As sports fans we love to keep track of numbers and especially records.
61, 4,256, and 755 are all iconic numbers in baseball.
Many of the greats post amazing numbers over the course of their career. Some of those long-standing numbers have since been surpassed but there are a few that will not be rewritten anytime soon.
There are five records that are standing right now that will not be broken.
Career Stolen Bases, career strikeouts for a pitcher, career wins, career hits, and the fifty-six game hit streak. These records, for one reason or another, will not be touched, or even come close to being touched.
Career Wins
The most unbreakable record is by far the mark for career wins by a pitcher. The leader is Cy Young with 511 wins in his career. The player closest to him is Walter Johnson 417 wins. Young pitched more 1400 innings more that Johnson.
The closest non-retired player is Roger Clemens with 354 wins.
After Clemens is Greg Maddux with 347.
Looking at the way baseball is played today with the bullpen and emphasis on the closer role there is no way a player gets close to the record. A twenty-year-old player would need to average 25 wins a year for 20 years and then would still be short. Cy Young would pitch doubleheader complete games on some days.
No player will ever smell 400 wins with the bullpen and closer prominence of today’s game.
Career Strikeouts for a Pitcher
The second most unbreakable record is the career strikeout mark. The holder of the illustrious record is none other than fireball pitcher Nolan Ryan.
The pitcher behind Ryan is Roger Clemens, who is more than one thousand strikeouts behind.
Once again Ryan has set a mark that is not going to be eclipsed by modern day pitchers. Pitchers throw far fewer innings these days and few pitchers are considered strikeout pitchers. Hitters strikeout less and more and more “easy out” players are becoming slap hitters who strikeout less and less.
Career Hits
Moving onto the hitters lets talk about Pete Rose and his record that will most certainly be challenged but never beaten.
Rose played 3500 games and holds a career batting average of .303.
The closest recently active player is Craig Biggio with 3060 hits. 1200 hits short of Rose in 700 fewer games.
The point is that in these modern days with the amount of young competition behind veterans and players playing fewer games in their career will not get anywhere close to Rose’s mark.
Once again the prototype of a twenty-year-old player playing 20 years and averaging 200 hits a year would still land the player short of Rose’s historic mark. Rose, one of the best hitters ever holds one of the most unbreakable records ever.
Rose may not have the Hall of Fame, but he will always have this record.
Career Stolen Bases
Another record that could possibly be challenged, but is highly unlikely, is career stolen bases.
Rickey Henderson would be happy to say that Rickey Henderson made this list.
Well not really Henderson, but his most outstanding accomplishment over his many seasons and teams.
Henderson owns the mark by 500 swipes, his total being 1406. Teams today do not place high regard on the stolen base, as they prefer to get a hitter on base and let a slugger bring him around.
I am not sure if Henderson always stole at a manager’s request but one season Henderson stole 130 bases.
The steal is slowly making its way back into baseball, but there are few players who play everyday with the speed, durability, and skill to steal the amount of bases Henderson swiped.
With the resurgence of the stolen base a player could maybe approach the 800 stolen base mark, but no player will eclipse the 1000 mark.
Hitting Streak
The record on this list that seems the most capable of breaking is that of Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hit streak.
Although it seems improbable, his is the only record on the list that would not require extreme durability over an entire career.
The record only requires durability over the course of one season, or even just half a season. A player could perhaps hit just the right streak of not facing any of the opposing team’s aces and a player could get lucky.
56 games is a tall order, but a player on just the right hot streak could drop in a few Texas leaguers, a dinger, and a seeing eye single over a summer.
The common denominator of all these records is durability.
Rather it be over the course of a season or the course of a career, durability is necessary to set these great records. The typical MLB player does not have the twenty-year career that is currently necessary to set amazing records like these.
These five records will stand for a very long time.
comments (17) write a comment »
write a new comment
6 months ago
Rule of thumb for unbreakable records....
If the opportunity exists, the record could be broken - it not an arguable point - its statistics
examples
Career hits can be broken because players still can get the same amount of at-bats, which means the opportunity still exists.
Same thing goes for stolen bases, if a player gets on base 1300 times in his career, he could conceivably steal 1300 bases
The 56-game hitting streak can be broken by anyone who bats in 57 consecutive games.
What records can't be broken are the ones where opportunity does not exist. That would be career wins and career strikeouts.
Because pitchers only get 33 starts per season, and they only pitch 6-7 tops per game, which leads to less chance for victories and more no-decisions. Also, by pitching less innings, they will less opportunity to accumulate strikeouts.
Also cast in stone is Cal Ripken's streak. No player going forward will be - a) stay healthy for 22 years and b) have the political juice to ensure they are in the lineup everyday. It can happen, but the odds are way against it.
from 6 months ago
John - While I agree with your premise, I don't think you can label anything statistically "unreachable" - Greg Maddux has over 511 decisions and 700 starts in his career. That would certainly make Cy Young's mark reachable from a statistical standpoint - as reachable as Rickey Henderson's SB mark. It's just unlikely that anyone will reach it.
I think the same logic you applied to 511 wins should be applied to 1300 SB's. To paraphrase your reasoning - the game is simply played differently nowadays.
Pitchers don't pitch as much as they used to - and likewise, runners don't steal bases like they used to. 60 SB's is usually enough to win the title in any given year. Do that for 20 consecutive years, and you're still short. Sure the opportunity exists, nobody's saying it doesn't. But the likelihood is simply a pipe dream unless we go back to a day when certain runners take off nearly every time they're on base.
I'd also submit that with modern medicine, today's player would be even more likely to stay healthy enough to play 2,600 straight games than Ripken was at the beginning of his career. I think the opportunity is there, but the desire is lacking from today's modern athlete. Not to mention that a day off every now and then probably does more good than bad.
Ranked in order of least likely to be broken, I'd go:
1. 511 wins
2. Ironman streak
3. Nolan Ryan's no-hitters
4. Nolan Ryan's K's
5 (tie). Bonds' MVP's and Rocket's Cy Youngs
7. Rickey's SB's
from 6 months ago
Good points, my man...so we agree
single season records are fair game - any one of these can be broken
most of the famous career records will be difficult to supass
6 months ago
I honestly don't see how Cal Ripken's Ironman streak was left off this list. Players go on the 15 day DL for a sneeze, let alone a serious injury. His streak was incredible and I can't see ANYONE staying healthy enough to endure the harshest punishment of all, time. I don't want to discredit or diminish the other streaks in anyway but this is a glaring eyesore on your list that most absolutely needs to be added.
from 6 months ago
Absolutely 100% agree with this.
You cannot leave off that record. No one will ever touch it.
6 months ago
I agree with most of these records but I also don't see how Cal Ripken's Ironman streak was left off. Guy are wimps today in comparison to Cal.
6 months ago
Good article as baseball is a game of stats and records. A little refresher course never hurt anyone
6 months ago
I'll nominate Hughie Jennings Hit-By-Pitch record. 287 HBP, it has stood for nearly a century. Craig Biggio came close, retiring with just 2 HBP to go.
from 6 months ago
If Hughie Jennings played today, he wouldn't be so bold....
6 months ago
I apologize to all for leaving off Cal Jr. His streak slipped my mind. I have committed an injustice in leaving him off. I apologize.
6 months ago
Here's a record that won't be broken: Number of lines snorted (career) - Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry are tied for first all-time with 675,012 each
6 months ago
the hits record is reachable, if ichiro had started in the MLB instead of in Japan, he would have about 3000 hits right now and have 8-10 seasons left especially if he DH's, and he average almost 200 hits per season, so that would mean he probably would have broken it, its only a matter of time before another ichiro comes along, and starts in the MLB.
6 months ago
good article, i've read it many times.
6 months ago
There is one other you forgot, longest team losing streak. The Phillies will never be uprooted from this record which they won in 1961 with 23 losses. Those Baltimore iron birds certainly tried to sneak past them, but they were unable to; their streak ended 2 shy at 21. :p
from 6 months ago
I agree with the other comment. If a team came within two games of the streak, it's ludicrous to suggest this streak is unreachable.
6 months ago
If a team came as close as the Orioles did, how could we call 23 straight losses an unbreakable record? That streak would be way down on my list. That'd be like calling Hank Aaron's 755 unbreakable if Bonds had retired at 753.
5 months ago
If Derek Jeter stays healthy the rest of his career, the idea of him reaching 4000 hits is certainly not out of the question.
write a new comment