Baseball's Most Unbreakable Feats
Starring: Roger ClemensStudio: Shout Factory
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Format: Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release: July 3rd 2007
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DVD Review
More than any other sport, baseball is a game of numbers. Statistics and records help measure the greats of the game against their peers - against generations - and this ever-evolving record book is what helps give baseball renewed life. But not every mark in the game is destined to change, for there are but a few that are indeed unbreakable. Legendary pitcher Roger Clemens narrates Baseball's Most Unbreakable Feats DVD, a detailed look at 10 seemingly untouchable baseball achievements.
User Reviews
Pleasant, diverting - Rating: 4/5
With lots of brief interviews, this video ably recaps why the feats herein rated are deemed 'unbreakable.' The ranking itself leans in favor of recent feats, which is understandable since only recent and current MLBers are interviewed, not historians or statisticians. Clemens serves as an amiable host.
Some major leaguers vote for the 10 most unbreakable baseball records - Rating: 4/5
"Baseball's Most Unbreakable Feats" looks at the ten most unbreakable feats in baseball as determined by a vote of players and managers. There are career marks like Nolan Ryan's 5,714 strikeouts, Pete Rose's 4,256 hits, Cy Young's 511 wins, and Rickey Henderson's 1406 stolen bases. There are also streaks, from Cal Ripken, Jr.'s 2,632 consecutive games played and Eric Gagne's 84 consecutive saves to the New York Yankees winning five World Series in a row and Joe DiMaggio hitting safely in 56 games. Finally, there are single season marks, with Ted Williams being the last to bat .400 in a season, Bob Gibson having an E.R.A. of 1.12, and Henderson stealing 130 bases in a single season. Hosted by Roger Clemens, several dozen baseball players past and present share their thoughts on the achievement and the likelihood of it being unbreakable before the results are released to establish the order of the top 10.
While it is fun to see major leaguers "do the math" to explain why nobody is going to win 511 games, what I appreciated more were the attempts to explain why things have changed in the sport to make some of these records unbreakable (e.g., pitchers using the slide-step to keep base runners close, lowering the pitching mound). The star quotient is a bit more on the players from the past, from Ted Williams and George Brett to Joe Garagiola and Bob Gibson, than it is for current stars in terms of the talking heads that pop up, but there are a few current stars (e.g., Johan Santana) and future Hall of Famers (e.g., Mike Piazza) who share their thoughts.
If you add up the percentage figures given for these 10 feats they add up to 211. It seems that the players were asked to vote for three of the feats on the list they were presented with and there were more than 10 on that list. Four honorable mentions are provided in the bonus features and they must have all gotten less than 5%, but there have to be more feats that do not even get mentioned, which is why it is so much fun for baseball fans to debate these sort of things. Will anybody beat Rogers Hornsby's .424 single season batting average? What about Ty Cobb's lifetime average of .367? How about starting 51 games, finishing 48 of them and winning 41 of them like Jack Chesbro did? Ed Walsh pitched 464 innings in a season, Bob Feller walked 208 batters in a season, and Pete Alexander had 16 shutouts. Chief Wilson hit 36 triples in one year and Sam "Wahoo" Crawford had 309 triples for his career and 51 inside the park home runs. Cy Young lost 316 games over his career. Ty Cobb stole home 54 times, including 8 in one year.
The one thing baseball fans know before they watch this DVD is that they are probably not going to agree with these ten choices and they are definitely not going to agree with their final order (of these 10 it is those 511 wins by Cy Young that I would say is most unbeatable and it does not end up number 1). With five-man rotations and middle relievers, set-up men, and relief specialists, a whole bunch of those career pitching marks are safe. By the time you start looking over the possibilities I think what would be more interesting is not which of these records are unbreakable, but rather which ones might end up being broken. On several of the feats covered, such as hitting two grand slams in one inning (not to mention hitting them off of the same pitcher), it could well be that no one will ever have the opportunity. Another interesting part of this presentation is when players speculate on who might be able to bat .400, hit in 56 games in a row, or get to 4,256 hits (Ichiro and Derek Jeter get mentioned a lot). But time and time again players crunch the numbers and point out if pitchers are not winning 30 games or striking out 300 batters multiple times that the likes of Young and Ryan are never going to be caught.
