So what's REALLY baseball's greatest record?

Question

Ever notice how every time a major record is about to be broken, the media calls it "the greatest record in baseball"? During the McGwire-Sosa race, the season home run record was the "greatest." In 1995, Ripken's consecutive game record was the "greatest." And a few weeks from now, when The Barry really bears down on 756, they'll call the career HR record the "greatest." Of course, I'm not forgetting Ryan's strikeouts and no-hitters, Rickey's stolen bases or Pete Rose's career hits.

(Note: I am NOT asking this question as a slam on Barry.)

Answer 1

I think you'd have to consider the margin by which the second runner up is. Imho Ripkens record is probabally the most astonishing now. thats alot of consecutive games for alot of years. The home run records aren't as prestigeous to me b/c you had 2 guys doing it the same year , probabally on roids , in smaller parks, sosa a corked bat user with diluted pitching. Ryans records and Roses is incredible too just based on their longevity and Ryans dominance. The stolen base thing is not too big of a deal imho b/c he was a fast runner and good at reading pitchers. he was a specialist at doing that. you could train many a guy with 4.5 speed to do what henderson did. Ripken, Ted williams over .400, and Dimaggio's consecutive hit streak will be the hardest to ever bring down.

Answer 2

I agree with you but looking back I gotta believe Ripkin's is the greatest record in baseball.

At the time, Sosa and McGwire's race was called the greatest record by media, because it was so much hoopla on a record that could go either way up until the last few days of the season. It was no doubt a great record, but we're talking about a single season record, which I don't think you can recognize as the greatest record.

While Barry's homerun record should be the greatest record of all-time, me and several other baseball fans will look at it as tarnished because we'll never know the full real story. Face the facts, Barry Bonds took something to enhance his performance. How much did it enhance his performance? What would he have done had he have not used this substance? These questions will never be answered therefore I can't recognize this record as the greatest ever.


Ripkin- He played all those games. Nowadays people get put on the DL over a sore big toe. How many times do you think Ripkin woke up and didn't feel 100%. He still showed up, played the game, and put up hall of fame numbers on a daily basis. He's nowhere close to the greatest baseball player in the history of baseball, I just think the holder of the record has a lot to say about the greatness of the record. His record will never be beaten (although Nolan Ryan's records you mentioned seem pretty safe too).

I do agree with what you are saying inside your question. The media just does this sort of thing to build themselves up. Every time somebody passes somebody with some record they make note of it. Just their way of making a living I guess.

Answer 3

Cy Young's 511 wins. I don't think anyone will ever approach that number and it's the only record I would consider as untouchable. Walter Johnson is the only other man to win 400 games and he finished more than 90 behind at 417. Roger Clemens is a multiple CYA winner and won't likely get to 400 at this point. Clemens and Greg Maddux are the only two players over 300 wins and both are only a few years from retirement---if not this year.

Tom Glavine and Randy Johnson are the only two active pitchers with a chance at getting to even 300 and both are in their 40's now.

Pitchers pitched more frequently back in that time -- there was no such thing as a five-man rotation back then. Maybe an even bigger factor is how managers use the bullpen much more especially with the situation relievers that are used today. Most starting pitchers were not taken out of the game during that era and almost always completed the game. Also, it was more common for another starting pitcher to come into a game (even between starts) to pitch in relief.

I think Joe DiMaggio's 56 game hitting streak is probably the other "safe" record at this point but Cy Young's 511 is going to stay for a LONG time for sure.

Answer 4

What I love about baseball is that there is so much going on, that most people don't even notice. All they see is the guy on the mound throwing the ball towards the guy with the big stick in his hands. While the guys on the little white things run around the diamond. Yeah right! There's so much more to baseball. That includes all these records. Most people at a baseball game don't keep track of any records being broken, or who has the highest BA on the team, or how many career strikeouts the pitcher has afterwards. Actually, I don't think most people care. Which sucks, considering there's so many things that go into a player's achievements. Blood, Sweat, Tears, Skill, Pain, Excitement...That doesn't even BEGIN to cover it all. I think the media likes to embellish things an awful lot. But they are somewhat right. Every record in baseball should be looked up at.Every great achievement should amaze baseball lovers. Because every record was earned by hard-working players. All records should be honored, should they not? I just wish the media would, I dunno, use a different adjective instead of, "the greatest," for once...

I don't think there is a single "greatest" record. They all rise to the top. They are all honored. And they never cease to amaze us. Isn't that what matters, really?
Yankees Love. <3

Answer 5

The are probably a lot of records that will not be broken EVER.

1) Total wins by a pitcher. You have to play for close to 30 years and win 20 games a year.......NOT
2) SB.......Does anyone, besides Jose Reyes steal a base. What happened to Vince Coleman type players, Tim Raines, Henderson, Lou Brock.
3) Consecutive games - I doubt anyone will surpass Mr Ripken Jr.


Homeruns will be broken by Arod for the time being.Before Barry Bonds and Arod, who knew about them...HR can be broken again in the future...

But wins, you gotta pitch 3x a week and win.

MY FINAL ANSWER. CAREER WINS

Answer 6

It depends on what one wants to extract from "great". I'm going to opine on seasonal records, because the season is the basic unit of baseball -- each one is hermetic -- with the annual goal of winning the championship, or at least a postseason berth (which is what the regular season is played to determine). So a single-season record tends to indicate one outstanding performance, one pinnacle, as opposed to a career, where longevity also plays a significant factor. Also, gameplay styles have evolved over the decades, making some career records simply unapproachable (Young's complete games and wins, for example), whereas any record (career or season) set in the past 20-30 years is at least feasibly approachable (even a huge outlier like Ryan's strikeouts) simply because the game conditions haven't moved away enough to make an assault utterly impossible.

That said, I'll consider "greatness" as "extremely difficult to challenge" combined with "contributed to winning games". While home runs are an easy choice, we saw that one fall twice in just the past nine seasons, so that can't be it. But I'm going to go with one somewhat related, both conceptually and in the man who holds it.

Season on-base percentage: .609, Barry Bonds, 2004.

This number is absolutely unbelievable, or would be if it were not there in the historical record. Got on base -- importantly, did not make an out -- more than six times in ten trips to the plate. Sorry, folks, but no amount of hysterical ranting about steroids is ever going to explain how Bonds owns complete mastery of his own strike zone (and it's not just "pitchers are scared of him" either). A .609 OBP blows away Williams, Ruth, Cobb, Hornsby... pick a name, at pretty much any professional level, and you won't find a number that stands nearby. And, yes, it was set a mere three years ago, but (a) no one has EVER come close to this and (b) Bonds is a unique talent. It will require another, singularly superb ballplayer at his peak even to consider challenging this record, and men like that do not come along often. This one is scary-good.

(Let me note that I don't care that Bonds owns this record. He happens to be the recordholder; I'd be equally impressed by anyone holding this mark or, mirabile dictu, surpassing it.)

Turning to counting records, Wilson's 36 triples in 1912 is such an amazing outlier -- next-closest mark since 1901 is 26, and even going back further we peak at 31 -- that today the annual triples leader typically doesn't get halfway there. It still confounds researchers today, that this one monster triples season stands alone. Could be the parks of the time, the pitchers faced, the fielders, a bit of luck (or a lot)... anyway, it's stood nearly a century and is going to keep on standing, and as with Bonds' OBP record, no one ever comes close.

I don't have a lot of interest in streak records because they tend to be freaky things built on luck, but Vander Meer's two consecutive no-hitters is not likely to be tied, let along broken. It's just waaaaaay too far out in the tiny tail of the probability curve. Unless a real-life Sidd Finch comes along -- because talent alone cannot do such a thing -- it'll take one pitcher getting very, very lucky to match it. Break it? Never, and that's not a term I employ often.

Answer 7

I respect all the records made by Hank Aaron, Mark Mcguire, Joe Dimagio, and Pete Rose. All these records shaped the baseball we know today. But, the record that stands out from the rest for me is Cal Ripken Jr.'s record of 2,632 games straight. I choose this record because this shows the on going commitment that represents not only baseball but partly the U.S.A.

Answer 8

Great question, easy answer. Cy Young had 749 complete games. No one will ever come close to that record. Take five of the greats of our time. Clemens has 118. Maddux has 108. Johnson has 98, Schilling 83 and Mussina has a mere 57 complete games. That is baseballs greatest record.

Answer 9

I'd say the Pete Rose hits record for batting and Nolan Ryan's record number of no hitters for pitching.

The home run record is about to get tainted, so that's out

Answer 10

Cal Ripken 2632 Consecutive games (that's over 16 seasons!)
Dimaggios's 56 game hitting streak
Ted Williams batting .406 in 1941
Nolan Ryan 383 K's in one season
Nolan Ryan 5714 lifetime K's
Nolan Ryan 7 no-no's (and 12 one hitters, I think)
Denny McClain 30 wins in 1968
Bob Gibson 1.12 ERA for the WHOLE SEASON!