The Leaders : Baseball: Several players reached milestones this season, including a couple of golden oldies, Ryan and Brett.

While Cecil Fielder and George Brett captured most of the attention by winning home run and batting titles, respectively, a number of other landmarks were reached by players at the end of the major-league season.

Nolan Ryan extended one of his many strikeout records, Vince Coleman became the first National League player to win six straight stolen-base titles since Maury Wills of the Dodgers did it from 1960-65, and Ryne Sandberg became the first second baseman in 65 years to win the NL home-run title.

Brett, 37, won his third batting title, and Ryan, 43, led the American League in strikeouts with 232, breaking his own record as the oldest strikeout champion. Ryan, who has eight AL strikeout titles, led the National League in 1987 and 1988 with Houston.

David Cone of the Mets led the majors this year with 233.

Detroit’s Fielder, who hit 51 home runs, also led the majors with 132 RBIs. Matt Williams led the National League with 122 as the Giants became the first NL team with three different RBI champions in consecutive seasons. Will Clark won in 1988 and Kevin Mitchell in 1989.

“You can’t get RBIs if there aren’t guys on base, so it’s a tribute to the guys who hit in front of and behind me,” Williams said.

Bob Welch, 27-6 for Oakland, won the most games in a season since Steve Carlton of Philadelphia won 27 in 1972. It was the most victories in the AL since Denny McLain of Detroit won 31 in 1968.

Doug Drabek of Pittsburgh went 22-6 and became the first Pittsburgh Pirate to lead the NL in victories since Bob Friend tied Warren Spahn at 22 in 1958.

Sandberg’s 40 home runs made him the first second baseman to win the NL home run title since Rogers Hornsby of the St. Louis Cardinals in 1925.

Coleman of the Cardinals led the National League with 77 stolen bases. Rickey Henderson of Oakland finished with 65 steals and led the AL for the 10th time in 11 seasons.

Bobby Thigpen of the Chicago White Sox set a major league record with 57 saves, while John Franco of the Mets led the NL with 33.

Roger Clemens of Boston led the majors with a 1.93 ERA, the second time he’s won the AL title. It was the league’s first ERA under 2.00 since Ron Guidry’s 1.74 for the New York Yankees in 1978. Danny Darwin of the Houston Astros led the NL with a 2.21 ERA.

For the first time in a non-strike season since 1972, no player in either league had 200 hits. The AL leader was Rafael Palmeiro with 191, and Lenny Dykstra and Brett Butler each had 192 in the NL.

Wade Boggs, with 187 hits, failed for the first time in eight years to reach 200.

Brett of the Royals became the first three-decade batting champion, (Story, C2), keeping the Oakland Athletics from finishing with two in the same season.

Willie McGee won the National League batting title with a .335 average. He was traded from St. Louis to Oakland on Aug. 28, but had enough at-bats to qualify for the NL championship.

Fielder of Detroit won the major league home run title, connecting twice Wednesday night to finish with 51. (Story, C1) He became the first AL player to hit 50 since Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle in 1961, and the first major leaguer to do it since Cincinnati’s George Foster in 1977.

Home runs in the major leagues increased 7.6% this season to 3,317, still well below the record of 4,458 set in 1987.

There were 1,796 home runs hit in the American League, a 4.5% increase from the 1,718 hit last season. National Leaguers hit 1,521 homers, an 11.4% increase from the 1,365 hit in 1989.

In 1987, records were set in each league. There were 2,634 home runs in the AL and 1,824 in the NL that season.

After five consecutive seasons of increases, majorleague baseball attendance dropped one-half of 1% in 1990 to 54,871,538.

The batting average in the NL rose 10 points this season to .256, while the AL batting average dropped two points to .259.

There were only 188 balks called in the major leagues this season, less than half the 1989 total and just one-fifth of the record total called in 1988.

A total of 407 balks were called in 1989 and a record 924 were called in 1988 as umpires cracked down at the urging of then-NL president A. Bartlett Giamatti.