I would have probably missed it too....I Googled it....haha.

Surprised this didn't come up yet: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isner%E..._Championships

Also, the Bruins scoring 3 shorthanded goals in one penalty this year: http://www.nhl.com/ice/recap.htm?id=2009021212
Don't think I've ever seen a team score 2 SH goals in one game, let alone 3 in one penalty.

Good spot. That's up there w Bradman in the 'will never get beat' category.

I thought this was a joke until I saw you were from Australia. Just know that I'd never heard of Don Bradman before this thread. Ty Cobb is one of the most famous baseball players of all time. He was also a giant douche bag. He played from 1905-1928.

Beast

"Cobb is widely credited with setting 90 Major League Baseball records during his career."

And a million other things

Douche bag

"On May 15, 1912, Cobb assaulted a heckler, Claude Lueker, in the stands in New York. Lueker and Cobb had traded insults with each other through the first three innings, and the situation climaxed when Lueker called Cobb a "****** lover." Cobb, in his discussion of the incident (My Life in Baseball: The True Record, Ty Cobb and Al Stump, Doubleday, 1961, pp. 131–135), avoided such explicit words, but alluded to it by saying the man was "reflecting on my mother's color and morals." Cobb stated in the book that he warned Highlanders manager Harry Wolverton that if something wasn't done about the man, there would be trouble. No action was taken. At the end of the sixth inning, after being challenged by teammates Sam Crawford and Jim Delahanty to do something about it, Cobb climbed into the stands and attacked Lueker, who it turns out was handicapped (he had lost all of one hand and three fingers on his other hand in an industrial accident). When onlookers shouted at Cobb to stop because the man had no hands, Cobb reportedly replied, "I don't care if he got no feet!""

"Cobb once slapped a black elevator operator for being "uppity." When a black night watchman intervened, Cobb pulled out a knife and stabbed him."

He was famous for wearing metal spikes and sliding them into basemen's legs on purpose.

"Cobb said that a guy was calling him some names, so he chased him for a few blocks until he caught up to him. Then, Cobb beat him and claimed that he left him unconscious in a pool of blood. "

"In Spring Training 1907, Cobb sought to fight a groundskeeper because he disliked the condition of the field. When the groundskeeper's wife intervened, Cobb choked her too. "

Christy Mathewson pitched in 11 World Series games. His era in those games = 0.97. But his record was 5-5. So he was the first Strasburg?

more like the first halladay. he's 10-8 with a 2.4 era. strasburg ain't got **** on that.

Yeah, I think Brett Hull was drafted 200 + in his year.

Jerry Rice

That's all just Jerry Rice

Wilt Chamberlain scoring 100 points in a game and never fouling out in 1,205 NBA regular season and playoff games. I think Michael Jordan fouled out about 10 times or so, I can't find this stat easily.

In David Cone's perfect game, no batter even got to three balls. Not the furthest out thing in the thread, but thought I would mention it.

Isner-Mahut is a good one, that match completely boggles the mind...it was so far out of bounds of what seemed possible. Trying to describe it is like trying to use Newtonian physics to describe the behavior of subatomic particles.

Fwiw most of the top tier talent in the MLB are all top draft picks too, this of course doesn't include the many great hispanic players who are not eligible for the draft. Obviously many top picks will miss too, there are 50 some odd rounds for a reason, but a very small percentage of the best players are not taken in the first 5 rounds.

So you're saying we need an entirely new set of words that contradict English as it is now to describe that match?

He has great stats. Most people don't realize that he was highly thought of coming out of college, even though he came out of Mississippi Valley State, kind of like Randy Moss, who went 21st in round one, having played at Marshall. Jerry Rice put up the stats, for sure.


In the first round of the 1985 NFL draft, Dallas had the 17th selection and San Francisco had the last (as Super Bowl champions from 1984). 49ers coach Bill Walsh reportedly became enamored with Rice after watching highlights of Rice the Saturday night before San Francisco was to play the Houston Oilers on October 21, 1984. On draft day (April 30, 1985), the 49ers traded its first two picks for New England's first-round choice, the 16th selection overall (the teams also swapped third-round picks as part of the deal), and selected Rice before, as some report, the Cowboys were intending to pick him. Rice was prized more highly by the USFL, as he was the #1 pick overall in that short-lived league's 1985 draft.

Not a whole new language to contradict English, but the standard terminology and mental models of what happens in a tennis match break down when discussing that match. For example, they both shattered the record for aces in a match, but you can't really compare it directly to another match...it is sui generis.

Pedro Martinez had a 1.74 ERA and 0.74 WHIP in 2000.

The American League averages in 2000 were: 4.91 ERA, 1.49 WHIP.

Muggsy Bogues being 5 feet 3 and having a solid NBA career is an amazing stat/fact. It would be hard to imagine someone who would ever be shorter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muggsy_Bogues

Atlanta Braves winning 14 consecutive division titles. Yet still having less World Series titles in that span than division rival Florida Marlins who only made the playoffs 2 times.

This isn't a stat, so much as a fact.

When the United States had the Miracle on Ice... (Al Michaels..."Do you believe in miracles") game in the 1980 Olympics, everybody knows that they beat the Soviets/Russians.

But I bet over 95 percent of the people don't know that they still had to beat Finland in the next game, in order to bring home the gold.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_on_Ice



Another one would be when Villanova "Shocked the World" by beating Georgetown in the NCAA Championship game in 1985. Georgetown was only favored by 7 1/2. Not so much of a shock, really.

So awesome that he got drafted by the team with the tallest (tied with Muresan) player in NBA history.

Here is one that is pretty damn good:

Alexander Karelin:

And those are definitely more in the "fact" camp than the "stat" camp, so what's your point?

wow

yeah it didnt happen until 1959 and didn't become a standard practice until the 60s. so crazy.

there were a ton of lolbad teams in those days, where guys like gretzky were literally a cinch to score at least one goal. that said, 35 games undefeated is pretty nuts, even for that era.

one of the most underrated feats in baseball the last 50 years. braves were a sick dynasty in the 90s

one other interesting hockey tidbit: there's only one person born in newfoundland to have won the Stanley Cup (Dan Cleary in 08 w/ Detroit)... i mean an entire province of canada with no stanley cup alumni for over 100 years? seems nuts to me

Roger Federer's 23 consecutive Grand Slam semi-finals deserves a mention in the tennis category.

I think this is the winner. It's just so incredibly ridiculous that they went 71-69 in the 5th set. There was an aspect to it that seemed so simple while it was in progress...they were both just completely inept at breaking serve. So I think it's easy to get overlooked somewhat. But if it was truly that simple then why had it never happened before...even close?

I can see a guy scoring 100 points in an NBA game and while it's truly incredible and awesome. but there were enough 65 and 70 point games in NBA history to lead one to think that 100 was at least not completely impossible.

The longest MLB baseball game is 26 innings and the longest minor league game is 33 innings. Compare that with the previous longest 3rd set which I think was 28-26 and how that was blown away by the 71-69 thing. I think it's reasonable you would need a baseball game of 50 innings or so to compare with how much that 5th set blew away the old 5th set record.

I mean, their 5th set went over 7 hours just on its own (whole match was over 10 hours) and that alone broke the old record for the longest ever match at 6:30 or so.

It is perhaps the most improbable sports event ever. If not the most then it certainly rates among the very top.

There's a bit more known about the game and how it came to be, etc that explains some of that. Regarding the bit about them not letting up: It was kind of a grudge match for them for some baseball blowout they suffered a couple years prior and there was some bad blood there.

Also worth noting that I don't think "letting up" was as standard a deal back then as it would be today.

Gerald LOLaird is an MLB starting catcher hitting .183