Greatest Career Records in Sports History?

In My Humble Opinion
41

Bradman’s average means that he scored an average of 99.94 runs per innings. That is, the total number of runs in his career (6996) divided by the total number of times that he got out (70). He played a total of 80 innings. As was mentioned before, the second best is an average of around 60 (Pollock and Headley) and even the current in the current Australian side (arguably the best in the history of the game) most of the batsmen.

He is 23rd on the all time list of run scorers. He has the 4th and 5th highest scores ever as a number 3 batsman, the highest ever score at number 5 and number 7 and the second highest score at number 4. As a captain, his win loss record was 75% second only to Steve Waugh (current Australian captain) who is at about 77%.

As an individual, his record almost twice that of the next closest. To top it all off, he was a true gentleman. Gracious in both victory and defeat.

42

Well actually Mario has him beat over his career. Farther down that page in the scoring averages section Lemieux has a 2.005 career points per game average. which beats Wayne’s 1.92

Also If you include Howe’s WHA days he has 2589 points which is much closer to Gretz’s 2857. The WHA was at least reasonable close to The NHL in skill level so I don’t think those points should be completely discarded in a career discussion.

43

I got my words a bit mixed up there. What I meant to say was that even in the current australian side, the best averages are: 60.00, 50.29, 49.04, 45.51 (test averages) and they’re all good averages.

44

could you explain in more detail walter lindrums skill and how they changed the rules because of him?
Walter Lindrum, Billiards Phenomenon

cricketeers, i dont understand cricket; what does bradmans average represent?

Some time ago (and I can’t quote the source) an American sports statistian calculated the equivalent to The Don’s average (he played Test cricket from 1928 to 1948) which was over 4 standard deviations above the game average, would be a baseball career batting average of between 0.425 and 0.450

45

Thanks woolly. I dunno whether what you call “billiards” in parts unknown is the same game Lindrum played essvee, so a quick explanation might be in order.

Billiards is played on a full-sized snooker table (8’x12’) with 3 balls: a red and two white, one of which has a dot. Scoring is by potting (hazard), “in offs” (losers) and canons. See here. For a canon the cue ball has to hit both the other balls. You get two points for this. Lindrum’s skill was such that he could gradually - that is by a long series of scoring shots - work the three balls into a position near the cushion (rail). He could then play a shot which would score and return all three balls to the same position: a nursery canon. He was able to play this shot hundreds and sometimes thousands of times in a row often playing a shot every second or so.

These days this sort of repetitive strokeplay is outlawed - after a certain number (IIRC 15) of shots of one type you have to play a different one.

46

Cy Young.

Given the way the approach to pitching has changed, it’s likely no one will ever come close to his career wins.

47

I guess some sort of consensus on what we mean by the “greatness” of the record would help.

Are we talking about skill level involved in getting the record? The likelihood of the record being broken? The record-setter’s dominence over his peers? Depending on the definition we assign to the term “greatness” of a record, we could come up with different answers.

If we’re talking least likely to be broken, my vote goes to Cy Young, simply because the game isn’t played that way anymore.

If we’re talking skill level, my vote goes to Nolan Ryan’s 7 no-hitters and 5,714 strikeouts. BTW, much of this was while he played in the American League - home of the designated hitter - so he didn’t even have the luxury of getting an easy out against the other team’s pitcher. Hell, the year he set the single season record of 383 strikeouts was done during the first year of the DH.

For dominence over his peers, arguments can be made for Wayne Gretzky or Bradman - who sure looks impressive, but those numbers mean as much to me as my earlier mentioned baseball stats possibly mean to the cricket fans.

If we take into consideration how difficult it was to achieve the record, I look back at Hank Aaron, who had the unfortunate honor of being in the position to break the hallowed Babe Ruth’s 714 career homerun record while being a black man in the early 70s. Race issues were at the forefront. He received death threats just for being good at what he did. He was pestered by the press all year as he neared the record, then - after finishing the season at 713, only 1 away from the record - he had the entire off-season for people to hound him, harass him, threaten him, etc before finally performing under all that stress. Not to mention, he played in a time when the pitching was so strong, they had to change the rules to give batters a fairer chance.
Or how easy can it be to do what Cal Ripken, Jr. did and play in 2,632 consecutive games? And as a shortstop to boot? To play every day in the big leagues, you gotta be good or you will get benched. And then to play a position where you’re diving for balls, getting slid into while turning double plays, etc, you have to play through pain sometimes.

Of course, any record is attainable. Someone got there once, it can be gotten to again. Does just having someone come close to the record mean that record isn’t that great? Does it make the record any less difficult to achieve?

48

“Greatest” is however you wish to define it Crunchy Frog. “The Greatest Career Record in Sports History”- Whatever record you feel is deserving of that title gets your vote. :wink:

This definition might help:

adj. great·er, great·est
Very large in size.
Larger in size than others of the same kind.
Large in quantity or number: A great throng awaited us. See Synonyms at large.
Extensive in time or distance: a great delay.
Remarkable or outstanding in magnitude, degree, or extent: a great crisis.
Of outstanding significance or importance: a great work of art.
Chief or principal: the great house on the estate.
Superior in quality or character; noble: “For he was great, ere fortune made him so” (John Dryden).
Powerful; influential: one of the great nations of the West.
Eminent; distinguished: a great leader.
Grand; aristocratic.
Informal. Enthusiastic: a great lover of music.
Informal. Very skillful: great at algebra.
Informal. Very good; first-rate: We had a great time at the dance.
Being one generation removed from the relative specified. Often used in combination: a great-granddaughter.
Archaic. Pregnant.

:slight_smile:

49

Satchel Paige, by his own account, was said to have won over 2000 games in the Negro Leagues. But since no records were kept it can’t be verified.

50

I say this as an American League fan who likes the DH and who hasn’t run the numbers to confirm it, however, it seems to me that Ryan’s career records were in fact helped by the fact that he spent much of his career in the AL. This is because had he pitched in the NL he would have been replaced for a pinchhitter more often in the 6th or 7th inning when his team was behind. That’s not a factor so much in the AL when Ryan wasn’t necessarily replaced even when his team was slightly behind because the pitchers in Ryan’s team’s bullpen weren’t as good as he was.