The 5: Unbreakable Sports Records

This Week on The 5:  Sports Records That Will Stand the Test of Time

Setting a sports record takes a lot of skill, a lot of luck, and the right circumstances. While most records are made to be broken, every once in a while you come across one that you just know will stand the test of time. Here are five sports records that I think we will see standing for a long, long time.

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• Cal Ripken Jr.’s Consecutive Games Played Streak. From May 30, 1982 to September 19, 1998, Orioles SS Cal Ripken Jr. did not sit out a single game. For those of you counting, that’s 2,632 games over 17 seasons. The most impressive part is that nobody in history has come even close. Lou Gehrig is 2nd on the list with 2,130, a full 502 games, or 3 seasons less than Cal. Nobody else has even come within half. In today’s game of $20 million athletes it is unlikely that a manager would be willing to put that much wear and tear on a player for one full season, let alone 17.
• Wilt Chamberlain’s 55 Rebounds In a Single Game. There are at least a dozen Wilt records that could have been on this list, from his 100 point game to his to his 50.4 ppg in 1961, but this is the one I went with. Nobody since Wilt has come within 20 of this record and there is no single TEAM in the NBA this season that is averaging over 45 rebounds a game. Yes, Wilt was ahead of his time, competing against players who just couldn’t keep up, but a record is a record and Wilt’s stats are just unbelievable.
• Pete Rose’s Career Hits. If I told you that one player was the all-time Major League Baseball leader in hits, games played, and at bats, won three world series rings, three batting titles, one MVP, two gold gloves, the rookie of the year award and made 18 all-star games at five different positions you would think he should be front and center in the Hall of Fame, right? Yeah, me too. But Pete Rose is nowhere near the hall and it’s a shame because his record 4,256 hit is a record that is likely never to be approached. Rose is one of two players in the 4,000 hit club and the closest active player is Derek Jeter, at 3,304, 952 hits behind the king. He would have to play a minimum of 5 more years at peak performance to have a shot and I just can’t see that happening. Rose was the perfect combination of talent, hustle, luck, and longevity that comes around once every few generations.
• Oscar Robertson Averages a Triple-Double For a Season. Oscar Robertson’s 1961 season stat line is a sight to behold, averaging 30.8 points, 12.5 rebounds, and 11.4 assists, the only full season triple double the NBA has ever seen. Oscar averaged 44.3 of a possible 48 minutes per game that season too, surviving the wear and tear. More impressive is that he was thiiiissss close to doing it multiple times, coming .1 ppg away in 1962 and .3 rpg away in 1961. Todays game is too compartmentalized, teams have scorers, rebounders, and passers, not enough players excel at all three. You would need the rare all around player, think a Lebron James, playing in a diluted league, which the current NBA is anything but.
• Cy Young’s Career Complete Games. Baseball has changed, there’s no denying it, and there are some stats that are just a thing of the past. Complete Games are one of those stats. Roy Halladay is considered one of this generations best pitchers, someone who you know is always going to go deep into a game, he has 66 career complete games over his 15 seasons. Cy Young pitched 21 seasons in Major League Baseball, retiring with an astounding 749 complete games, over 100 more than the next guy in line. Out of the 815 career games that Young started, he finished over 91% of them himself; an absolutely impossible number in today’s era of pitch counts and babied athletes.