Some records will never be eclipsed
If the Miami Heat can achieve 34 consecutive wins and remove the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers and their 33 from its NBA perch, it will reinforce the idea that if you arrange to live long enough, you’ll see plenty of sports’ “unbreakable” records broken. But not all of them. Many sporting achievements were once widely considered statistical Everests. No one, they taught us as schoolkids, could challenge, say, Lou Gehrig’s 2,130 consecutive games played. But no one knew about Cal Ripken or 2,632 at the time.
Henry Aaron’s 755 home runs once seemed impenetrable, as did Terry Sawchuk’s 103 shutouts. But Barry Bonds (762) and Martin Brodeur (120), respectively, showed up.
It’s both trite and true that records are made to be broken, and good luck to the Heat, for sure.
Plus, who knows about the Penguins? They earned their 11th straight win Friday night against the Islanders, although the 1979-80 Flyers went 25-0-10 in a 35-game unbeaten stretch to create one of the NHL’s magic mountains. A team essentially needs 36 wins in a row to surpass that in a no-ties league. Good luck there. Other standards arise, even with foundations made of cheese. No matter how much bottled help they and their opposition had, Bonds hit 73 home runs in a season and Lance Armstrong won seven consecutive Tour de France titles.
Feel free to play along at home, but here is the start of a list of records that appear safe, no matter how long we all live. (We’ll leave out the run-jump sports, where a blend of evolution, training, equipment, opportunity and, in some cases, pharmaceuticals renders most standards temporary at best.)
In no particular order of impenetrability, how about a couple dozen from Wayne Gretzky, including a 215-point season, four 200-point campaigns in five years, a 92-goal season and 50 goals in 39 games.
Any of those open to discussion? Even if another Gretzky one day reshapes the game, will any goaltender ever surpass Glenn Hall’s career college scoring average of 44.2 be approached, even though Pete had no three-point line.
Will anyone ever beat Henri Richard’s 11 Stanley Cups won? Or Bill Russell’s 11 NBA titles? Is it possible to think Cy Young’s 511 wins are in play, when 25 wins a year for 20 years aren’t enough? How about Cy’s 749 complete games? A pitcher who has six a season now is considered a workhorse.
Joe DiMaggio’s sainted 56-game hitting streak will endure. So will Pete Rose’s 4,256 hits.
Will any heavyweight ever top Rocky Marciano’s 49-0 career record, with 43 knockouts? Or how about Archie Moore’s 131 knockout wins?
Teemu Selanne’s NHL rookie record of 76 goals seems safe. As do Martina Navratilova’s six consecutive Wimbledon titles, starting in 1982. Add Darryl Sittler’s 10-point game, Nolan Ryan’s seven nohitters, Johnny Vander Meer’s consecutive no-nos, UCLA’s 88game college basketball winning streak, Bill Mosienko’s three goals in 21seconds . . . and the list goes on.
It’s exciting to see that Laker mark challenged, but plenty of other familiar standards will march on forever.