Last week, I asked: What's the most incredible, statistical-outlier accomplishment in U.S. major sports history?
I got several thousand responses. Here are my top 10.
theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
10. The 2010 San Diego Chargers
As far as I know, only one team in professional sports history has finished 1st in offense, 1st in defense, and also missed the playoffs.
9. Bob Beamon's record-breaking long jump in the 1968 Olympics.
Hard to think of another sports achievement so outlierish that officials had to stop the game to figure out WTF just happened and the player, upon learning of the record, was so shocked that he suffered a seizure
8. Shohei Ohtani's 2021 season
People compare Ohtani to a modern Babe Ruth. But what Ohtani did was even stranger and more outlandish than anything Ruth accomplished in a single season.
7. Barry Bonds' 2001-2004 statistics
Yes, I know, he was on all of the steroids. But his intentional walk records—read to the bottom of this screenshot!—are still some of the most ludicrous things to ever happen in sports.
6. Cy Young’s wins and complete games records
Cy threw 749 complete games. No current pitcher has thrown 4+ since 2018. It would take a modern ace more years of peak performance to break Cy's CG record than the total number of years that baseball has existed.
5. Nolan Ryan
He played forever, struck out everybody, and walked everybody else.
4. Tiger Woods' 1997-2013 run
Tiger Woods is the only player in modern history to win all four majors in a row and the only player to win any major by 10 or more strokes. In fact, he did that twice: in the 1997 Masters and 2000 U.S. Open.
3. Babe Ruth's 1920s statistics don't make any sense.
In two different years, he hit more home runs than any other team. That’s just stupid.
2. Tied for second, we have Wilt Chamberlain's insane 1960s stats and Bill Russell's untouchable 1960s championship run.
Sorry for all the words. There are just ... a lot of totally untouchable records here.
1. This is it.
The most statistically impressive record in US sports history.
Wayne Gretzky—the NHL’s all-time leader in goals, assists, and points—has so many more assists than No. 2 that if he never scored a goal in his entire career, he’d still be all-time leader in points.
A Tom Brady stat for the road:
“The NFL record for career completions is 67.8%. Brady has made the conference championship 73.7% of starting seasons. Brady makes the conference championship at a higher rate than any QB completes passes.” @RealAlexBarth
theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
Addendum:
To everybody pointing out that Gretzky is a Canadian who set some of these records for a Canadian team: Correct!
Perhaps I should say this is a list of statistical achievements by Americans or for organizations currently headquartered in the U.S. :)
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