30th anniversary of his setting the all-time record coming up in August. Details, and challengers to his record, after you click that clever little “Read The Rest of This Entry ” line.

By my calculations, Reggie passed Willie Stargell as the all-time strikeout king on August 20, 1982. Stargell had begun the 1982 season, which turned out to be his last in the majors, with 1,912 Ks to Jackson’s 1,810.   As of August 18, 1982 Willie had only 16 strikeouts on the season, for a career total of 1,928 (Stargell hadn’t played since August 15 and wouldn’t get back into a game until August 22).  Meanwhile, on that same August 18, Reggie went 0 for 4, including three strikeouts in three plate appearances against John Tudor of the Red Sox.  Those three Ks made it 118 for Reggie on the season, tying Stargell’s career figure of 1,928.  Jackson somehow failed to strike out on August 19th, but on August 20th, with Stargell still on the shelf, Reggie fanned twice to take over the all-time record, with five seasons still left in his career.

Thirty years later, there are serious challengers among us: (1) a veteran who is very close to the record but at the tail end of his career; (2) an all-time great in possible decline whose long-term contract might help get him the record; and (3) a strikeout prodigy who seemed a sure thing to break the record but has suffered a deep mid-career crisis.

The all-time career strikeout leaders:
1. Reggie Jackson 2,597
2. Jim Thome 2,487
3. Sammy Sosa 2,306
4. Andres Galarraga 2,003
5. Jose Canseco 1,942
6. Willie Stargell 1,936

The active career strikeout leaders:
1. Jim Thome 2,487
2. Alex Rodriguez 1,916
3. Manny Ramirez 1,813
4. Adam Dunn 1,809
5. Bobby Abreu 1,763

Manny and Abreu are obviously too late in their careers to catch Reggie, so that leaves the other three guys, each with a very different sort of opportunity at the record.

Jim Thome needs only 111 more Ks to pass Reggie — he is thisclose. But it’s unclear where he will get the plate appearances necessary to get those last 111 Ks. He’s a DH playing in the NL this season and he’ll turn 42 years old in August. He almost certainly needs to play both this season and next — he hasn’t had 100 Ks in a season since 2009 — and you have to wonder if that is likely.

A few years ago, Alex Rodriguez seemed like a sure thing to eventually pass Reggie, just as he seemed a sure thing to set the career home run record. But he turns 37 in July and he’s averaged just 124 games a season the last four years. Whether he will ever be as prolific, in homers or whiffs or anything else, as he once was, is a serious question. But then he also has a contract that guarantees him astounding sums of money every year for another six years, and playing six more seasons even at a highly reduced production level may be sufficient for him to rack up enough strikeouts to beat Reggie’s, or perhaps Jim Thome’s, record.

Adam Dunn has been by far the most prolific whiffer in major league history for his age; he is way, way far ahead of Reggie Jackson’s, or anyone else’s, strikeout pace through the same age.

Most MLB Career Strikeouts Through Age 31 Season:
1. Adam Dunn 1,809
2. Sammy Sosa 1,537
3. Alex Rodriguez 1,524
4. Andruw Jones 1,470
5. Bobby Bonds 1,384
6. Jim Thome 1,377
7. Reggie Jackson 1,366

The only issue for Dunn is that last season he suddenly played like someone who did not belong in the major leagues anymore. As has been noted here at HHS, the depth and speed of Dunn’s stunning decline is extremely unusual (John Milton himself, had he not already covered the story, might have been inspired by this Fall of Adam). But then Dunn has been an unusual sort of player, and the likelihood of his recovery is unclear. Can Dunn come back sufficiently to eventually gain the All-Time Strikeout King crown that had seemed to be his for the taking? Can anybody, finally, after all these years, out-fan Reggie Jackson?