Still Standing After All These Years

the long version

Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak may be baseball's best-known feat, but how many people are aware of Paul Waner's 14-game, extra-base hitting streak, a record which has stood much longer? Koufax and Gibson threw many shutouts, but Grover Alexander threw the most in one season. Walter Johnson was famous for his K's, but did you know he was the hurler who fanned the most batters in a game as a reliever? These are among baseball's longest-standing records, still unbroken after more than half a century. Through interviews with numerous stars of the past as well as extensive original research, Victor Debs examines how these and other spectacular marks were achieved, and why they are still standing after so many years. Combining numbers with nostalgia, statistics with stories, Debs celebrates the remarkable players who have proved that records are not always made to be broken.