People

By Guy D. Garcia

The two pitchers had hoped to be together at the milestone moment. Alas, Joe Niekro, 42, was in New York last week when his brother Phil, 48, helped the Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers 9-6, thereby giving the duo a major- league record of 530 combined victories. Since May 23, when Joe pitched the New York Yankees to a 3-0 victory over California, the knuckleballing Niekros % had shared the record for major-league victories by two brothers with Gaylord and Jim Perry, at 529. Phil's 314 wins match Gaylord's for eleventh place on the career list; Joe has 216 victories, one more than Jim. "I talked with Gaylord at a dinner this year, and he said, 'Thanks for keeping our names in the papers,' " says Joe, who got the big news from the flashing scoreboard at Yankee Stadium. "We don't think it's catchable," says Phil. "The odds of two brothers, first of all, getting to the big leagues, pitching a total of 45 years, being able to stay healthy and winning over 500 games, the odds are awful damn hard. There is no one else who can say they did that. It's a brotherly love type of thing."