With Derek Jeter becoming the 28th player to join the 3000 hit club, I thought it would be timely to take a look at the all time records which are the most unlikely to ever be surpassed. Some of these are date back to the Deadball Era, others were set as recently as 2003. Either way, the records count.
Wins-511 by Cy Young
This is one of the safest records in all of professional sports. The game has changed so much that it’s a monumental feat to get to 300 victories. The 400 win club is only shared by Walter Johnson (417) and the only modern players in the top 10 for career Wins are Greg Maddux (355) and Roger Clemens (354). In Young’s time, it was common for pitchers to start 40-50 games a year AND pitch occasionally in relief. With 5 man rotations and starters averaging 30-35 starts per year, it’s hard enough to win 20 games these days. Doing it for 25 consecutive years is unthinkable.
Stolen Bases-1406 by Ricky Henderson
The stolen base has gone in and out of vogue in recent years. It was thought of not being worth the risk during the steroid era, but has made a comeback in recent years. But whatever the zeitgeist may be, whatever era you look at, Henderson was unquestionably the best base stealer of all time. The next man on the list is Lou Brock at 938, and contemporaries Tim Raines (808) and Vince Coleman (752) are nowhere close. You’d have to average 100 SB a year for a 14 year career to match Ricky, and no one has stolen 100 in a single season since Vince Coleman in 1987.
Career Batting Average-.366 Ty Cobb
While a player may still be able to bat .366 for one season, to average that over the arc of a career will never happen again in today’s game. For context, Cobb is the only player in history to have batted over .400 three times. No one has batted .400 since Ted Williams in 1946. The career Batting Average list is mostly populated by Deadball Era players, with only Williams (.344) Ruth (.342) and Gehrig (.340) hailing from the modern era. The closest player of recent vintage is Tony Gywnn, who registers at # 19 on the list with a .338 career mark.
Career Strikeouts-5714 by Nolan Ryan
The 5000 strikeout club has one name on it, and its Nolan Ryan. The all time strikeout list is populated by modern players such as Randy Johnson (4875) Roger Clemens (4672) and Steve Carlton (4136) but in the 150+ years of recorded baseball no one else has broken the 4000 mark. If a pitcher averaged 350 Ks per year it would take 16+ straight seasons to match Nolan. The last players north of 350 were two National Leaguers, Randy Johnson of the Diamondbacks (1999-364 Ks/2001-372 Ks) and Sandy Kofax of the Dodgers (1965-382 Ks). Ryan struck out 383 in the American League for the Angels in 1973, the last AL pitcher to register more than 350 Ks in a season was…nobody. Though Bob Feller came close in 1946 (348). Both his AL mark and career total are thought to be unbreakable.
Career Walks-2795 by Nolan Ryan
Ryan has another distinction in the annals of baseball, though this one is more dubious. He’s the only member of the 2000 Walks club and is ahead of the next man on the list (Steve Carlton 1833) by over 50%. Over the past 20 years, the league leaders in free passes have ranged from 81 (Ramon Martinez 1985) to 144 (Randy Johnson 1992) for a full season. Nolan actually walked over 200 batters twice (1974/1977) in his career. If you were to average 185 BBs per year for a 15 year career, you would still fall 20 short of the Ryan Express. No one besides Ryan has walked 185 since Sam Jones did it once in 1955.
7 Career No Hitters by Nolan Ryan
This record sums up the type of pitcher Nolan was on a day to day basis. He could have games where he was brutal, would walk the bases loaded and have no idea where the ball was going. But when he was on, he could be literally unhittable. Having a no-hitter in a pitcher’s career is usually chalked up to luck, but 7 no-hitters (along with 12 one-hitters) says something about the pitcher’s dominance. The closest pitcher to Ryan is Sandy Kofax, who threw four no-hitters. Nolan Ryan is the oldest pitcher to throw a no hitter (43) and twirled two past the age of 40. He also had 24 no hitters broken up in the 7th inning or later, which is by far and away the MLB record.
Consecutive No Hitters by Johnny VanderMeer
The back story of Johnny V’s consecutive no hitters is that it was the early days of night baseball, when they were still working out the kinks. The 2nd no-hitter was the first night baseball game ever at Ebbets Field, and there were reports of batters complaining about the conditions. Nevertheless, it counts and is considered one of the most unbreakable records in baseball. Breaking it would require someone to pitch 3 straight no hitters, which is unfathomable.
Career ERA+: 205 by Mariano Rivera
For all Mo’s post season records, this is the one that stands out in my mind as his greatest individual accomplishment. ERA+ compares eras of the game, weighting a players performance against the run environment, and Rivera is the only member of the 200 club among qualifiers (min 1000 IP). For context, the rest of the top 10 ranges from scores of 142-154 and includes some of the greatest pitchers who ever lived such as Pedro Martinez and Walter Johnson. While it’s not totally fair to compare starters to relievers, the next highest relievers are Dan Quisenberry (147) Trevor Hoffman (141) and John Franco (138). No matter how you score it, Mariano’s in a class by himself. But you knew that already.
Walter Johnson’s 110 Career Shutouts
In our era of specialization, where setup men and Closers are an everyday fact of life, this is a record that will never be approached, much less equaled. The active leader in career shutouts is Roy Halladay, who has 19 at age 34. Nolan Ryan pitched 26 years and finished his career (tied with Tom Seaver) at 61 career shutouts. In the context of today’s game, this record is every bit as unbreakable as Cy Young’s win total.
Joe DiMaggio’s 56 game hitting streak
This is one that is harder than it sounds. You have to get a hit everyday, and when pitchers know you’re hot they tend to pitch around you or make adjustments. To be sure there’s some luck involved, but you also need to be locked in for an inconceivable amount of time. Most great players are happy to be ‘in the zone’ for a week or two, this record spanned from May 15 through July 16 of 1941. It’s harder to do today because modern managers match up with relievers in late innings, whereas Joe D was often hitting against the starter in the late innings. The closest modern player to approach the mark was Pete Rose in 1978 with a 44 game streak.
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27 Responses to Baseball’s most unbreakable records
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TIQ IQ
Did you leave out Ripkin’s consecutive games played on purpose? Whenever I see Cy Young’s 511 wins I think that unless the game changes significant, there is possibility no one even gets 511 starts!
I did. He sat on the sidelines (with the rest of baseball) and took half a season off while the players went out on strike in 1994, which of course Gehrig did not. At times he was a liability to his team, especially as he aged. Many players want to play every day, it’s up to the manager to decide when they’re dragging and would benefit from a day off. That’s in the interest of the team.
Even in Gehrig’s case, there were times he was playing with broken bones in his hand, was slumping badly and absolutely should have sat down for the benefit of the team. But that record was his holy grail, and he was intent on pursuing it no matter what.
That’s a record I’m personally just not very fond of. It’s putting a personal number ahead of the interests of the team. It caught the imagination of America because of the connection to Gehrig and his tragic story. Rather than knock it, I left it out.
I certainly won’t argue with that!
I also laugh when folks talk about how much more difficult it was for Ripkin because of the travel. I guess they never traveled on trains. Sure they can be comfortable and players didn’t pass as many time zones, but in many cases the travel took longer than going by air. I’m too lazy too look it up, but I’d bet Ripkin played a LOT fewer double headers.
There’s that, medical advances, cortisone shots, etc etc. Gehrig had concussions and played the next day. He did play a slightly shorter schedule (154) but was far more productive than Ripken. But without even going down that road, the record was so meaningful because of Gehrig’s story. Ripken didn’t surpass that in any way.
Even if Ripken Jr. wanted to play the rest of 1994, how could he? No one to play with bro.
That record has to be included in any viable top ten or top whatever unbreakable records.
Your saying he was a “liability” to the team is presumptous. It implies that someone else spot starting for him here and there would’ve been better than Ripken Jr. in those games. Who was that spot starter? Go through all the backup infielders who played on Ripken Jr. teams and I don’t think there’s one who would’ve been much of an improvement over Ripken Jr. playing every day. One could argue Ripken Jr. and a spot starter for him would’ve produced the same or worse results with the bat more than better. Would it have produced the same results with the glove? I think a spot starter in the mix could’ve made the team stronger defensively, but then again who knows? Not all young fielders are good ones – see Eduardo Nunez so far. I’m not impressed with his glove at all.
How could you say Ripken Jr. was a liability when he was an everyday player on the last good/postseaason O’s teams and that was towards the end of his career?
I just checked Ripken Jr.’s career stats and you don’t know what you’re talking about.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/ripkeca01.shtml
He had exactly ONE off-year before he broke the record: 1992.
His only other off-year was 1998, but that was after he broke the record so irrelevant. He made up for that 1998 by posting 26 HR and 102 RBI in 1996, 17 HR and 84 RBI in 1997, and.340 BA / 18 HR/ 57 RBI in a little over a half-season in 1999.
Bottom line is he was a productive player for the majority of his career as an everyday player and was a productive everyday player for the last good O’s teams.
I was just going to say the same thing. Other than this omission, the list is pretty indisputable. Nice work.
right after Joe D’s 56 game hit streak he had another long hit streak. I can’t remember how many.
Right, he hit for another 16 games straight after that, and he had an even longer streak of 61 games in the minors as a member of the San Francisco Seals in 1933, which is the minor league record.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.cgi?id=dimagjo01&t=b&year=1941
Check out his game log. From May 15 through August 3rd he was just incredible.
The interesting thing here, to me, is that even with Joe D’s unbelievable hot streak mid season…he STILL didn’t hit .400 for the year! Crazy. What does one have to do?!!
Being Ted Williams helps.
single season triples record.
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/hitting/hitrip2.shtml
with the changes in parks its inconceivable that anyone would come close to chief wilsons record
I saw that, but Triples are sort of flukey. It usually involves a misplay by an outfielder, or a ball kicking around the wall in some weird way. There’s not a specific skill involved, other than speed. A player will lead the league one year and never be heard from again.
But it is still a hit and Carl Crawford, the active leader in triples with 105, is still 204 triples shy of the record of 309 triples by Sam Crawford. I’d say that’s harder to break than the 56-game hitting streak because even if you played 25 full seasons, you’d still need to average 12.4 triples a year to break the record. With breaking the hitting streak record, you could begin it in September and break it in April/early May. You could hit in 35 straight games, suffer a season-ending injury in the final game of that streak, and the streak is still alive to start next season. You could also sit the record chaser against starters he can’t hit.
One could argue homeruns are flukey in that the wind could push a ball over the fence, a ball just nicks the foul pole, a fan could snatch a ball which could be realistically caught, a homerun in one ballpark would not be one in another, and a dude who used steroids to hit 35-50 HR a year could turn into a 20-something HR a year hitter if he’s caught taking steroids and stops taking them, and so on.
Also how is diving or lunging for a ball and missing it (the usual formula for a triple) a misplay when there’s always a degree of difficulty thus not an error on a play like that?
And where is there a chance of impropreity in a triple?
The homerun is the flukiest hit of all in that it’s the only one where people talk about cheating to get it.
Who talks about players cheating to get singles, doubles, and triples?
it was obviously not nearly as flukey back in the deadball era, barely any of the guys in the top fifty are from the thirties or later. I think its just a way they played the game thing, less homers more triples, and then ruth came around…
Nice, interesting list. How about Tris Speaker’s 792 career doubles? No other player in history has ever even reached 750. You would need to average nearly 40 doubles per year for 20 years to top Speaker. Even Rose, Yaz and Aaron, with their unbelievable number of plate appearances, couldn’t reach this mark.
Word. You’d need to average almost 32 doubles a year in 25 full seasons to break the record.
792 / 25 = 31.68 doubles a year for 25 years to be exact.
Even if you averaged 40 doubles a year for 17 years, you’d still be 112 short of the record, 92 short if you averaged 35 doubles a year for 20 years.
I steered away from records where there wasn’t much distance between the top 4-5 guys, especially if one was recent. For a record to be unbreakable, there needs to be someone who is far ahead of anyone else. Mo is 1/3 ahead of everyone in ERA+, as is Henderson in SB. Ryan is 1000 Ks ahead of the next guy on the list. The Big Train has almost double the number of SO of anyone in the modern era, and 5 times the current active leader.
It’s about taking the current game and historical context into account. Having Rose less than 50 away from Speaker (and Biggio and Brett in the top 6) makes me think that record is more reachable.
Most of these are pretty unbreakable, but no one is touching Nolan’s K’s. I can’t even fathom a pitcher getting 5000 K’s going forward, let alone 5714.
Not to nitpick, but shouldn’t we distinguish from unbreakable records (Ryan’s K’s) and unbreakable feats (Ripken’s games played)?
Ripken Jr.’s consecutive games played streak is a record, too, not a feat.
Feat- Noun- a noteworthy or extraordinary act or achievement.
I know what a feat is, dick. Ripken Jr’s streak was/is a record and a feat.
Surprised to not see Hack Wilson’s 191 RBI season not mentioned. RBI are fickle, but I can’t see anyone getting close to 200 RBI again.
The steroid era saw such an explosion in offense, I’m surprised that one hasn’t fallen yet. Maybe the next chemical advancement will do the trick. Send Manny to see Colon’s doctor, and that one just may go.
Okay, I caught this bug from ESPN mentioning “A week of unbreakable records” this morning. Every time I hear something like that, the first thing that comes to MY mind is Fernando Tatis of the Saint Louis Cardinals.
From wikipedia: “On April 23, 1999, Tatís made history by hitting two grand slams in a single inning; the only player to do so in the history of the MLB. He hit both against Chan Ho Park of the Los Angeles Dodgers. With this feat, Tatís also set a Major-League record with eight RBI in a single inning.”
Why, in the lists I have seen online, is this never mentioned?
Consider that to best this one, a player would have to hit THREE grand slams in one inning. Three. A pitching staff would have to face a minimum of 22 batters in one inning without getting three outs for that to happen. The bases would have to be loaded each time the batter came to the plate. Even if there were two outs, at least 19 players would have had to reach base, and 16 of those would have had to score.
Eight RBI in a game is a record that can be broken, certainly. There are several players with seven in a game. But eight in an inning? Again, the player would have to come to bat at least three times to top that one.
These two records SHOULD be etched in stone somewhere.
I have to agree with Scott on this one.