Tom Suiter: Records Come & Go But Some Are Here to Stay

Records are made to be broken. Well, maybe some but not all.

Barry Bonds is on the cusp of tying and then breaking, maybe, the greatest record in all of sports -- Hank Aaron’s all time home-run mark. Tainted or not, like it or not, Bonds will become baseball’s new home-run king -- maybe, by the time you read this.

When I was a kid, nobody dreamed that anybody would break Babe Ruth’s mark of 714. He was miles ahead of everybody. Jimmie Fox was second for such a long time with 534 homers. He’s now 14th on the list, and Ruth has fallen to third. Once-hallowed major league records are dropping like apples from the tree on a late summer afternoon.

There are some records that are safe, and I believe, will last forever. We had quite a discussion on that Tuesday in our office.

Nobody will ever equal Cy Young’s 511 victories. That’s a given. And no one will come close to Walter Johnson’s 417 wins, which is second on the list. And the way they baby pitchers today, Johnson’s 110 shutouts appears as safe as a lion cub cuddled with his mother.

Now, I think Pete Rose’s record of 4,252 hits won’t be topped, but I’ve had some argument on that. But think about it, if a player gets 200 hits a year for 20 years, he’s still just at 4,000. Also, no one will hit .366 for his career like Ty Cobb. Also, Cobb's pretty safe with his record-23 straight seasons of hitting .300 or better.

Nor will anyone throw seven career no-hitters like Nolan Ryan. Or how about back-to-back no-hitters like Johnny Vander Meer did in 1938. Nobody did it before, and no one has done it since.

I believe Hack Wilson’s season record of 191 runs batted in is safe, and one record that is safe for Babe Ruth is the modern-day mark of 177 runs scored in one season. Believe it or not, in 1894, a guy named Bobby Hamilton scored 198 runs.

However, I do believe that Joe DiMaggio’s streak of hitting in 56 straight games can be had. It won’t be easy, but I think someone will eventually do it.

And of course, Ted Williams can rest in peace because he will be the last to hit .400, which he did in 1941 when he batted .406.

Yeah, and unless someone is really juiced or some of the parks get even smaller, Barry Bonds single-season mark of 73 is as safe as that little bug in the rug.

And in this day of sitting out because of a headache or a hurt toenail, Cal Ripken’s 2,632 consecutive games is out of sight. And with free agency so prevalent today, who will play for the same team for 23 straight years like the Orioles' Brooks Robinson and the Red Sox Carl Yaztremski?