When Cal Raleigh makes history, you can be pretty sure somebody will let you know about it. When Shohei Ohtani makes history, there’s an excellent chance a few zillion headlines are coming — in multiple languages.But sometimes in baseball, history isn’t so obvious. Which means … this must be a job for our Weird and Wild Department!So if there’s a very wacky all-time strikeout record on the line … or there’s a serious threat to a home run record held by the legendary Topsy Hartsel … we’re here for you when no one else is.I apologize in advance that there’s no full-fledged Weird and Wild column this week. Too many balls in the air to make that happen. But I did find time for another edition of Weird and Wild’s September History Watch. So here it comes …K-nock on Wood

James Wood is giving Paul Skenes a run for his money. (Greg Fiume / Getty Images)I was digging in on the National League leaderboards Thursday morning when I noticed something.MOST STRIKEOUTS, 2025James Wood — 210

Paul Skenes — 209So wait a minute, you’re saying. One of those guys (Wood) is a hitter, and the other (Skenes) is a pitcher. You would be right about that. That’s also the point!Here was my question: Has any league’s leaderboard ever looked like that — where the hitter with the most strikeouts actually had more K’s than the pitcher with the most strikeouts? Since the name of this column is “History Watch,” you can probably guess the answer. Nope!It’s barely even been close. The only truly narrow call in a full season came way back in 1938, when Clay Bryant (the pitcher) edged Vince DiMaggio (the hitter) for the National League strikeout “title,” 135-134. There was also a late charge in the NL as recently as last year, when Chris Sale (the pitching champ) missed his last two starts, and Elly De La Cruz (the hitting champ) then made it to within seven of him (225-218). But other than that, this “record” has never even been in play.So can Wood pull this off?His challenge is that it isn’t only Skenes he’s dueling. The Giants’ Logan Webb passed Skenes in his start Thursday night, and now leads the league (and Wood), 211-210. Plus Jesús Luzardo (206 K’s) and Dylan Cease (201) are still technically alive, with two more starts left.I knew this was bound to happen one of these years. Now here we are. Or not.No Crown for you