The most unbreakable MLB records of all time

They say records are made to be broken, but not all records are created equal.

That’s very true for MLB. While we do often see history made along with rare oddities, some records seem so untouchable that they’re almost footnotes in history. The game has changed greatly, which impacts things some, but some past players were also just that good. 

With SeatGeek serving as the Official Ticket Marketplace of MLB, we’re going to take a look at 15 of baseball’s most unbreakable records, with five each from the all-time, single-season and single-game ranks for the modern era (since 1900). It’s important to note that while MLB has recently started recognizing Negro League statistics alongside records set in MLB, we’ll focus solely on achievements set in MLB in part because Negro League seasons were roughly half as long as a typical MLB campaign. 

MLB’s most unbreakable all-time records

Across more than a century of modern baseball, these career marks have become the kind of records that feel more like permanent monuments than reachable milestones.

Career wins: Cy Young, 511

Pitcher wins have been greatly devalued over the last decade or so with a greater emphasis on ERA among other statistics, but there is certainly a pride element of picking up a pitcher win. No one had it better in that regard than the great Cy Young, who pitched for 22 years and accumulated a whopping 511 wins, reaching 20 or more wins in a single season 16 times and 30 or more wins five times. Getting to 511 wins is simply impossible at this point in time, and heck, getting to 300 wins seems very difficult these days. They should name an award after this guy or something .

Career batting average: Ty Cobb, .366

“The Georgia Peach” was one of baseball’s earliest superstars, and he was the premier batsman of his era with the Tigers. No one hit better than Cobb, and that’s true for the all-time ranks, as well. Cobb hit a whopping .366 for his entire 24-year career. For context, no player has hit better than .366 in a single season since Ichiro Suzuki’s 2004 campaign (more on him later). Batting average isn’t the end-all-be-all metric it used to be, but there’s still value in it. That being said, no qualified hitter is hitting better than .366 for their entire career. 

Career strikeouts: Nolan Ryan, 5,714

The “Ryan Express” was a rare breed, indeed. He was the elite power pitcher of his era, and his era stretched a whopping 27 years – the most for an MLB pitcher. Ryan was elite when it came to eating innings and missing bats, and his 5,714 strikeouts are nearly 1,000 more than the next-closest pitcher. Guys don’t pitch as long as Ryan does – no one has. Even someone averaging 300 strikeouts a year would need to pitch for nearly two decades to come close to Ryan’s record, and there have been just six 300-strikeout seasons since the turn of the century. It’s safe to say Ryan’s record is safe. 

Career stolen bases: Rickey Henderson, 1,406

They just don’t make them like Henderson. He was flashy, confident and spoke in the third-person. He was also as fast as can be and is the only player in MLB history to steal more than 1,000 bases, and he added 406 more after that! Henderson stole 100 or more bags three times and played parts of 25 seasons. That mix of speed, aggression and longevity is unlikely to be replicated. 

Consecutive games streak: Cal Ripken Jr., 2,632

No one thought Lou Gehrig’s consecutive games played streak would ever be matched, but then came Ripken, who was in the starting lineup for 2,632 straight games. For context, that’s more than 16 straight 162-game seasons. Additionally, Atlanta’s Matt Olson at just over 800 games is baseball’s current “Iron Man.” He’d have to do that more than two more times to match the Orioles legend. Star players get off days, too, making this one unlikely to be beaten. 

MLB’s most unbreakable single-season records

A single great season can make a player immortal, but these one-year performances set bars so high that today’s game will likely never produce a serious challenger.

Batting average: Nap Lajoie, .426 (1901)

No one has come close to hitting .400 since Tony Gwynn hit .394 in the strike-shortened 1994 season, so hitting .426? Fat chance. Between the emphasis of launch angle and slug, the improvement of defense and just how hard-throwing and nasty opposing pitchers are these days, we barely see multiple players reach just .300 in a season. Lajoie is a legendary figure in MLB, particularly in Cleveland, where a team – the Napoleons, or “Naps” – was named after him. It’s easy to see why, as Lajoie hit an incredible .338 for his career, with his best mark being .426 in 1901. That’s the best mark by any MLB player after the year 1900. 

Strikeouts: Nolan Ryan, 383 (1973)

Back to Ryan, the dude just punched tickets. Randy Johnson came at least a bit close during his prime (372 in 2001), but with inning limitations and the like, we’re likely to see Ryan atop this ranking for at least the foreseeable future pending some sort of pitching savant or a rules change tailored towards helping pitchers out. Ryan’s career is something else, man. 

Hits: Ichiro Suzuki, 262 (2004)

We mentioned Ichiro earlier, and there’s never been someone like him. The speedy Japanese phenom was as elite of a batsman as there was during the 2000s, and he was an elite runner, to boot. No one could turn infield ground balls into hits like Ichiro, and he was up there swinging. Ichiro put it all together in 2004 with 262 hits with the Mariners, and the closest anyone’s come to that since is … Ichiro with 238 in 2007. As far as non-Ichiro players, it’s Jose Altuve with 225 in 2014. Some guys are elite bat-to-ball guys, some are speed demons, but no one has paired those skills together like Ichiro did.

Home runs: Barry Bonds, 73 (2001)

Bonds’ career is controversial for obvious reasons, but there’s no denying his 2001 season with the Giants was incredible. It felt like Bonds was either on first base with a walk – intentional or not – or was rounding the bases with a round-tripper. He’s one of two players to hit 70 or more homers in a single season, and only two players – Aaron Judge and Cal Raleigh – have reached 60 homers in a post-Steroid Era MLB. If someone were to come even close to a 73-homer pace, you’d figure they’d get walked quite a bit, too.

Wins: Jack Chesbro, 41 (1904)

Pitcher wins are a weird stat. A starter must go five or more innings, have the lead as the pitcher of record and his team must not give that lead up. A reliever simply must record one out with the lead and have his team hold it to get the win. Like I said, it’s weird. Back in the day, relievers weren’t really a thing. Starters ate innings. Look at Chesbro, who had 41 wins in 55 games in 454 2/3 innings! Guys don’t even start more than 33 times in a season anymore. Unless a reliever has the greatest luck of all time, this one isn’t going to be touched.

MLB’s most unbreakable single-game records

Baseball’s weirdness is part of its charm, and these single-game marks capture the kind of perfect-storm moments that are almost impossible to recreate.

Two grand slams in one inning: Fernando Tatis Sr. (1999)

Tatis was a solid player before his son came around and became a star for the Padres, but it’s the senior Tatis who has one of baseball’s craziest records. In 1999 with the Cardinals, he swatted not one, but two grand slams in one game. Not only did he do it in the same game, but he did it in the same inning. To get up twice in the same inning is hard. To get up twice in the same inning with the bases loaded each time is nearly unheard of. That everything worked out that way and Tatis swatted two grand slams is just insane. 

Hits in a game: Johnny Burnett, 9 (1932)

In 1932, Burnett had 11 at-bats in a wild 18-inning game, and he picked up a whopping nine hits. Some guys don’t get nine hits in a week, let alone one game! To even get nine tries at a hit in one game is rare, and with the extra-inning rules with the ghost runner, getting to a point where nine or more ABs is possible is going to be very difficult, making this one nearly untouchable. 

Intentional walks in a game: Barry Bonds, 4 (twice in 2004) 

It’s important to note this is the nine-inning record as Hall of Famer Andre Dawson had five free passes in an extra-inning game. But Bonds became synonymous with free passes with 688 in his career as part of 2,558 career walks – both MLB records. Bonds walked 232 times in 2004, 120 of which were intentional as teams opted to put him on first base rather than risking another home run. We have some scary players in today’s game, but it’s hard to see a situation where someone gets walked intentionally five or more times in nine innings. 

Innings pitched in a single game: Leon Cadore and Joe Oeschger, 26 (1920)

It’s pretty safe to say we’ll never see a 26-inning game again, and it’s even safer to say we’ll never see one guy throw 26 innings in a game – let alone two. But on May 1, 1920, Cadore and Oeschger had a pitchers’ duel for the ages, with each going 26 full frames in what wound up being a 1-1 tie. Imagine that – after all that, the game ends in a tie! Darkness led to the forced ending of this game, otherwise who knows how long these two arms could have lasted?

Shortstop plays doubleheader without an official chance: Toby Harrah (1976)

This isn’t technically a single-game record, but it’s an oddity I’d love to highlight. Few positions see as much action as shortstop, so it’s rare for a player at that spot to go a long length of time without an official chance – a grounder, line drive or pop fly hit to them, or even assisting on a double play or recording a putout on a fielder’s choice. So for Harrah to have no chances in not one, but two games in the same day is just mind boggling. How in the world is that even possible?