Debating Sports Records Mark Purdy, sports columnist for the San Jose Mercury News in California, compiles a list of sports records that he believes will never be broken and a separate list of records that he thinks are soon to be eclipsed.

Debating Sports Records Mark Purdy, sports columnist for the San Jose Mercury News in California, compiles a list of sports records that he believes will never be broken and a separate list of records that he thinks are soon to be eclipsed. Debating Sports Records By Mark Purdy Records are made to be broken. That is, unless they are certain sacred and longtime sports records, in which case they are made to be endlessly debated in sports bars over cold beverages and fried foods. Why the obsession? Records serve as the generational strands of sports DNA. They allow us to compare today's greats to yesterday's heroes. To prepare to do battle on the playing field of sports knowledge, you should know which records you can safely deem unbreakable--and which are destined for the dust heap of history. Get started with this purely arbitrary--but deliciously debatable--collection of sports records, some that will never be topped, others that almost certainly will be. Unbreakable records You can feel secure defending these lofty marks in a debate with any sports fan. Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak Joe DiMaggio's 1941 achievement of getting at least one hit in 56 straight baseball games becomes even more remarkable when you consider that he never faced pitching watered down by expansion of the major leagues. He also never played on artificial turf fields, where hitters can produce cheap singles by slapping the ball on the hard surface to bounce it between or over infielders. Some fans will note that DiMaggio achieved his record when the color barrier kept some of the game's best defensive players out of the league. But everyone agrees that no other player has come close to this mark, either before or since. Cy Young's 511 career victories Cy Young's record is jaw-dropping when you realize that winning 300 games means an automatic ticket into baseball's Hall of Fame for a pitcher. Only one other player in history won as many as 400 (Walter Johnson, with 417). In addition to Young's legendary prowess as a pitcher, changes in the game make this record impossible to match. For example, during the first three years of Young's career (which lasted from 1890 to 1911), the pitcher's mound stood ten feet closer to home plate. The prominent role of relief pitchers today also ensures that Cy will always be tops in career wins. Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game This feat occurred in another basketball era, when the NBA didn't have the spotlight it does today--or the emphasis on defense, either. Wilt Chamberlain set the scoring record at a small arena in Hershey, Pennsylvania, on March 2, 1962, with no national television cameras watching. The New York Knicks, willing coconspirators as opponents, failed to put up much of a fight. Today entire teams often don't score 100 points in a game. If a player like Shaquille O'Neal threatened to match Wilt's prolific performance, an opponent would do anything possible to stop him. The San Francisco 49ers' 23-year (and counting) scoring streak At the close of the 2000 season the San Francisco 49ers had scored in 370 consecutive NFL regular season games. The last time the 49ers failed to score in a regular season football game, a 7-0 loss to the Atlanta Falcons, was on October 9, 1977. Featuring the brilliant offense devised by head coach Bill Walsh and carried out by players such as Joe Montana, Steve Young, and Jerry Rice, the 49ers boasted perhaps the most dominant NFL franchise of the 1980s and 1990s. You'd think this streak wouldn't be a big deal because of the NFL's offensive bent, but no other current streak is within even 200 games of the Niners. Which means that even if the Niners get shut out before long, it will take the team with the next-longest streak at least 14 more years to catch them. UCLA's seven consecutive national championships UCLA's dominance of NCAA men's college basketball in the late 1960s and early 1970s will never be matched. With John Wooden as coach, the Bruins went from 1967 to 1973 without losing a tournament game. Wooden built a dynasty around a system that stressed team play and solid defense, anchored by standout centers Lew Alcindor (who later changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and Bill Walton. The Bruins' ten straight appearances in the Final Four (1967-1976) will also be tough to top, given that today's college players tend to leave school early. Wayne Gretzky's 894 career goals With play in the National Hockey League (NHL) slowing down and becoming more claustrophobic, today's goal scorers have to fight through stick-checks that in another era would have been called hooking penalties. Even if the ice suddenly opens up, it's doubtful we will see a man who could match Wayne Gretzky's scoring touch night after night for 15 seasons or more, which is what it would take to catch him. Records that won't last Jack Nicklaus's 18 major golf championships Once upon a time, observers regarded this record as a mountain too high for anyone to climb. Then along came Eldrick (Tiger) Woods, who brought a whole new set of tools with which to climb the mountain. Woods captured five major golf titles by age 24, which means that he should break Jack Nicklaus's mark of 18 majors easily by the time he reaches 40. The only things that could stop him would be injury or a bad love affair. Johnny Vander Meer's back-to-back no hitters It's a wonder this baseball record still stands. Vander Meer, a good but not spectacular pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds, threw consecutive no-hitters in June of 1938. No one has done that before or since. Granted, the pitching in today's game isn't what it was 50 years ago, but the best pitchers--such as Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux--are clearly a level above the rest. One of them will catch fire for a week or two and finally pull alongside Vander Meer. Or pass him by throwing three in a row. Margaret Smith Court's 24 Grand Slam titles As women's sports keep producing tougher competitors with better coaching and fiercer attitudes, Margaret Smith Court's record is bound to go by the wayside. If they stick around long enough, one of the Williams sisters, Serena or Venus, could be the one to do it. The Chicago Bulls' 72-victory season The 72 wins the Chicago Bulls racked up in 1995-96 astonished many basketball fans. But people were equally amazed during the 1971-72 season when the Los Angeles Lakers went 69-13. The Bulls, who lost only ten games in their finest season, deserve full credit for their consistent excellence while performing under the magnifying glass that Michael Jordan created. However, assembling a superior team in the NBA is easier than ever because a team just needs two or three superstar players. A few decades ago it took four or five players with superior abilities who played as a team to get the job done. Don't be stunned if a team wins 75 games one of these seasons.