That’s a career spanning longer than the sport of baseball has even existed. At that rate, to match Cy Young’s record, a modern ace would require approximately 250 years of peak performance.
To take one example: No current MLB pitcher has thrown more than three complete games since 2018. Baseball was such a different sport around the turn of the 20th century that the pitching statistics look completely made up. The two active wins leaders, Justin Verlander and Zack Greinke, don’t even have 450 wins between them. The most wins by a pitcher whose career started in the past century is 363, by Warren Spahn. To say nobody will ever break these marks is to be offensively obvious. As a result, his wins record, while remarkable, is just 22 percent greater than Walter Johnson’s, and his complete-games record is just 16 percent more than that of some guy named Pud Galvin. Cy Young’s 512 career wins and 749 complete games are ludicrous records from a time when pitchers were engaged in general ludicrousness.Erase that pesky gap game, and DiMaggio’s 72-game hit streak would have easily earned him entry. He followed his 56-game streak with another 16-game hit streak. The Baltimore Oriole Willie Keeler hit in 45 consecutive games in 18, and Pete Rose had a 44-game hit streak in 1978. Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hit streak in 1941 is similar to Ripken’s record-amazing, but not 50 Percent Club–worthy.The third-longest streak is Everett Scott’s he played in 1,307 straight games from 1916 to 1925. But without competition from the Iron Horse, Cal’s record would stand alone. Lou Gehrig played in 2,130 consecutive games. Cal Ripken Jr.’s 2,632 consecutive games played is a great example of the sort of record that should be cherished even though it doesn’t come close to exceeding the second-place figure by 50 percent.But they don’t quite beat the competition by 50 percent. These sports achievements are legendary and maybe impossible to repeat. But first I’ll check off some famous accomplishments that don’t quite meet the threshold. I’ll get to the official 50 Percent Club in a second. What I’m looking for are Mount Kilimanjaros-heights so soaring that they make the competition look like a flat plain below them. Some exceptional athletes, like Jordan and Serena Williams, are akin to Mount Everest-the highest peak among many high peaks. It’s just that his scoring and titles don’t exceed other competitors by my threshold. Michael Jordan isn’t on the list, and it’s not because I think he’s a mediocre basketball player. Also, fair warning that you won’t find some all-time greats here. If you’re offended that I’m considering annual records alongside career marks, you have my permission to be offended. If you think the list is imperfect or that my metric is arbitrary, you’re right. With that benchmark in mind, here are some of the glitziest members of my 50 Percent Club.
That makes Chamberlain a card-carrying member of the 50 Percent Club.įrom the October 2019 issue: What is the most significant sports victory of all time? In fact, Chamberlain has more 60-point games than every other basketball player in NBA history combined. That’s not just 50 percent more than the second-most on that list (also Bryant). But his greatest feat isn’t one game it’s that he scored 60 points on 32 separate occasions. So Chamberlain doesn’t make it into the club on that metric. But Kobe Bryant’s 81-point game in 2006 means that it would take a 121-point game to pass the 50 Percent Test in the category of points scored in a single game. I settled on the “50 Percent Club.” That is: What American sports records are at least 50 percent greater than the relevant second-place accomplishment?įor example, Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game in 1962 is legendary. But I wanted something better: an objective definition to easily compare statistics across sports and to separate the merely great from the historic. Everybody has their own subjective definition of amazing.
When I received several thousand (passionate, funny, surprising, and extremely angry) replies, I realized that I’d struck a chord. That’s the question I asked Twitter a few weeks ago. Which of these athletic achievements is most impressive? And is any of them the most impressive accomplishment in the history of U.S.
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