I just learned that the NBA player with the most 4-point plays all-time is:
Jamal Crawford
I didn’t expect him to hold that record. Sure, he’s a good 3-point shooter, but I wouldn’t have even placed him in the top 30.
Still co-holder of the record for longest field goal in NFL history (63 yards) is Tom Dempsey.
The obvious reason why it’s unlikely is that he was born with a stump for his right foot (which wound up being his kicking foot), as well as having no fingers on his left hand.
But, beyond that…he wasn’t particularly accurate as a long-distance kicker. He made the 63-yarder in 1970, which was his second season in the league. In his rookie season of 1969, he was only 1 out of 11 on field goal attempts from 50 yards or greater. In 1970, the 63-yarder was one of only three field goals he made from 50+ (out of 9 attempts).
And, his record kick shattered the then-standing record, which was only 56 yards.
Finally, he made the kick in New Orleans, which is at sea-level (if not below), not exactly ideal conditions for a long kick. Two of the three men who have since tied the record (Sebastian Janikowski and Jason Elam) did so in Denver, where the thinner air probably helps the ball travel a bit further.
It really was a lightning-in-a-bottle moment.
Harvey Haddix, an OK but not spectacular pitcher, has the record for most consecutive batters retired: he pitched 12 perfect innings in 1959. He lost his perfect game in the 13th because the Pirates couldn’t score a run for him.
Johnny Vander Meer, a young pitcher with great promise, threw two consecutive no-hitters in 1938 for the Cincinnati Reds. The second one was largely due to the fact that it was the first night game in Ebbets Field history and nobody could see the ball, but regardless, nobody else has ever done it.
Incidentally, his career record was 119-121. So much for promise.
And Don Larsen was not the choice to pitch the only World Series perfect game.
The fastest hat trick in NHL history (21 seconds), belongs to Bill Mosienko, a solid but unspectacular player with 258 career goals.
Fred Dodge, one of the miners on the Gold Rush show holds a hunting record for dropping a 1600 pound moose with a muzzle loaded gun. Saw this on the show tonight.
Scott Skiles dished out 30 assists in an NBA game. Otherwise unremarkable career.
If you asked me who was the only NHL player to score ten points in a game (or nine, for that matter; the record is ten, and nobody else has ever had more than eight) and I didn’t already know, I’m assume it was Wayne Gretzky.
It’s not? Oh, well, it must be Mario.
It’s not? Oh, gosh. Well… Jari Kurri, surely. No? Oh, Stevey Y? No? Um… Guy Lafleur, then. No?
I’d probably guess a hundred names before I got to Darryl Sittler.
So, there was a Cardinal who had a helluva a game aganst Cincinnati. He tied the single-game records for most HRs (4) and RBIs (12). Musial? Hornsby? Pujols? McGwire? No. The great Mark Whiten.
Not to mention the Cardinal who had a helluva game against Los Angeles. He set the major league record for most grand slams in an inning, with 2. Musial? Hornsby? Pujols? McGwire? Whiten? No. The great Fernando Tatis.
Hmm.
I detect a trend.
That’s “Hard Hittin’ Mark Whiten” to you.
The record for most doubles in a season is held by Earl Webb, who is famous for essentially nothing else besides holding that record. Webb himself never had that many doubles in any other two seasons combined. Every other player who has been within ten doubles of Webb’s record (67) is a player of significant note, but for whatever reason Webb had the year.
WEbb is credited with 12.1 WAR by baseballreference.com (which really isn’t bad.) For fun I pawed down the list of single season doubles records to find the highest-ranking person whose career was less valuable than Earl Webb’s.
Uh… it took awhile. Beau Bell, who hit 51 doubles (50th best season, tied with many others) is the first name I could find with a less impressive career than Earl Webb.
I came to mention this.
One pitcher retiring 36 consecutive batters has to be a strong candidate for “Single-game baseball record least likely ever to be broken.”
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Another interesting aspect to this game was how, with two men on base, it was won on a hard fly ball that landed in the center-field seats - yielding a final score of 1 - 0. (Some guy named Henry Aaron got a bit confused running the bases.)
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Other unlikely 4-HR guys are Shawn Green and Bobby Lowe.
At the risk of sounding stupid, was “4-point plays” in the OP a typo for 3?
Shoot a three-point field goal and get fouled in the process.
Being fouled in the act of shooting gives you a single foul shot when you make the basket.
So if you make the three and the free throw it’s a four-point play. No, it’s not all that common.
(I always thought it should be called “a three and a free” myself. But I don;t seem to be able to get the usage to catch on.)
Most strikeouts for a pitcher in a single MLB game: most people think it’s 20 (tie between Roger Clemens and Kerry Wood). The real answer is Tom Cheney, who struck out 21 Orioles in 16 innings for the Senators in 1962.
Add Pat Seerey to that list, who hit 4 in a game in 1948, and had a career total of 86.
Post-1900 four-homer men and how many dingers they hit:
Willie Mays, 660
Mike Schmidt, 548
Lou Gehrig, 493
Carlos Delgado, 473
Rocky Colavito, 374
Gil Hodges, 370
Joe Adcock, 336
Shawn Green, 328
Chuck Klein, 300
Mike Cameron, 266
Bob Horner, 218
Josh Hamilton, 161
Hard Hittin’ Mark Whiten, 105
Pat Seerey, 86
Yeah, Seerey was pretty unlikely. (I don’t see Green as being that unlikely; he hit a lot of home runs.) Seerey had power but he wasn’t really a good player; hitting home runs was pretty much his only skill. He was kind of like Steve Balboni but not as good; he was pretty much out of the major leagues at 27 or 28, something like that.
I was immediately drawn to this thread because I started one just like it a year and a half ago (nearly the same title, too). Anyway, my nominations (except for Scott Skiles, already mentioned):
Kaio - Most overall wins (1047; overtook Chiyonofuji in his last ever tournament), most Makuuchi division wins (879). Generally when an ozeki hangs around the rank for a long time without making much noise, one of three things happens: 1. He makes a late-career resurgence culminating in promotion to yokozuna (Asahifuji, Musashimaru). 2. Age catches up to him, the losses pile up, and he gradually slips back into the rank and file (Takanonami, Konishiki). 3. His form completely collapses for some reason and he crashes hard (Kirishima, Chiyotaikai). None of these things happened to Kai. EVER. He maintained a level of pretty decent, 1-dan, fifty percent plus one longer than anyone else in the history of the sport…and he rode it to immortality.
Vinny Testaverde - Most consecutive seasons with a touchdown pass (21), most receivers throwing a touchdown pass to (70). The first thing ever rookie QB needs to learn: If you can’t be John Elway, be Vinny Testaverde. Meaning be courteous, say the right things, behave yourself in public, stay in shape, respect your bosses, respect your fans, and always be the best player you can be, even if it isn’t all that good. That way there will always be some team willing to take a chance on you and you’ll keep those NFL paychecks coming in for a good, long time.
Antonio Cromartie - Longest play (109 yards). What can I say…unassisted triple play. The world turned upside-down for one brief, glorious moment and one player just in the absolute right place at the absolute right time. Deion Sanders probably could have pulled it off.
Paul Lawrie - Biggest final-day deficit overcome to win a major (10, '99 British Open). Let’s not forget that there was a third man involved…Justin Leonard, who could have won outright with a par on the final hole but bogeyed after finding the burn. If Cromartie was an unassisted triple play, Lawrie was the sinking of the Titanic. Probably the most unbelievable final day in the history of the majors.