Which sports records were set this decade and will probably never be broken?

[DKW]

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it now: Lance Armstrong’s 7 consecutive Tour De France championships (no need to hedge, YogSosoth ). If you have any doubts, consider what went into this:

• The perfect body for cycling, lean, lightweight, tremendous lung capacity
• Surviving testicular cancer (no mountain too steep ever again)
• National pride, a powerful motivator in any sport with no superstar brethren (a la Greg Louganis)
• Absolutely unshakable will. Some cyclists would’ve been annoyed by constant doping allegations or even demoralized. Armstrong didn’t even flinch. Nor was he shaken by any of the inevitable slips and spills on the course.
• Last but certainly lot least, teammates who knew their roles and worked seamlessly to propel their star to victory.
  There will be future superstars and legends, there will be powerful teams, and there will be mighty motivations, but I doubt we’ll ever see the perfect confluence of factors that led to this incredibly dynasty. Trust me, if anyone so much as sniffs 7 total again, it’s going to shake the sport to its core.

Also, every grass court record set by Roger Federer, especially the win streak. For an athlete who’s the very embodiment of phenomenal, the win streak is phenomenal squared.

And on a considerably darker note, the Detroit Lions and 0-16. Man. In terms of the sheer magnitude of the disaster, absolutely nothing going right, and the inexorable meltdown of an entire institution, this was pro football’s equivalent of the dotcom crash.

[TheBoltEater]

@DKW

And on a considerably darker note, the Detroit Lions and 0-16. Man. In terms of the sheer magnitude of the disaster, absolutely nothing going right, and the inexorable meltdown of an entire institution, this was pro football’s equivalent of the dotcom crash.

Well if we’re going negative, how about the Oakland Raiders? They set a new NFL record by losing at least 11 games for 6 consecutive seasons. They need to win one of their last two to avoid extending that streak to 7. As a Chargers fan, I must say that I’m rooting for the record to hit, oh, let’s say at least 20.

[zoog]

@Tom_Scud

The career interceptions seems pretty safe; sort of like Nolan Ryan’s career walks record.

Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Jay Cutler is still young…:mad:

[John_DiFool]

@Bootis

Tom Brady’s 50 Touchdown passes in a season will probably be bested by someone some day, but I bet it will stand for a while.

It would probably be easier than you think. Peyton Manning had 49 3 years earlier, and the top seasonal list is riddled with active (and recently retired) players, other than Dan Marino of course.

[Hirka_T_Bawa]

How about Bobby Cox’s record for most ejection in MLB? He is currently at 159, and has a whole season to go. The previous record was 132 and was held by John McGraw who retired in '32. He has a chance to keep that record for a long time, maybe forever… I’m willing to bet that Bond’s HR record is broken first.

[Mosier]

@kenobi_65

Slightly out of scope, since it happened 11 years ago…

Gary Anderson’s perfect placekicking for the 1998 Vikings. 59-59 XPs, 35-35 FGs. He did miss a field goal in the NFC Championship Game (which ultimately cost the Vikings the game), but postseason starts aren’t generally included in a player’s stats. So, the best that anyone can do is tie Anderson’s percentages.

I think that record would be broken by someone kicking 59XPs and 36 FGs. Sure the percentage would be equal, but would any legitimate record-keeper acknowledge the records as a tie?

[Martin_Hyde]

@Duke

I got to thinking about this following a conversation about Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden. Now that Bowden has retired, it seems all but impossible for any coach to ever catch Paterno’s record for Division I-A coaching wins. He has 393 wins now…it’s unfathomable that anybody else could average over ten wins a season for 39 years. JoePa’s record of 44 years coaching at one school–which he also set this decade–looks unbreakable too.

So I was wondering…are there any other sports records that tumbled this decade that will probably never be broken? Paterno’s records are likely the most ironclad of them all, but what else is out there?

I’m tempted to say that Barry Bonds’ career HR record is out of reach, now that the Age of Steroids is winding down and his closest rivals like Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez are likely to come up short. But a better choice is probably his MLB-record 232 walks in 2004. I doubt we’ll ever see a hitter as dominant as Bonds “protected” by such weak hitting as the Giants’ lower order again.

In world sport, I think Muttiah Muralitharan’s career Test wicket record of 792 is going to be untouchable. Despite the Future Tours Programme, I think there will be less and less Test cricket played in the coming years. 792 (or whatever Murali finishes on) is going to be very hard to beat.

Any other nominations out there?

I agree about Paterno and about Bond’s walk record (you essentially have to have a dominant hitter on a team with an extremely weak offense to replicate this, which has been rare–Babe Ruth was walked a lot but people had to pitch to Lou Gehrig right after, so it wasn’t a huge gain strategically.) I think Bond’s HR record will probably be broken, obviously the end of the steroid era will mean fewer total HRs but I pretty much anticipate the continuing evolution of the game to mean at “some point” down the road we’ll see HR hitters to equal the steroid-crop. (I’m thinking about freak kids whose obsessive parents essentially “engineer” power hitters–Bonds probably didn’t start roiding until the mid-1990s, I can only imagine what a power hitter with solid bat skills would be able to do if they were essentially raised on PEDs.)

[marshmallow]

Stockton retired in 2003 and has career totals in 2 categories that won’t be threatened for a long, long time. Maybe if Chris Paul plays for another 20 years and keeps his current production up and doesn’t get injured ever again.

Assists:
John Stockton – 15,806
Jason Kidd – 10,500
Mark Jackson – 10,334
Magic – 10,141
**
Steals:**
John Stockton – 3,265
Michael Jordan – 2,514

Kidd is still playing but he’s really old and has no chance of catching up. Part of why this is so untouchable is because he played for such a long time and had so few injuries. I’ll just quote Wiki:

He played 1,504 of 1,526 possible games in his 19-season career. In his first 13 seasons, he missed only four games until he missed the first 18 games of the 1997–98 season due to an injured MCL in his left knee sustained in the preseason. That was the only major injury in his career and he never missed another game after returning. In his last season at age 41, he started in all 82 games, and finished with averages of 10.8 ppg and 7.7 apg.

[TheBoltEater]

@TheBoltEater

Well if we’re going negative, how about the Oakland Raiders? They set a new NFL record by losing at least 11 games for 6 consecutive seasons. They need to win one of their last two to avoid extending that streak to 7. As a Chargers fan, I must say that I’m rooting for the record to hit, oh, let’s say at least 20.

Ahhh, ha ha ha! Streak extended. Well done Raiders. Well done indeed.

[purple_cow]

I can’t agree on the Jimmy Johnson thing. They changed the rules so you can’t really compare to the past. We’ll have to see how it works from now on. It’s a great accomplishment, but who knows if it will be repeatable.
If i recall correctly, he was hopelessly behind in the points after the “regular season” at least twice in the four championship years. With no chase, he’d have at best two championships.