essays & effluvia: Unbreakable Records

Monday, August 20, 2007

Unbreakable Records

These will be tough to beat:

•Career points in the National Basketball Association: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 38,387, 1969-1989.

•Consecutive hops on a pogo stick: Gary Stewart, United States, 177,737, 1990.

• Baseball hitting streak: Joe DiMaggio, 56 consecutive games, 1941.

• Longest motorcycle ride through a tunnel of fire: Stephen Brown, Britain, 167.3 feet, 2003.

•Receiving yards by a football player: Jerry Rice, 22,895, 1985-2004.

• Phone books torn in half in three minutes: Ed Shelton, United States, 55, each with 1,044 pages, 2005.

• Consecutive victories in the Tour de France: Lance Armstrong, 7, 1999-2005.

•Longest time balancing on one foot: Arulanantham Suresh Joachim, Sri Lanka, 76 hours 40 minutes, 1997.

• Points scored in a single basketball game: Wilt Chamberlain, 100, 1962.

• Fastest consumption of two pints of beer: Pete Dowdeswell, Britain, 2.3 seconds, 1975.

• Consecutive tournament victories in the PGA Tour: Byron Nelson, 11, 1945.

• Most push-ups in one hour: Roy Berger, Canada, 3,416, 1998.

• Highest Scrabble score: Joyce Cansfield, Britain, 855 points in a qualifying round of the British National Championship, 1986.

• Career victories by a baseball pitcher: Cy Young, 511, 1890-1911.

• Most ascents of Mount Everest: Apa Sherpa, Nepal, 16.

• Points scored by goals and assists in a National Hockey League season: Wayne Gretzky, 215, 1985-86.

• Longest reigning heavyweight champion: Joe Louis, 11 years, 252 days, 1937-1949.

• Consecutive baseball games played: Cal Ripken, 2,632 games, 1982-1998.