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There’s poetry in a round number.

Think, for instance, of the moment when your odometer rolls over to 50,000 or 100,000; do you pull over to admire it?

Those fleeting symmetrical figures command a singular fascination. Not a bit under, not a bit over — exact. And, then before you know it, they’re usually gone.

There is the Perfect 10, the 100th anniversary, the 5,000th friend and the 1,000,000th served. Even editors assign 1,000-word stories.

And then there is sports.

In a culture that is numbers obsessed, fans throw around terms like 1,tiffany key rings,000-yard rusher or 100-RBI man all the time, but rarely do they mean that someone actually hit those statistical markers right on the nose. Usually athletes reach that milestone and then add on.

But a glance across the four major sports shows there are those rare times when players, for better or worse, didn’t make it any farther.

Perhaps the most well-known is also the most somber — Roberto Clemente’s 3,000 hits.

Following the 1972 season, Clemente boarded an airplane bound for Nicaragua. He was part of the relief effort to aid victims of an earthquake. But moments after the plane took off, it crashed, killing Clemente, and the other crew and passengers aboard.

Clemente’s impact on baseball went beyond his statistical prowess, but he never got a chance to advance past 3,000 hits when he died at the age of 38.

Of the major sports,tiffany money clips, baseball tends to draw the nerd — er, most cerebral fans, and baseball has an abundance of statistics to satisfy their geekiness, in a variety of categories. Rickey Henderson had 100 stolen bases in 1980. Darryl Strawberry finished his career with 1,000 RBI. Ellis Burks played in exactly 2,000 games. Bruce Sutter is 21st all time with 300 saves. Jim Bunning allowed 1,000 walks in his career.

Jeffrey Leonard and former Cub Shawon Dunston struck out 1,000 times. Leonard, who finished his career in Seattle, struck out in the fifth inning of his final game, which marked his last at bat. He was replaced in the field before his next turn in the lineup and he never played again.

Nobody has exactly 500 home runs. Chuck Klein, however, finished with 300.

New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez is within one home run of joining the 600 Club. But like a car’s odometer, this will likely be just a transitory figure. That doesn’t mean it will be easy for him to hit number 601. After Rodriguez hit No. 500, it took him nine games to hit the next one, and over those nine games, he hit .107.

For pitchers, 300 wins usually means automatic Hall of Fame entry. Both Lefty Grove and Early Wynn have 300 exactly.

A former White Sox player and broadcaster, Wynn struggled for his milestone, failing to achieve it in seven starts over nine months, the longest period ever between a pitcher’s 299th and 300th win. Finally, in 1963, pitching for the Indians at age 43, he pitched only five innings but got the win over the Kansas City A’s. "I was exhausted," he reportedly said.

In basketball, Wilt Chamberlain has the sport’s most notable round number, with the 100 points he scored in 1962. He hit 36 of 63 field goals and 28 of 32 free throws to do it. It took a minor miracle for Chamberlain to hit that many free throws, considering his lifetime percentage is just a shade over 51 percent.

But after that, basketball fails to produce many scintillating round numbers.

Walt Bellamy once had 1,tiffany necklaces,500 rebounds in the 1961-62 season for the Chicago Packers. Danny Manning finished with 1,000 steals, while Shaquille O’Neal, if he retired today, would finish his career with 3,000 assists.

As for the NHL, the late Bob Hopert, a former Blackhawk, sat for 3,300 minutes in the penalty box, fifth most all-time in the NHL. Lanny McDonald had 500 goals, but after that, no hockey stats of significance ended in a couple zeroes.

The NFL, meanwhile, yields more interesting cases. Franco Harris and Curtis Martin both finished their careers with exactly 100 touchdowns. Two quarterbacks, The Bears’ Jim McMahon and Washington’s Doug Williams each threw for 100, but that pales in comparison to Denver’s John Elway, who had 300 when he retired. In 1986, Minnesota quarterback Tommy Kramer earned a Pro Bowl spot and the comeback player of the year award for his 3,000-yard performance, the only time an NFL quarterback threw for that in a single season. No receiver has had exactly 1,000 yards, but Marcus Robinson did have 1,400 for the Bears in 1999. Hall-of-Famer Barry Sanders did have the NFL’s lone 1,500-yard rushing season. Willie Ellison in 1971, Mercury Morris in 1972 — in Miami’s perfect season — Greg Pruitt in 1976 and Ricky Williams in 2000 rushed for exactly 1,000.

So why can’t you say someone who rushed for 998 yards is also a 1,tiffany earrings,000-yard rusher? Well, try telling that to anyone who missed out on an incentive bonus in their contract for falling just short of that mark. And try telling that to former Atlanta running back Dave Hampton.

In the final game of the 1972 season, Hampton reached 1,000 yards in the fourth quarter. But on his next carry, he slipped and lost yardage, putting him back at 995. Even though there was plenty of time left in the game, a long scoring drive by Kansas City put the Chiefs ahead late, forcing Atlanta to throw to catch up. Hampton didn’t carry the ball again that game.

Then in 1973, fate tormented Hampton again — he finished with 997 yards. After an injury-riddled 1974 campaign, Hampton entered the fourth quarter of the final contest in the 1975 season needing 28 yards to reach 1,000. Even with the Falcons trailing, Atlanta coach Marion Campbell gave Hampton the ball. He got 30 yards on three carries, and was immediately removed with 1,002 yards. It was the only season Hampton could call himself a 1,000-yard rusher — but not if we’re exact.