99

Ok, I don't know why this came up on ESPN, but there was a poll tonight asking which record will be hardest to break. The choices given to the uneducated masses were:

Wilt Chamberlain's 100 point game
Joe DiMaggio's 56 game hitting streak
Wayne Gretzky's 2,857 career points
Jerry Rice's 208 career touchdowns
Cy Young's 511 career wins

The voting, as of 11:00, is as follows:

Wilt 36%
DiMaggio 16%
Gretzky 6%
Rice 2%
Cy Young 40%

I don't mean to come off as a complete hockey homer here, but this is ridiculous. What I find startling is that people got some of this fairly right, and other parts completely wrong. Staying away from hockey, they were right on:

Jerry Rice - 208 seems like a lot of touchdowns, but with enough years and the right offense, both Moss and TO are in striking distance. Its A-Rod (er, Fraud) to Bonds striking distance, but striking distance non the less. Obviously then, this is not the hardest of the 5 to attain, though it is definitely quite difficult.
Joe DiMaggio - Sure, 56 games is a lot. But doesn't it seem like 9 batters x 30 teams x 365 games in a season, over multiple seasons alone would bring about a similar result once in a while? Again, I'm not saying someone is going to do it. But I'm guessing if baseball is played for another 150 years, it'll happen again at some point. And its not like people don't get close - Pete Rose got within 12 games, and a couple guys this decade made it more than half way. Time is on our side here folks.
Cy Young - I will admit, 511 wins is A LOT. Like, enough to say that it is virtually impossible - with one qualification - the way pitchers are used now is much different than it was in Cy's day. I'm not the most educated person when it comes to this sort of thing (for that, I would refer you here, or here, or even here, if and when its available), but unless major league pitchers go to a four man rotation and grow bionic arms (thank you, Dr. Frank Jobe) people are most likely right about this one. But it may still be more likely (ie, easier) to reach than Gretzky's mark.

So here is where everyone went wrong.

Wilt's 100 may seem insurmountable, but let's not forget that a) Kobe got to 81, b) the NBA isn't known for being the most honest organization this side of the olympics, and c) the Knicks still face 82 opponents every single year. I'm just throwing it out there - someone may get back to the century mark - I'm not saying who or how soon, just that it seems far, far more likely than either Cy Young or Wayne Gretzky's marks.

And that brings us to Gretzky. Let's visit the numbers:
The Great One (TGO) - 1,963 career assists
Mark Messier - 1887 career points
So TGO has almost 80 more assists than the next guy has points... and that guy is retired. The closest active player? Joe Sakic with 1,378 points. To put that into perspective, if Joe played his entire career over, he still wouldn't get to TGO's points record. Incredible.
Ok, so then you'll argue that Sakic isn't as good, but what about Sid or Alex? Well, I think we can all agree that Ovechkin has a higher ceiling than Sid at this point (though time will tell) - and he's doing quite nicely - almost 400 career points in just over 300 career games. But look at it this way - if he keeps on pace (approx 1.3 points per game), it would take an unhuman 3,600+ games to reach Gretzky's mark. (Gretzky played in 1,487 games, or 1.9 points per game - the all time games played record was by Gordie Howe - 1,767). Meanwhile, Sid would have to play 3,900 games, and his teammate Malkin is on pace for 3,600 games. And these are the best young players the game has to offer!! None of these guys are playing for 40 years, and certainly none of them would be any good by the time they were 60 anyway!!
It infuriates me when people, stupid online people, vote for crap like this. Cy Young and Wayne Gretzky are untouchable when it comes to these records. Personally I don't think it matters which you pick, so long as you pick one of the two. But to say that no one will ever get to 100 points in an NBA game again, ahead of either of these two, is crazy. Show me a way that someone can get 2,858 career NHL points; I'm happy to listen to ideas. But until then, stop being stupid.