56, 511, 4256, 383, 5714, 2632, 130.....All these are milestones in baseball that some believe are unbreakable records. All of these records are held by legends of the game and in some cases, are the reasons why they're considered legends. The game has evolved over the 150+ years it has existed and with the way it is played today, are these records unbreakable?
56...Out of these records listed above, I believe the one that could fall the easiest is 56, as in consecutive games with a hit. Held by Joltin' Joe DiMaggio, he set this record in 1941. In 73 years since he set the record, the closest players to come to it were Pete Rose in 1978 with 44 games and Paul Molitor with 39 in 1987. Both of them hall of fame caliber players in their own right, but still miles away from Joltin' Joe.
So why do I think this record is breakable? First off it was accomplished in a single season. I believe that most single season records are easier to beat than career long records. Especially in this case where a player on a hot streak could try to go after the record. Also, it technically has been beaten before, but on other levels of baseball. Robin Ventura hit in 58 straight games in 1987 for Oklahoma State. Plus the game hasn't changed so much, that the number can't be hit.
130...The most stolen bases in a single season is held by legendary leadoff man, Rickey Henderson. If he played today, fantasy baseball players would draft him first overall because he could single handedly win you the stolen bases category. Since he broke the record in 1982, the next closest was Vince Coleman with 110 in 1985 and 109 in 1987. Since that 1987 year, no one has even had over 100 stolen bases in a season and the most since Rickey and Vince is Jose Reyes with 78 in 2007.
Baseball changed. "Money Ball", power hitters, and stolen bases being more evenly distributed among teammates have caused the running game to change. The Money Ball method cites that your team has a better chance to score if the game is played straight up, without trying to bunt or steal bases. Ironic that the team that has employed this tactic is the Oakland A's, the very team that employed Rickey Henderson for much of his career including his record breaking 1982 year. The "Steroid Era" also is a reason for the drop. Power hitting became gold in the MLB and even if one of your faster players is on base, you would hold him off from running so you wouldn't bug your power hitter who is at-bat. Finally teams seem to spread out the stolen bases these days. You'll have more players on a team with ten or more stolen bases, but none with very high individual numbers.
4256...The all time hits record held by Pete Rose, a player who played for 24 years. He had ten seasons with 200 or more hits and several more that just finished just short such as 198 in 1972. He also led the league in hits for seven different seasons. Is this record breakable? I think so, although it would take the right circumstances to do so.
The current active leader is Derek Jeter, who is on a farewell tour. Unfortunately, he won't break the record because he ONLY has 3363 hits as I type this blog out. He's ninth on the all-time hits list, but as long as he stays healthy for his final season, should be able to move past the sixth spot currently held by Cap Anson with 3435 hits. He could even move past Tris Speaker for fifth, who has 3514, but that would take some great hitting by Jeter.
If star Japanese player, Ichiro Suzuki came to the MLB earlier, he could have had an outside shot. He broke the single season record for hits and despite having only fourteen seasons under his belt (the last three which haven't been too productive), he currently has 2768 hits. He too has ten 200 hits or more seasons (all of them in a row) and also like Pete Rose, has led the league seven times. Unfortunately, he didn't come over to the MLB until he was 27 years old, spending his younger years in the Japanese baseball league. He currently has 4046 hits between the two professional leagues, but that takes into account that even though he hit 1278 in Japan, they only play 130-140 games a season. He too is currently playing, and by the end of his career, should have more hits overall than Pete Rose, but unfortunately for him, it won't count.
Currently playing, with a small outside shot of getting near the record, is Miguel Cabrera. He currently has 2058 hits in twelve seasons, but has spent the last couple of years dominating the MLB in not just average, but overall hitting. He won the triple crown in 2012. He also plays in the American League, which will allow for him to hit as a designated hitter, long after his fielding days are over.
2632...This was achieved by Cal Ripken Jr., breaking the Iron Horse Lou Gehrig's record of 2130. The closet since the record being set in 1998 was Miguel Tejada with 1152 games, but that ended in 2007. The most recent streak was at 547, broken this year by Prince Fielder. Unfortunately a herniated disk in his neck forced him into a season ending surgery. Can this record be broken? There is a small chance that it can, but with managers being overly conservative with players, especially star players, Cal Ripken Jr. was a member of a dying breed.
383/5714...Nolan Ryan's records for strike outs in a single season and in a career, in the modern era. In 1973, Ryan broke Sandy Koufax' record of 382 and since then, the closest was Randy Johnson in 2001 with 372. Both Koufax and Ryan accomplished the feat when teams ran with four man rotations. Ryan had pitched in 40 games when he had 383 strikeouts, giving him an average of 10.6 per 9 innings pitched. When Johnson threw 372, he average 13.4 strikeouts per 9 innings, but he did it in the five man rotation era while only pitching in 34 games. So why is this record harder to break than the all-time hits record? With five man rotations sometimes giving way to six man rotations, innings limits being set by teams and player's agents, and pitch counts rarely going 100 pitches, star pitchers are sometimes only limited to 30 starts in a season now. This means they would have to average nearly 13 strikeouts a game, when they now rarely go over seven innings a game.
With the career record, Ryan accomplished this in twenty-seven seasons and quite frankly was a durable, freak of nature. Several other players of the same makeup have followed since (Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens, Dwight Gooden), but various factors prevented them from breaking Ryan's career record. Johnson never pitched a complete season until he was 26 years old and by the time Ryan was 26, he 1205 career strikeouts, including two seasons with over 300. Clemens had 1215 by the time he was 26, but retired by age 44, had two seasons shortened by injury, and two more seasons that he didn't start playing until midseason. Of this bunch, Gooden had the most strikeouts by age 26, with 1541, but injuries and drug problems proved to be road blocks in his career, preventing him from being a future Hall-of-Famer.
Currently, CC Sabathia is the active leader with 2437, but that's in fourteen seasons and his body has been breaking down the last few. The three current players with the best shots are Felix Hernandez, Justin Verlander, and Clayton Kershaw. At age 28, Hernandez has 1786 strikeouts, fairly close to Ryan's pace. Verlander has 1721, but is 31 years old. Both Hernandez and Verlander have been solid when it comes to health as well. Finally at age 26, Kershaw currently has 1252 strikeouts, 47 more than Ryan at the same age and the season still isn't over. By the time all three retire, it's easy to believe that they'll all be in the top twenty-five of all-time, but to break the top five, they'll have to prove themselves to be freaks of nature like Ryan, Johnson, and Clemens.
Finally, the record that will be the most impossible to break, is 511 career wins. Set by Cy Young himself, he averaged 22 wins a season for his entire 22 year career. In Cy Young's days, he often would pitch as much as 50 games in a season, starting around 45 in a season at his peak. Today, a reliever that pitches in 50 games in a season, is considered to have pitched in a lot of games, at that's usually around 1 inning at a time. Cy Young started so many games, that he lost 316 games.
The closest in recent years has been Greg Maddux (355) and Roger Clemens (354) and both of them retired in their 40's. Greg Maddux pitched for one of the longest dynasties in baseball and Clemens was a freak of nature. In his time, Cy Young had over 815 career starts, but the closest active leader is CC Sabathia with 440. As with the strikeout records, with limited innings/pitch counts, five/six man rotations, and the wear and tear of pitching a whole career, this record is the most untouchable in baseball.
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