Soccer - Pele
On the other hand, Wilt’s record was a tremendous fluke, because he was the Shaq of his era: he couldn’t hit free throws worth a damn. Yet in that game (played in Hersheypark Arena, a short distance from me) he hit 28 of 32, which at 88% is so far above his career free throw percentage of 51% that there’s a reason he never did it again.
I think it could be done, but it won’t. Back then Wilt was the guy on that team. Now every team has several superstars, and with the team game concept dueling with the egomaniacs always wanting the ball, it’s hard to see a coach allowing something like that to happen. Kobe could do it, but Phil Jackson wouldn’t let it happen.
Great article, I loved The Glory of Their Times, I bought it used and was surprised how good it was.
I noticed he brought up Carl Crawford also. That kid has the best chance of putting up some large triples numbers.
On Ricky Henderson’s lack of triples, he joked, “I like to stop at second, that way I can steal third”. Ricky being Ricky.
Jim
Cricket again. The phenomonal effort of Englishman Jim Laker to take 19 wickets in a Test against Australia in 1956. There are only a maximum of 20 wickets available to be taken, and another bowler has to operate at the other end, plus the very real prospect of a run out to deny a bowler a wicket.
Syd Barnes came closest with 17 wickets in 1913/ 1914, but even with the amount of Test cricket being played these days it is one record I can’t see being broken. Or equalled.
Ty Cobb has a few batting records that will be extremely hard to break, including:
Most consecutive league batting titles (9).
Most overall league batting titles (12).
Highest lifetime average: .367
I don’t know if records are kept for this feat, but when’s the last time you saw anyone get on first with a base hit or a walk, and then go on to steal second, third and home? Cobb did it 6 times.
Second most unbreakable record in baseball (after Cy Young’s 511 wins): Highest batting average, modern era: Rogers Hornsby, St. Louis Cardinals, 1924: .424
Or maybe this one - highest batting average for a five-year period: Rogers Hornsby, 1921-25: .402
When a rookie pitcher facing Hornsby bitched about several of his pitches being called balls, the ump said “Son, when you pitch a strike Mr. Hornsby will let you know.”
RickJay,
A couple of notes: one, I agree with you that baseball is full of records that will never be broken, simply because of the way the game has changed. Especially pitching records, where early baseball didn’t use relief pitchers as specialists. I remember reading (sorry, no cite) that some pitchers would start both ends of a double header, something that would never happen today with the investment teams make in those arms.
Second, I believe that the records for triples (36! That was a great one, Airman Doors, USAF) will also never be broken. But your premise that this one won’t be broken but Hack Wilson’s (now 191) RBI’s will be, is flawed. It’s the same premise. Just because it’s a high number doesn’t mean it will or won’t be broken. A 192 RBI season would be just as fluky as a 37 triple season. Just because it seems high doesn’t mean it won’t be broken. But the odds of it happening are small.
Third, Cal Ripken’s streak. There are so many reasons that this (IMHO) will never be broken. Besides the fluke injuries, the occasional day off, or whatever, it just seems impossible that someone would play 16.25 seasons straight without taking a day off. And I won’t even get into the percentage of innings that Ripken played during that streak compared to Gehrig. I’ll look it up later, but Ripken played a significant percentage of innings (well over 80% during the streak if memory serves, whereas Gehrig was put in for one inning many times during his streak to keep it going. I think we can all cut him some slack. He was dying, after all). But that’s not my biggest reason it won’t be broken.
It just doesn’t make practical sense. With the kind of money the ballplayers are making these days, the incentive to do it just doesn’t seem to be there. Why beat your body when you don’t have to? If you can get away with playing 140 games a year, and your career will be extended because of it, I think everyone would do it for the kind of cash they are now making.
You are right though. 30 years ago, no one thought Gehrig’s streak would be broken, so anything is possible.
Johnny Vander Meer’s double no-hit is another good call. A fluke for sure, but that doesn’t make it less amazing *or * unbreakable.
I think the criteria that amarone suggested (The mark of a great record is how far it is beyond the second place) is a good one.
Maybe Nolan Ryan’s 7 career no hitters should be added to the list, since I believe Sandy Koufax is next on the list with 4. And, Nolan Ryan’s 5,714 strikeouts - nearly 1,600 more than second-place Steve Carlton.
There are some great records in this thread. Thanks all for adding! (I will now be trying to figure out cricket so I can appreciate those records as much as I should).
I’ll add a couple I haven’t seen since I’m back in the thread.
Paul Hornung, most points, season - 176 (1960). He did this in 12 games, and he was a halfback, so the breakdow is as follows: He ran for 15 touchdowns, caught two TD passes, kicked 15 field goals and 41 extra points.
Only a kicker would have a chance to catch this record these days, (and Gary Anderson of the Vikings came close with 164 points in 1998. But that was in a 16 game season and he still fell 12 points short. And that was the season he kicked 35 straight FG’s without a miss, and 59 extra points without a miss!
Johnny Unitas, most consecutive games throwing at least one TD pass - 47 games. This falls into the who’s in second place category -. That would be Dan Marino at 30.
Bobby Orr - Most points by a defenseman, single season, 139
(I’ll admit I looked this one up)
Sliding Billy Hamilton, the Rickey Henderson of the 19th century, holds the all-time record with 192 runs (1894). The modern leader is Babe Ruth (177 in 1921). This record appears to be almost impossible to break. The only recent player to even score 150 runs was Jeff Bagwell (152 in 2000).
And my favorite obscure NHL record:
Bill Mosienko. Fastest hat trick in a single game. 21 seconds. He did it on March 23, 1952
The Sunday Times today prints a list of its top ten Unbreakable Sporting Records.
Of those mentioned thus far in this thread, Bradman features at No. 1 and Jim Laker at No. 7.
The others are Edwin Moses, Al Oerter, Rocky Marciano, Margaret Court, Steve Redgrave, Michael Schumacher, America (as in the America’s Cup) and Dixie Dean.
Clearly all such lists are a matter of opinion (that’s why this thread is in this particular forum) and there is a natural tendency to discuss those sports with which we are most familiar.
The Sunday Times column is useful (to me at least) because it reminds me of several sportsmen I should have considered for this topic. I give a special mention to Steve Redgrave, whose record of 5 Olympic Gold medals in 5 successive competitions in an endurance sport is truly remarkable.
For the Record: Steve Carlton is now only 4th. Clemens and Johnson have both passed him.
Nolan Ryan+ **5714** R
Roger Clemens (42)**4547** R
Randy Johnson*(41)**4493** L
Steve Carlton+* **4136** L
I have the Ks up to date courtesy of Baseball Reference and MLB Career Stats.
As far as pitching both sides of a double header it happened as recently as the early seventies. It was White Sox **Knuckle-Baller ** Wilbur Wood. July 20th, 1973.
Iron Joe McGinnity’s Enduring Brilliance was famous for it.
Jim
One that can be broken, but is damned impressive, (unless I am mistaken), I believe Barry Sanders had four 300 yards rushing games in one season in college. No other player has more than one in an enitre career.
Thanks for the corrections, Jim. My bad. I don’t know what web site I grabbed that strikeout stat from, but holy cow was it out of date. I am not completely comatose yet. As soon as I read your reply I realized that both Johnson and Clemens had passed Carlton. :smack: :smack: (one each for Clemens and Johnson). My zeal for looking for a large gap between first and second completely blocked that part of my memory that knew Clemens and Johnson were ahead of Carlton.
Thanks for the update on Wilbur Wood and the double header stat, too. I hadn’t heard that one.
I think there was a thread in the pit about not keeping web sites up to date. I think I’m going to visit it. Lazy bastards (and that means me, too).
Shaun Alexander scored 28 touchdowns last year, which only broke Priest Holmes’ record by one (which in turn had only beaten Marshall Faulk by one, and so on). That’s 168. Add another touchdown and two two-point conversions, or two more touchdowns, and you’ve got it. I’d say not only is that record not unbreakable, it’s going to get broken soon.
The RBI record’s certainly not likely to be broken anytime soon, but it’s possible. Many players have been close, and as recently as 1999, Manny Ramirez was within less than twenty percent.
By comparison, nobody has been close to 36 triples in a modern major league baseball season. It’s impossible to hit 36 triples now. Actually, it was impossible then; no other 20th century player has been within less than 10 triples. it’s one of the great fluke seasons in the history of sports.
I wouldn’t say the RBI record is likely to be broken, but it COULD be. It’s not “unbreakable.” But the triples record is unbreakable, without radically changing the way the game is played.
But it’s not impossible. Someone just did it! I mean, we just SAW a guy play 16.25 seasons in a row. So, evidently, it’s quite possible. I don’t see why 16.26 is any more impossible.
Sports records that are genuinely unbreakable are those records that were set under different conditions - like all the pitching records. There’s nothing about playing 2632 games that’s any harder now than it was in the 80s and 90s.
But as has been pointed out, Miguel Tejada’s playing every game.
Players do not play any lower a percentage of their team’s games now than they ever did. A regular star player would never play as few as 140 games unless he had a medical reason to miss 22 games. There’s not really that much of a difference between playing 158 games and playing 162.
The very existence of Ripken’s record means any young player who gets a decent streak going is going to be gunning for it. If one avoids injury, it could fall.
Has anyone mentioned Tiger Woods yet? If he wins the Buick Invitational today, he will have won 50 PGA titles by age 30. I’m not sure we’ll see that again.
Longest distance for a golf ball on the moon.
Good points all, RickJay. I guess if you asked me to chose, I’d pick the triples record as being the toughest one to break. But I’ll be pretty shocked if Tejada breaks Ripken’s record. He’s got a good 10 years to go, so he’s not even half way there yet. So, I think Cal is good for a while. And I’ll be stunned if anyone breaks Hack Wilson’s. Still, you are right. No one has really come close to the triples record. But they are all technically breakable.
However,
We may have a winner, except we have no idea what the current record is!
Is this a record? Because if it is, (and even if it’s not) it’s damn impressive.
Woods won, and yes, it’s a record. Six other players have had 50 PGA wins or more, but none by the age of 30.
Of active players, the next highest totals are Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh, with 29 each. Mickelson is seven years older than Woods, and Vijay is 13 years older. This tells you how far out ahead of the field Woods is.
Unless Woods is injured or loses interest in the game or has something dramatic happen to his psyche or something, by the time he’s finished playing he’ll probably have set all sorts of records that will be very hard to achieve. The amount of parity in golf today is much greater than it used to be, which makes it all the more amazing for one player to dominate the way Woods has. And most golfers are only starting into their prime by 30.
I would throw in Jerry Rice (NFL) possibly for receiving yards at over 22,000.
And NASCAR’s Richard Petty with 200 wins.
Cricket talk, but I think Bradman’s record is more achievable today than when set because things are so much more in a batsmans favour.
Margaret Court- now that was truly outstanding. And the America’s Cup- 160 years. I’d love to see Bradman beat that record, but I’ll be riding on Halley’s Comet if I do.
Michael Schumacher’s multiple records in F1 are going to be very hard to beat, individually or together.
7 world championships, 89 race wins, 68 pole positions and a total points tally of 1338.
And he’s still adding to it.
No one will ever come close to St George’s 11 consecutive rugby league Premierships.
Dixie Dean’s 60 goals in an English football season will stand forever. Good Everton man, him.
Franklin Roosevelt’s 4 election winning streak will last for the ages.
It’s not likely that a club from a town as small as Nottingham will ever sit at the pinnacle of European Football again.
In Rugby League - John Sattler’s career record of 16 sending-offs seems secure
mm