300 -- and Then What?Roger Clemens may be the last American League 300-game winner -- ever.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ^ | Friday, May 30, 2003 | ALLEN ST. JOHN

[presidio9]

Come Sunday, Roger Clemens may be the last American League 300-game winner -- ever.

The Favorite Toy, a statistical method devised by sports-numbers pioneer Bill James, predicts that the Yankee may be able to host Post-Millennial 300 Club meetings in a single room at a Holiday Inn.

[You Dirty Rats]

Cy Young had over 500 wins. That's a much more secure record than 56 consecutive hits.

My favorite never-to-be-broken baseball stat is Most Innings pitched in a single World Series - Deacon Phillippe of the Pittsburgh Pirates pitched 44 innings (5 complete games) in the very first Series in 1903. Bob Gibson had 27 in the 60's, but I can't see anyone pitching 44 innings again.

[presidio9]

How 'bout this one:

In 1925 Walter Johnson led the National League in wins, era, stikeouts, Complete Games, and Shutouts...

And batted .433!!!

[presidio9]

National League

Correction: American League.

[Damocles]

Maddux still has a shot.

He's 27 away, but he is getting up there in age. The journal gave him a 97% chance of reaching three hundred so it seems premature to count him out.

We'll see.

[So Cal Rocket]

Unbreakable record:

Career complete games: 749 - Cy Young

[presidio9]

No, the article says he'll get it. But the assertion was no AL pitcher will ever reach it again. Pedro and Pettitte are the only ones I give a chance to.

[Our man in washington]

Bravo sierra. Clemens pitched his whole career in a five-man rotation. Who is to say another guy like Clemens couldn't come along?

If you can pitch decently for 20 years, you've got a good shot at 300 wins. Most pitchers don't last that long, but a few do. If in a 20 year career you have 4 seasons where you win 20 games, four seasons where you win 18 games, 4 seasons where you win 16 games, 5 seasons where you win 13 games, 1 season where you win 11 games, 1 season you win 10 games, and one where you blow out your arm and win no games, you've made it to 300.

It's not like you have to win the Cy Young every year to get there. All these numbers are certainly very possible in a five-man rotation.

[sanjacjake]

Cy Young- Who counted his pitches?? That is the big
hang up with me..pitchers are told that they threw
100 pitches so get out and bring in a reliever...our
Padres (Under Bruce Bochy) are famous for this..blew 2 games to Milwaukee in 9th inning because of pitch count
and relievers getting brains knocked out of them--it is the
most over-rated BS in baseball...one pitcher had shutout and 1 out in 9th and 2 on base, he pulls the guy..pitcher
could have had a shutout..no lose 4-2. Dumb. Jake

[PMCarey]

The real unbreakable record:

Most losses in a single season: Vic Willis (29) in 1905. I mean, you have to be pretty bad to lose 30 games but you have to be pretty good to start enough games to lose 30 too.

[T. Jefferson]

In his second season as hitter, Babe Ruth had more Home Runs than other American League Team.

[CROSSHIGHWAYMAN]

My favorite pitching record is by Nolan Ryan.

7 career no-hitters...........playing for 3 different teams.

[jagrmeister]

Clemens is a worthless punk. A wanna-be tough guy. I can't wait till the Yankees make the World Series and this fatas* has to bat. Someone should drill him in the head and knock some sense into him. He drills batters with 90 MPH+ fastballs for the fun of it; throws a shard of a bat at Mike Piazza, who in contrast to Clemens, is a total class-act.

[razorback-bert]

Mine is Steve Carlton winning 20 of the 42 games, Philly won that year.

[presidio9]

Presumably if the Yankees make the World Series, the one thing Clemans WON'T have to worry about is getting beaned by a Mets pitcher. The Mets won't be playing a lot of games in October.

[irish guard]

My wife's grandfather has the most "never to be broken" record ever....

With 2 outs in the first inning of a game in 1915 (June 17th), pitching for the Cubs against the Brooklyn Dodgers, he came in and pitched 18 1/3 innings of relief. His name was George Washington Zabel.....

[Tallguy]

Mine is Steve Carlton winning 20 of the 42 games, Philly won that year.

Carlton won 27 that year. Phils total wins was something like 55. His run support that year wasn't much better than that given to the rest of the staff.

[ilgipper]

Clemems is a wanna-be tough guy? Yeah right.

Oh, and when he has to bat, he stands in there and takes whatever is sent his way.

[gdani]

* Cal Ripken's consecutive games streak

* 1 -- Most no-hitters thrown while on LSD - Dock Ellis

[baseballfanjm]

Some records, like 511 wins in a career, 41 wins in a season, etc. are unbreakable because times were different. There were only two starters on a team back then, and they were rarely pulled from games. Personally, I prefer "modern" records, records that concievably aren't unbreakable, but you know that no one will touch them, and aren't necessarily records "of the time". Joe Dimaggio's streak for example. The times weren't so different at the time that it's unbreakable, but no one before and no one since has come close to it.

Anyway, I love novelty records, like Fernando Tatis' two grand slams in one inning. Just an abberation that isn't influenced by anything. It could have happened at any time before, and could happen again.