Top 10 Unbreakable Baseball Records
 
Eric Gagne's recently snapped string of 84 consecutive saves rekindled the age-old debate about which baseball records are the most untouchable. 
Is it Cy Young's 511 wins or Joe DiMaggio's 56 game hit-streak?  Or maybe Cal Ripken and his amazing 2632 consecutive games played.
Talk to anybody with an opinion and you'll get a different answer from each.  Since I have an opinion (some would say many), here are my rankings of the most unbreakable baseball records.
First though, some disclaimers:
For this list, I'm only selecting from modern records.  Why?  Because it's my list and I can do what I want. 
If I included records from the late 19th and early 20th century, the list would be littered with old pitching records that will never be broken, and that just wouldn't be fun. 
Sure, I could just ignore some of the crazy pitching stats from that era and include the important ones on my list, but I feel like I'd be cheating John Coleman and his 772 hits allowed in 1883 if I put in Cy Young and his 511 career wins.  But just because one record is dubious doesn't make it any less unbreakable (Roy Halladay led the American League last year in hits allowed and "only" served up 253). 
So, the requirements for the list:

- The record must have been set after 1920
- No player with a similar record may appear more than once (This will be known as the Ricky Henderson rule, more on that later)
- The list ranks records that I believe to be the least likely ever to be broken, not the most impressive or difficult to set.
- Only records earned on the playing field will be considered.  MVP, Cy Young awards and Gold Gloves are decided upon by voters, so, even though Roger Clemens' six Cy Youngs is maybe unbreakable, it won't be on the list.
 
That's it... onto the list:
 
#10 - Sammy Sosa - 20 HR in a month (June 1998)
 
Everybody remembers the amazing 1998 home run race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa that saw both shatter Roger Maris' single-season homer mark and culminated with a furious battle for the new record.  But few recall that Sosa only joined the chase after a historic June that saw him belt 20 home runs, besting Rudy York's previous record for homers in a month of 18, set in August of 1937.
Headed into the season's third month, Sosa only had 13 HR, compared to 27 for McGwire and 19 for Ken Griffey Jr.  (Also forgotten is Griffey's role in the chase.  Before the '98 season it was widely assumed that it would be Big Mac and Griffey who would chase Maris together.  Early in the season, that looked like it would be the case, until Sosa joined the party in June.  Griffey actually managed stayed ahead of Sammy through his torrid June and it wasn't until July 21 that Sammy passed Junior for good.)
If you've been paying attention to baseball this year, you'll know that of late Jim Thome has been hitting home runs at a Ruthian rate .  But Thome still "only" had 15 homers in June and as of today, has just 19 home runs since June 1. 

#9 - Nolan Ryan - 7 Career No-Hitters
 
Only two pitchers whose careers began after 1975 have thrown more than one no-hitter (Hideo Nomo and Randy Johnson), so that should say something about how untouchable this record is. 
Besides Ryan, only three modern-era pitchers have thrown as many as three no-nos and all are in the Hall of Fame (Sandy Koufax, Bob Feller and Cy Young).
No-hitters are tough to come by.  They take a lot of skill and a lot of luck at the same time.  To think that a pitcher in today's era could even throw four no-nos is a stretch.
Look at it this way: Walter Johnson, Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux, Don Drysdale, Steve Carlton, Pedro Martinez, Tom Glavine, Jim Palmer and Roger Clemens combined have four fewer no-nos than Ryan.
 
#8 - Ricky Henderson - 1406 Career Stolen Bases
 
It was a toss-up between the career steals record or the single-season record (both of which are owned by Ricky), but in the end, Ricky's total of 1406 bases (which is more than 40% higher than Lou Brock's) wins out.
The game of baseball changes every few years, so it's impossible to say whether or not stolen bases will ever be as fashionable as they were in the 1980's (probably not, since Astroturf has gone the way of the dodo), so maybe Ricky's 130 steals in a season could be topped.
But 1406 looks pretty safe.

#7 - Nolan Ryan - 5714 Career Strikeouts
 
Roger Clemens, one of the most dominating strikeout pitchers of his era, currently has 4225 K's (3rd all-time).  That puts the 40-year old about six seasons short of the Ryan Express.  Considering that Clemens has already "retired" once, it's safe to count him out of the running.
Randy Johnson, no spring chicken himself, might have a few good years left in his left arm but not enough to pass Ryan.
So could any active player take down the strikeout king? 
Pedro Martinez is the youngest player in the Top 30 of the active strikeout leaders.  He's only 31 and already has 2426 K's, which is around 500 more than Randy Johnson and Roger Clemens had at the same age and only 200 short of Ryan.
But Pedro has a different build than those power pitchers thus making him susceptible to injury and his strikeout numbers have plummeted as his velocity has dipped in recent years.
For a time it looked like Kerry Wood would become the next great Texan flame-thrower, but injuries have slowed his career and strikeout totals. 
Still, for the sake of the argument, let's say Wood maintains the 254 strikeouts per year that he has averaged since 1998. 
At that rate, Wood would pass Ryan in 2022 at the tender age of 44. 
Who wants to take that bet?
 
#6 - Orel Hershiser - 59 Consecutive Scoreless Innings (1988)
 
If this were a list of the most impressive baseball records, then Orel's magical 59-inning run would be near the top of the list.  However, there is always a chance that a pitcher on the top of his game, throwing in a pitcher's park (like Dodger Stadium) could string together some innings and challenge this streak. 
 
#5 - Hack Wilson - 191 RBI (1930)
 
We're now getting into the "records never going to be broken" territory.
When Manny Ramirez knocked in 165 runs while with the Cleveland Indians in 1999, he became the first man to drive in that many since Lou Gehrig did it 65 years before.
Speaking of Gehrig, in 1927 he had arguably his greatest season, hitting .373, slugging .765 (6th all-time behind two guys named Barry and Babe) and cracking 47 homeruns.  He batted cleanup that year behind Ruth and Earle Combs and still "only" knocked in 175 runs.
If Gehrig could only muster 175 RBI in that lineup with those gaudy numbers, what chance does Carlos Delgado have batting behind Eric Hinske.
 
#4 - Babe Ruth - 177 Runs Scored (1921)
 
You didn't think we'd get through this list without an appearance from the Bambino, did you?  While the list of Ruth's records grows shorter by the year, one of his more underrated stats is the 177 runs he scored in 1921.
Quick, who led the Majors in runs last year?  The answer is Albert Pujols (I had to look that up).  He touched home plate 137 times, 40 shy of Ruth.
In the past 68 years only one player has come within 25 of Ruth's 177 and that was Jeff Bagwell in 2000 (152). 
 
#3 - Rogers Hornsby - .424 Batting Average (1924)
 
It's growing increasingly likely that nobody will ever hit .400 again, so the Rajah's record .424 is safe like a Volvo.
 
#2 - Cal Ripken - 2,632 Consecutive Games Played
 
Some facts from The Streak:

• During the span of The Streak (always capitalized, mind you), only one major league player remained with the same team.  (Tony Gwynn)
• Starting on June 15, 1982 Ripken played in 8,243 consecutive innings over 904 games.  Those 904 games would rank 6th on the consecutive games played list.
• No player whose career began after Ripken's has come within 2,000 games of Cal's record.
• Only 18 major leaguers were playing both when the streak began in 1982 and when it ended in 1998.
• Players made 5,045 trips to the Disabled List during The Streak.

#1 - Joe DiMaggio - 56 Consecutive Game Hit Streak (1941)

It's national news when any baseball player has a 28-game hit streak, which as even the worst math students among you can see, is only halfway to DiMaggio's record.  So imagine putting together two 28-game hit streaks, back-to-back.  It's just not gonna happen. The closest anybody has come in 25 years was Paul Molitor in 1987.  He managed to get to 39, just 17 shy of DiMaggio.  Two years ago the Marlins Luis Castillo hit in 35 straight, which still left him a whopping 21 from the Yankee Clipper.  Hit streaks are fluky things, but there aren't enough flukes in the world to get somebody within 10 of DiMaggio's record in our lifetime.  Plus, Paul Simon singing "where have you gone Rocco Baldelli" just doesn't sound as good.