Baseball’s 10 Most Unbreakable Records

More than anything baseball is a game of numbers.  They sanctify greatness, they provide the motivation to be so, they are accumulated and used to measure one’s worth.  They connect the past to the present.  They define the game.  Once in a while someone does something so great, and so rare, that that mark withstands and that figure become more than a number.  It transcends time and becomes a beacon of greatness. 

Few people will ever hit 700 homeruns, and, up until the a few years ago, that mark once was believed to be safe from all comers.  The same could be said for Roger Maris’s season of destiny when he hit 61, but as we now know, nothing is safe in baseball. 

Is that true though?  Some things happen once and then never again.  Take Fernando Tatis for instance.  One fateful evening he did something that was never achieved before by hitting two Grand Slams in one inning.  Certainly, this is more of an anomaly than a record, but what are the odds that someone will ever hit match, let alone exceed, that mark? 

Despite my belief that this is, indeed, the most unbreakable record in baseball, I left it off the list.  Why?  I tend to favor marks that are accumulated through skill and talent rather than those that are amassed by luck and circumstance.  That’s not to take away from Tatis’ achievement, there is a great deal of skill involved in being able to bash two Grand Slams in a single inning, but that has less to do with ability and more to do with luck.  

Now that’s not to say that luck doesn’t have anything do with the feats listed here.  The amount of good fortune needed to achieve many of these marks is tremendous.  To avoid injury, get a key defensive stop, have someone misplay a ball, there were plenty of outside factors at work in each case, but at the end of the day they have more to do with the player than circumstances.

As the age old cliché has taught us, records are made to be broken.  Many have come close, but after thumbing through the baseball almanac I found at least ten marks that appear to be safe for the rest of time.  In some cases it’s due to era, the game has went through a great transformation since it’s early days, and due to various factors, some of the marks that were accumulated prior to this era seem unfathomable in today’s climate.  Regardless, they still stand, they are still valid, and they remain the benchmarks of greatness.  The stars would have to align, but it’s still possible for them to fall.  I just don’t think it will be in this lifetime.

These are baseball’s most unbreakable feats…

10.)  Eric Gagne 84 Consecutive Saves, 2002-04

“It’s such a good record because it’s not selfish.  It helps the team win.” 
-Eric Gagne.

Over a three year span there wasn’t a more dominating pitcher in all of baseball.  He converted each of his 55 save opportunities during the 2003 season, becoming the first closer to capture the Cy Young award since Dennis Eckersly did it in 1992.  He also struck out more than half the men he faced during the streak, for a total of 139, and posted a 0.82 ERA.

Considering that this record is still rather young it’s hard to put it into a historical context.  I might be undervaluing it because it’s still so fresh, these things tend to appreciate in value over time.  The longer they last the more mystique they garner, thus giving us a barometer to measure it against other feats. 

This record has never had much of shelf life to begin with, so this ranking could even be a little generous.  It’s longest tenure was with Willie Hernandez, who’s 32 saves gave him the record for 8 years until Eckersly posted 40 straight in 1992.  Its next longest run was in the hands of Tom Gordon, who held it for nearly four years until Gagne came along and crushed his record of 54.

It’s sort of like the home run record.   61 seemed like such a ridiculous number until it got beat up a bunch of times.  Now, because of that, no one would be surprised if Ryan Howard bashed 75 home runs.  Even though Bonds single season mark is probably safer than the Mona Lisa at this point no one gives the number much value.  The point is, when a record is young and fresh it doesn’t seem that unfathomable for someone to go ahead and do it again because it just happened.

No matter how the public perceives it, it’s one that is very unlikely to fall.  So much has to go perfect for something like this to happen.  It’s as much a team accomplishment as it is the record holder’s, and Gagne owes this record to his defense.  For instance, there was a moment late in the streak where Dave Roberts robbed a homerun in the field previously known as Enron.  If that didn’t happen Gagne wouldn’t be sitting at 84 and the record would be a lot more attainable.

This is one that would be hard to accomplish in MVP Baseball let alone against real people, but there are a few guys that could do it.  Well, actually, there’s a lot.  Basically any of the premier closers in the league could run off a streak at any given time.  We all know guys like Billy Wagner, Mariano Rivera, and John Papelbon are capable closers, they just couldn’t give up any homers and their defense would have to be perfect for a few seasons.

In other words, it’s highly unlikely.

9.)  Rickey Henderson’s 130 Stolen Bases, 1982

 “He’s the one player in baseball history that could win a game by himself,”
-former teammate Dave Stewart on Henderson.

Many players are lucky to get 130 hits, yet alone 130 steals.  Last year when Jose Reyes stole 78 bases it was almost unheard of, and he was still 52 short of Henderson.  Let me put that in perspective, seven individuals have won the league crown with 52 or less steals since 1982.

Teams don’t allow guys to run like they used too which is why this mark is getting harder and harder to achieve.  Pitchers now pay more attention to base runners, the opportunities aren’t there anymore.  The philosophies on how to run the bases have also changed.  With the influx of power, teams no longer want to risk losing a base runner.  As Greg Maddux says, “Now-a-days, players are in scoring position when they hit first base.”

As great as he is at stealing bases, Reyes will never do it unless he improves the other facets of his game.  One of the reasons that Henderson was so great was because he was always on base, from 1980-1996 Henderson ranked in the top 10 in on-base percentage.  Reyes, on the other hand, doesn’t take enough walks and he strikes out far too much.  His career OBP of .330 just isn’t going to cut it.

We won’t even discuss how ridiculous Henderson’s career total of 1406 steals is.  Anyways, 130 will have to fall before 1406 does.  Le me put it like this: From the time he broke into the league in 1972 until he signed with the Red Sox in 2002, he stole more bases than everyone that suited up for them during that period, 1395 to 1382.

8.)  Ted Williams’ .406 Batting Average, 1941

“He could hit better with a broken arm than we could with two good arms.”
-Jerry Coleman

Wiliams isn’t even the record holder here, Hugh Duffy is.  If we were talking about the all-time single season batting average, it would likely rank number one on this list because I don’t see any possible scenario where a batter could eclipse Duffy’s mark of .440, or Rogers Hornsby’s .424 from the modern era.  We’re just strictly speaking in terms of .400.  Over the last 20 years many hitters have come close, but only a few have truly flirted with it.

In the 66 seasons since Williams achieved the mark, only six contenders could really be taken seriously.  Stan Musial hit .376 just seven years later in ‘48, Larry Walker put up a .379 average in ‘99, Rod Carew hit .388 in ‘77, and George Brett came closed out the 1980 season with a whopping .390 average.  The man who actually had the best shot following the 1941 season was, ironically enough, Williams himself.  In 1957, 16 years later at the age of 38, he closed the season with a .388 average, finishing five hits shy of .400.

Although, there was one campaign that will forever remain a mystery.  When Major League Baseball locked the doors on the 1994 season they also closed the doors on the pursuit of history.  Losing the World Series that season was devastating for the game, but from an individual stand point cutting Tony Gwynn’s season short was one of the baseball’s greatest travesties in its rich, yet sordid, history. When operations stopped on August 11, 1994, Gwynn was standing on Williams stoop with an average of .398, three hits shy of .400.    

Some fans like to credit Gwynn with the achievement because when play commenced in 1995 he accumulated a .400 average over his last 162 games.  Unfortunately, this sentimental title holds no weight in the record books, the only place it matters.  It’s like holding all four Grand Slam titles in golf at the same time, but winning two one year, and two the next.  It’s just not the same.

Gwynn’s foray may be the last time we get a taste of.400.  It’s just a lot harder to go 2-for-5 night in and night out now.  Specialized pitching didn’t exist back then.  They didn’t pitch around guys or try to exploit different match-ups.  In today’s world a hitter like Williams, who batted .340 against righties and .293 against lefties throughout his career, would see a southpaw every time he came the plate late in games.  Back then it wasn’t like that, most of the time the starter stuck around for nine innings.

Who could do it?  Ichiro Suzuki, Albert Pujols, Joe Mauer

7.)  Joe DiMaggio’s 56 Game Hit Streak, 1941

“(Joe) DiMaggio was the greatest all-around player I ever saw. His career cannot be summed up in numbers and awards. It might sound corny, but he had a profound and lasting impact on the country.”
­-Ted Williams on Joe DiMaggio

How great would it have been to be around during the summer of 1941?  Not only did Ted Williams put on the last truly great season for a hitter, DiMaggio was on the hottest streak of all time.  I wonder if the people knew what they were really seeing.  .400 wasn’t that uncommon at the time, and just few years before, while playing in the Independent League, DiMaggio put together a 61 game hitting streak.  Fast forward 67 years and both those marks still stand tall.

Personally, I think that .400 is the more impressive number of the two, but we aren’t here to talk about personal preference, this is about which marks are the hardest to achieve, and in this case it belongs to Joe D. 

When you’re talking about a hitting streak there’s so much that can go wrong, but the beauty of it is that almost anyone can go off on one under the right circumstances.  The problem is -those circumstances- they have an odd way of not all falling into place 50 nights in a row.  Anyone can rip off a 20 game hit streak, but, once you start raising the bar, the element of skill starts coming back into play and only the truly elite hitters could sustain long enough to deter all the elements working against them.

Like Williams, DiMaggio had the luxury of facing the same pitcher four times in a game, in this era a hitter doesn’t have that advantage. Another thing DiMaggio didn’t have to deal with was the media.  If you think all the scrutiny doesn’t add a lot of pressure and effect players, you’re crazy.  The camera’s would be in a players face at every stop, a constant reminder that everyone is watching and waiting, for him to fail.  Even though it was New York, the media capital of the world, the coverage Joe had to endure would be comparable to the coverage an elite minor league team faces today. 

Then you have to consider the opposition.  With all the coverage and hype a player in pursuit would be getting everyone would be well aware of what was going on.  Not that they weren’t with Joe, but no one wants to be immortalized as the guy that gave up the historic hit, so they’d either pitch around him or throw him garbage. 

In the 41 years since only one player came close to pushing Joe, the Hit King himself, Pete Rose, who lasted 44 games before falling short.  Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley both made serious runs before falling at 38 and 35, respectively.  Albert Pujols has also reached 30.

6.)  Bob Gibson’s 1.12 ERA, 1968

“Bob Gibson is the luckiest pitcher in baseball. He is always pitching when the other team doesn’t score any runs.”
-Tim McCarver

Think about that number for a minute, let it soak in, digest it. 

I don’t think people fully appreciate this figure.  Gibson’s ERA is the fourth lowest of all time in any era.  Take a look at what Cliff Lee’s doing right now and that will give you a little insight to how brilliant Gibson was in 1968.

Even if Lee were to somehow sustain and post 1.12 ERA it wouldn’t be nearly as impressive because he’d likely top out at around 200 innings.  Gibson threw 304.7 over the course of 34 games.  28 of those were complete games.  13 were shutouts.  He didn’t have the luxury to go hard for five or six innings and then have the cavalry come marching in to bail him out once his arm got tired.  He average 8.96 innings per start, that’s pretty much a complete game every time out, and the crazy thing is, he still wasn’t giving up runs in the ninth inning.  This guy was so good that the following season they lowered the mound and shrunk the strike zone in an effort to level the playing field.  Who else can say that?

Simply put, this is the fines t pitching season of all time.  Say what you want about Maddux’s 1994 and 95 seasons when he posted ERA’s of 1.56 and 1.63.  They were special, I won’t deny that, but he only threw 202 and 209 innings each year.  By today’s standards he would be considered a workhorse, back in ’68 he would have been considered soft.  Pedro Martinez’s two foray’s under 2.00 were also as good as it gets in today’s game, but both were more than a half run short.  Oh yea, and there was that too good to be true season from Roger Clemens where he posted the lowest ERA of his career despite being 42 that we aren’t even going to talk about.

Only one man made a serious run:  Dwight Gooden.  In 1985, at the age of 20, he posted a1.53 ERA over 276.7 innings.  Granted, the difference between how pitchers were handled from then to now is tremendous, but he’s the only one that history wouldn’t have looked negatively upon.  If Maddux would have bettered Gibson everyone would have certainly been quick to pull up his innings total.

My personal bias aside, innings are not a criterion.  Anyways, in today’s world of juiced up sluggers and shrinking ballparks it seems like a moot point to argue.  It’s very unlikely that we’ll one day pick up the newspaper in October and see someone with an ERA of 1.11 or lower.  It seems preposterous to even suggest. 

Who can break it?  I highly doubt that anyone alive right now will seriously contend, but for the sake of argument, only two qualify in my opinion:  Johan Santana and Jake Peavy.  Then there’s a maybe in regards to Brandon Webb.  That’s it.

5.)  Pete Rose’s 4,256 Career Hits

“Does Pete Rose hustle? Before the All-Star game he came into the clubhouse and took off his shoes and they ran another mile without him.”
- Hank Aaron

To reach the benchmark of 4,000 hits you’d have to record 200 hits a season for 20 years.  I know the math seems pretty obvious, but it can’t be understated.

First of all, to last 20 years in a major league uniform is a feat in itself.  To be good enough to play every day is something else.  The way that the game is growing today, in regards to scouting and the globalization of the sport, there is no such thing as home town heroes anymore.  As soon as you slip there is someone waiting in the wings to take your place.  Sure, fans love their players, but they love the ones that are going to help them win more. 

That’s where the debate on Rose get’s slippery.  These day’s all the Rose talk surrounds his banishment from baseball, but many around the game back then didn’t believe that Rose was good enough to be in the line-up his last few years in the league.  The difference is that most players have someone to make that decision for them, Rose didn’t.  As the manager of the Reds in 1985 and ’86 he decided to insert himself in the lineup while he was pursuing Ty Cobb’s hit mark.  When Montreal traded him back to Cincinnati in 1984 at the age of 43 he was hitting .259, by all accounts his career should have been over.  There’s no way he would have been an everyday player under any other manager. 

At the end of the day he got the hits, and that’s all that counts. For our sake, in this debate, it only adds to mystique and speaks volumes about the unbreakable-ness of this record.  Can it be done?  Yes, but a lot would go into it.  First and foremost, for someone to do it they would ideally be a leadoff hitter, but they could get away with hitting as low as third.  Anywhere lower and they would never accumulate enough at-bats throughout their career.  Secondly, the player would have to get an early start between the ages of 20-22, because they are going to need at least 20 years in the majors.  It took Rose 24.

There’s one player out there that is actually ahead of Rose’s pace:  Derek Jeter.  Through the age of 33 Rose sat at 2,336 hits, Jeter is 20 ahead.  To do it, Jeter is going to have to avoid major injury the rest of the way and maintain a productive pace for about 12 more years.  The fact that he’s one of the game’s biggest stars will help him stick.  If he ever gets close to the record he’ll surely be able to find some club willing to let him play out his final days so they can cash in off the record at the gate.

4.)  Nolan Ryan’s 5,714 Career Strikeouts

“Every hitter likes fastballs just like everybody likes ice cream. But you don’t like it when someone’s stuffing it into you by the gallon. That’s how you feel when Nolan Ryan’s throwing balls by you.”
-Reggie Jackson

I still remember the first time I sat down and actually looked at Nolan Ryan’s statistics.  The first thing that jumped out to me was the he never once won a Cy Young award.  How does that happen?  In 1973 he struck out 383 batters (the highest total of the 1900’s), went 21-16, and posted a 2.87 ERA.  He came in second.  So the next I called up the stats of the man who beat him that year: Jim Palmer.  I figured if Ryan lost with those numbers, then this guy must have done something amazing.  I went there expecting him to have something like 300 strikeouts with a one point something ERA, instead I was met with this:  2.40 ERA, 184 SO, 106 BB, 22-9.  How does that happen?  That’s something that will plague me for the rest of my life. 

Wait.  Nolan Ryan struck out 383 batters in one season?  Using his career averages, it’d take Kelvim Escobar three years to reach that mark.  I guess that’s why he’s the strikeout king. 

There are a few things you should know about Ryan’s career, though.  Most importantly, his major league career spanned 27 seasons, he broke in with the Mets when he was 19 and retired with the Rangers when he was 46.  He exceed 300 strikeouts six times, the last and most impressive time came at the age of 42 when he sat down 301 batters in 239.3 innings.  Predictably, he also ranks in the top five in strikeouts per nine innings with 9.5, Johan Santana, who is 29, sits behind him with 9.4. 

Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson are both within 900 strikeouts of Ryan, but they’d each have to average 200 strikeouts a year for the next five seasons, placing them at 49 years of age.  It will never happen for them, or anyone else for that matter, for many of the same reasons that no one will ever meet Rose’s mark.  Guys just don’t stick around like they used too.  You’d have to stay too good for too long to achieve this mark, and it’s a lot harder for a pitcher to do that with all the serious injuries lurking around the corner waiting for them. The other reason is that the game has changed.  Early in Ryan’s career he pitched on 3 days rest in a four-man rotation, giving him more innings, thus more opportunities to get strikeouts.

Santana has the right strikeout rate, but not the totals.  Felix Hernandez got an early enough start, but he’s had a slow start as far as strikeout totals are concerned.  No one will ever work as hard, long, or efficiently as Ryan did.  This one’s safe.

3.)  The Yankee’s Five Straight World Series Victories, 1949-53

“You kind of took it for granted around the Yankees that there was always going to be baseball in October.”
-Whitey Ford

When Joe Torree came into New York he won three straight World Series, one of the most amazing feats in modern sports.  He went from being a mid-level manager to Saint Joe of the Bronx.  He was no Casey Stengel though.  Say what you want about his tenure prior to joining the Yankees, but once he got there he led that team to five World Series Victories in a row.  St. Joe was only half way there. 

Back then there were only 16 teams, eight in each league.  To get to the World Series all you had to do was win your league.  There were no playoffs, no wildcard teams, no division champions.  If you proved to be the best during the regular season you got a free pass to the title game, Stengel didn’t have to worry about a team like the Rockies getting on a super hot run at the right time and knocking him off of destinies path. 

I’m not saying it was easy for Stengel, but the game has evolved to a point where a true dynasty can’t sustain like his teams did.  There was no free agency or draft.  Having legendary scouts and bird dogs set up all around the country allowed the Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers to absolutely dominate during the 1940’s and 50’s, meeting in the Series six times.  During their run they featured a gang of future Hall of Famers at one point or another, such as:  Yogi Berra, Phil Rizzuto, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Johnny Mize, and Whitey Ford. 

Today that could never happen, one team wouldn’t be able to gobble up all that talent due to the draft, and even if they did, free agency wouldn’t allow them to stay together.  They’d either price out or they’d just move on eventually.  Besides that, there’s too much competitive balance now.  There are a handful of teams that stay relevant, but they aren’t able to reel off championship after championship.  Since 1994 six wild card teams have won the Series, meaning that the best team didn’t make the Series.  The Braves won 14 straight Division titles but only made the Series five times, winning it once.  Back then they would have been there 14 times. 

Then there’s the fact that you would have to win six World Series in a row to break this record.  That won’t ever happen, it just can’t.  Ever.  Only two other teams have won more than two in a row:  the Yankees, from 98-00, and the Athletics who did it from 72-74.

2.) Cal Ripken’s 2,632 Consecutive Game Streak, 1982-99

“The man I marvel at is the one that’s in there day after day, and night after night and still puts the figures on the board.. Believe me, especially the way we travel today, flying all night with a game the next night and then the next afternoon, if you can play one-hundred and sixty-two games, you’re a man.”
-Sparky Anderson

To me, this isn’t the most impressive record on the list.  Striking out 5,000 batters is more impressive than showing up for your job every day, but as we all know, that’s one of the hardest things to do in the world.  Just to put this into perspective, consider this:  From kindergarten to twelfth grade many of us missed at least one day of school, if not many, many more.  Most students go to school for 180 days each year, which comes out to a total of 2,340 days, still 292 short of Ripken.

The Ripken’s of the world are a dead breed, if they ever existed to begin with.  I’d be shocked if someone even got to 1,500 again.  For a player to break this record they’d have to get an extremely early start, remain the best player at his position so that he never got bumped for a young guy, and have an inordinate amount of luck.  So much could go wrong, and it usually does.  Foul ball off the shin, get beaned in the ribs and break a bone, roll an ankle, anything, and it’s over.

This is so hard to do that only seven have exceeded 1,000.

1.)  Cy Young’s 511 Career Wins

“He’s too green to do your club much good, but I believe if I taught him what I know, I might make a pitcher out of him in a couple of years. He’s not worth it now, but I’m willing to give you $1,000 for him.”
-Cap Anon

Let me put it this way.  Only one pitcher has actually been on pace to exceed this mark:  Doc Gooden.  At the age of 24 he was off to one of the fastest starts of all-time by accumulating 100 wins.  Even if he were to stay on that pace he would have had to of pitched until he was 49 to reach 512 wins. 

If the first explanation didn’t work, try this on for size:  Greg Maddux, the current active wins leader has 350. He’s averaged 15 wins a season throughout his 23 years in the league.  To get to 511 at that pace it’d take him a little more than 10 years, placing him at 52. 

Remember, we’re going back to the 1800’s here.  It was nothing for Young to start 45 games in a season or pitch 400 innings.  In 1894 he pitched in 52 games and went all nine in 44 of those.  They used to go on two, three, day’s rest.  He exceeded 30 wins five times and had 15 seasons with 20 or more.  He had 749 career complete games.  Guys just don’t pitch like that anymore.

Lock this one up, bronze it, and put it behind glass.  It’s safe.

Honorable Mention:  Hack Wilson’s 191 RBI in 1930, Orel Hershiser’s 59 consecutive shutout innings, the 1926 New York Giants’ 26 game winnings streak, Don Mattingly’s 8 consecutive games with a home run, Johnny Vander Meer’s back-to-back no-hitters and 22 straight no-hit innings streak.

Agree, disagree, is there something missing from the list?  Let us know