Baseball's Unbreakable Records

In a recent ESPN program entitled Unbreakable Records, Ozzie Smith, who won 13 consecutive Gold Gloves for masterfully manning the shortstop position for St. Louis (a feat that has not been accomplished by any position player), discussed the importance of ten remarkable feats achieved in baseball history by both team (the Yankees' accumulation of five consecutive World Series from 1949 - 1953) and individual (Eric Gagne's 84 save streak for the Los Angeles Dodgers). Prior to the show's airing, 160+ managers, players, and coaches in Major League Baseball were polled to determine the five most arduous records to reach in all of baseball. Brought to you here is this V-List contributor's re-working of this esteemed list.



5. Joe DiMaggio's 56 Game Hitting Streak
Pete Rose came the closest to DiMaggio's impressive mark, stringing together 44 consecutive games in which he was able to reach base via a hit (quite fitting, when you consider Joltin' Joe beat out Wee Willie Keeler's one-time record of 44-game streak of hitting safely). Upon going hitless in the 57th game of the streak, DiMaggio went on another 16-game hitting streak, which calculates to hitting safely in 72 of 73 games in 1941. During this season, perhaps DiMaggio's best, the one-time Mr. Coffee would not win the MVP; that distinction was instead held by Ted Williams, holder of another outstanding record for the ages.



4. Ted Williams's .406 Season
Arguably the game's greatest hitter (and the anti-thesis of quitting), the Splendid Splinter was going into the final day of the season having amassed a batting average of .3995, which would have effectively rounded up to .400, the first time the feat would be accomplished since 1930, when Bill Terry did so. Williams, as recommended by many Red Sox personnel, could have sat out the the doubleheader slated for that day in order to achieve this aforementioned exploit. Instead, Williams played both games, going 6 for 8, raising his collective batting average for the 1941 season to .406. Although George Brett and Tony Gwynn came awfully close, nobody has hit .400 since Williams accomplished the astounding deed in a year that would later live in infamy (the Pearl Harbor bombing would occur months after Williams's greatest summer). As his career average would suggest (.344), Williams was the master of the art of stroking the baseball, a testament to his poise and uncanny sense for dominating opposing pitching like nobody else could.




3. Nolan Ryan's Tandem: 5,714 Career Strikeouts and 7 No-Hitters
Ryan's efforts are ahead of DiMaggio's and Teddy Ballgame's for the sole reason that, in the modern era (post Bob Gibson, who compiled a a record 1.12 ERA in 1968), the game favors the hitters. When you consider (1) the mound has been lowered and (2) the fences have been pulled in through the construction/renovation of many contemporary ballparks, what Ryan did was extremely unfathomable. Randy Johnson most recently passed Roger Clemens on the all-time strikeout list, hoarding an upwards of 4,600 K's. In order for the 44 year old Johnson to pass Ryan, he would have to average 300 strikeouts per season for the next three years (something he hasn't done since 2002). What's more impressive are the seven occasions in which opponents could not register a single hit off of Ryan, the latest of which came in 1991, his 25th season in the bigs. His 292 losses (to his 324 wins) are not indicative of his prowess; for instance, in 1987, Ryan led the league in ERA (2.76), but compiled a win-loss record of 8 - 16, suggesting that Ryan was often the victim of poor run-support. At times, Ryan has been criticized for being erratic (he once walked over 200 batters in his season; in fact, his wild ways earned him a one-way ticket out of New York and California), but his ability to embarrass hitters was truly tremendous.



2. Cal Ripken's 2,632 Consecutive Games Played Streak
Consider this for a moment: the most recent player to come close to Ripken's streak since Cal broke Lou Gehrig's old record was Miguel Tejada, who played in 1,151 games consecutively, some 1,500 games shy of the mark Cal ended up setting. For Ripken to shatter the Iron Horse's record by some 500 games is a testament to Cal's immense capacity to play through bangs and bruises that have made mortals of lesser players. Perhaps the game's greatest shortstop of all-time, Ripken played the game with the ultimate sense of grit and determination that defined the outstanding ballplayer he was. For many, Cal was Mr. Baseball in Baltimore and beyond, the game's truest ambassador whose place in Cooperstown was well-deserved (an honor held in the same year, 2006, by San Diego Padres great Tony Gwynn, the modern-day equivalent of Ted Williams, minus the power numbers).



1. Cy Young's 511 Career Wins
During a time when homeruns were as rare as blue moons in the night sky, Cy Young (for whom the award for the annual best pitcher in the National and American Leagues is named) did things as a pitcher that will NEVER be accomplished, namingly his 749 complete games (Roger Clemens's 118 is nowhere near Young's mark) and 815 starts in a career. Through the use of five-man rotations, bullpens, specialist pitchers, and closers, and the restriction of starts made by pitchers (hurlers may reach 35 starts tops in an injury-free season), Young's feats have truly become a thing of the past, especially his career win total (guys like Greg Maddux and Roger Clemens, the best pitchers of the past twenty years, have only won 350 and 354 games respectively). Despite losing the most games in baseball history (316), Young's standard for winning ballgames is the most unbreakable record in baseball. PERIOD.

The Josh Hamilton Story

Twins first baseman Justin Morneau, much like he did when he beat out Derek Jeter for the 2006 American League MVP, edged out a fan favorite to win the 2008 Home Run Derby, with a total of five homers in the final round of competition. His opponent? Josh Hamilton, a baseball legend in the making, who battled demons that made lesser men of professionals like Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry, players who made inspirational, championship-inducing comebacks with the Yankees that pales in comparison to what Hamilton has done these past two campaigns with the Reds and Rangers. Should the season end today, Hamilton would win the MVP award outright, in lieu of his flirtation with baseball's elusive Triple Crown, last achieved by Carl Yastrzemski in 1967. To add to these feats, Josh won over a fickle Yankee Stadium crowd with a Mantle-esque swing that crushed a ball measured at 504 feet. In the first round of this evening's slugfest, Hamilton hit a record 28 homeruns (four more than the previous record holder, Bobby Abreu, compiled in 2005), his accomplishment met by 58,000 lauding crowd members emphatically chanting his name, the majority of whom were Yankee fans, that, in all the years I have followed the organization, have never glorified the accolades of an opposing player so passionately. Hamilton, as he proclaimed himself in an article featured in an ESPN spread last year, wished for a better life, one he found through family, baseball, and belief in God. Upon bowing out in the final round of tonight's derby, Hamilton committed a task that was perhaps more arduous than any addiction or pitcher he has yet to face: he gave praise to God in front of a legion of new-found Hamilton followers, a wave that has reached some tens of millions in light of the show he put on at the derby. Say what you will about his past: as Hamilton continues to joust with addiction, he remains clean en route to one of the greatest baseball stories ever produced in the game's fabled history. With 95 RBI's and 21 homeruns to his credit thus far, Hamilton is sure to impress with a strong finish to the 2008 season, one that conveys sports' capacity to allow stories of the human condition to prevail.

I Feel Good: Our National Pastime's Finest

Typically, the hours leading up to baseball's July 31st trade deadline are noted for a flurry of transactions that could make or break an organization's attempt at reaching the postseason. In 2008, the biggest blockbusters have already been made, as Athletics' ace Rich Harden has made his way to the Cubs in Chicago's response to the Milwaukee's acquisition of last year's American League Cy Young award winner, the robust C.C. Sabathia. In either case, the Cubbies and Brewers have made their intentions clear: they will work diligently to label themselves as serious World Series contenders. In lieu of these ambitious moves, the V-List takes a look at the best feel-good stories of the MLB season thus far.

5. Geovany Soto: An NL First
Pop quiz, hot shot. Who is the first National League rookie to start at catcher for the All-Star team? If you guessed Johnny Bench or Mike Piazza, you would be wrong. This distinction is held by none other than current Chicago Cubs backstop Geovany Soto, who proved his worth to the organization by mashing the ball in a late-September call-up in 2007. By hitting .289 with 15 homers and 52 RBI's, Soto, much like his compatriot Kosuke Fukodome, has invigorated the North Side of Chicago with tremendous flair and passion for the game. Many games have been won off the bat of Soto, to which the Cubbies are grateful, as they hold the best record in the National League at 54 - 36. Much like Dodgers' catcher Russell Martin before him, Soto has infused youth into a position once dominated by the likes of Pudge Rodriguez and Jorge Posada, who are at the tail ends of their respective careers. Here's to many more All-Star appearances by this Puerto Rican sensation, who just might aid his ballclub in taking home the franchise's first World Series in 100 years.

4. The Kid Goes for 600
Injuries have derailed promising careers of legends (Sandy Koufax) and near Hall of Famers (Don Mattingly) alike. For Ken Griffey, Jr., arguably the game's best all-around player in the 1990's, "The Kid" watched as his assault on Hank Aaron's homerun mark crumbled, simply because his move to the Cincinnati Reds has brought nothing but injury after career-threatening injury. Even so, in a June contest against the Florida Marlins, Griffey continued to utilize his sweet power stroke as he reached career dinger #600 (and counting) for his illustrious career. Although Barry Bonds has already surpassed Aaron's record, it's Griffey's career that moves baseball fans the most, simply because Griffey is a man of class and passion, one who plays the game each and every day like a Little Leaguer awaiting the reward of an ice cream cone at the end of a Reds' victory.


3. Tim Lincecum: Diminutive Size, Behemoth Effort
The folklore surrounding Giants' lefthander Tim Lincecum is astounding when you consider little Timmy was 4'11" entering his freshman year of high school. Some ten years later (and a foot taller), Lincecum dazzles fans by the Bay with 98 MPH heat, a weapon that has delivered 10 wins, a 2.49 ERA, and 122 strikeouts for a team depleted by the departure of many talented ballplayers, including Barry Bonds. Lincecum first burst onto the scene on an ESPN broadcast of Sunday Night Baseball on May 6, 2007. With a freakish stride of seven and a half feet, 129% of his height (most major leaguers average a stride that is 83% of their height), Lincecum has given Giants fans a reason to show up to the ballpark, knowing that their ace of the future has many more gems left to bestow upon San Francisco followers willing to wait for a Renaissance in the Bay City.



2. Jon Lester: No-Hitting Cancer Survivor For the first time in Boston Red Sox history, two Boston hurlers pitched consecutive no-hitters from 2007 to 2008, the first completed by Clay Bucholz on September 1, 2007, the latter accomplished by Jon Lester on May 19th of this season. What is especially awe-inspiring about Lester's feat was the fact that only a year ago had Jon battled lymphoma, a form of cancer. Upon his return from chemotherapy and radiation treatment in August of last year, Lester returned to the organization and pitched in the decisive fourth game of the 2007 World Series, an effort that delivered Boston's second title in four years. In Lester's no-hit effort, Jason Varitek was behind the plate, a catcher who ended up calling his fourth no-hitter, an MLB record (an achievement he endured with Lester, Bucholz, Derek Lowe, and Hideo Nomo, all pitchers for the Red Sox).

1. How About Them Rays?
Upon joining the Rays in April of this year, third baseman Evan Longoria surfaced as the next big thing in Tampa Bay, hitting .270 with 16 homeruns and 47 RBI's at age 23. Longoria anchors a lineup strengthened by the likes of Carl Crawford, Dioner Navarro, Carlos Pena, B.J. Upton, and Jonny Gomes, a group that has led Tampa Bay to the best record in baseball at 55 - 34. As if the hitting corps weren't remarkable enough, the Rays are further stabilized by a pitching staff led by Scott Kazmir, Andy Sonnanstine, Matt Garza, James Shields, and Edwin Jackson, a young quintet that will later be revitalized by star prospect David Price, who is currently dominating Double-A. Managed by Joel Maddon, the Rays are on the fast track toward taking the AL East divisional title, as the squad currently holds a lead of 7.5 games ahead of the Yankees and 4.5 games ahead of the Red Sox. In a season peppered with surprises (the Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins), the Rays are at the forefront of an enticing AL East race that will come down to the season's final weeks, a juncture no Rays fan could have envisioned, even Dick Vitale, a season-ticket holder since the team's inaugural season in the bigs.