Craig, yes. Barry, no.

Thank God for Craig Biggio. And Frank Thomas. And Tom Glavine. And Pedro Martinez.

Each one of these baseball players either reached a major milestone this year or will soon.

For Biggio, it was hit No. 3,000.

For The Big Hurt (I always wondered how he got that nickname, though it fits him) it was home run No. 500. (Hammered, ironically, the same day Biggio broke his barrier.)

Glavine is three wins shy of 300. (He probably will be the last Major Leaguer to reach that plateau now that pitchers start every fifth day instead of every fourth.)

Pedro needs two K’s to get 3,000 strikeouts. (I wish he’d stayed with the Red Sox. But it’s hard to be satisfied with big bucks when you can get bigger bucks.)

So why am I thankful for these guys?

It’s simple: In a small way, they take the sting out of the coming nightmare — Barry Bonds’ 756th home run.

Barry is everything that pro sports — heck, life in general — doesn’t need.

He is surly and crude. He is filthy rich and tries to portray himself as a victim. And of course he is a steroid-swallowin’ juice-shootin’ cheater.

Worst of all, he will go down in history as the greatest home run hitter ever.

That stinks.

At least this year saw other milestones in baseball — by good guys like the ones mentioned above.

They are four different ballplayers. Yet each is the anti-Barry, and I’m grateful they got a share of the spotlight this year.