This thread is inspired by Rick Reilly's article in last week's Sports Illustrated, where he questions the amazingness of Ichiro's new single season hits mark. I have never been a fan of Ichiro, and remain underimpressed with his feat. Halx seems to be the only one who agrees with me (as evidenced from the Ichiro! thread.) George Sisler set his record with 8 fewer games, as Reilly points out. At that point Ichiro had not broken the record, so as far as I'm concerned, Ichiro's mark will and should forever have an asterisk next to it in the books, just as the home runs will. Everyone knows Barry and Mac and Sammy and even Maris had more games than Ruth, and yet no one seems to be recognizing the fact that Ichiro has more games.
On the other hand, and perhaps more under my skin, is the New England Patriots. The media is making such a huge deal about their streak of wins, and yet no one is mentioning the fact that their "18 in a row" is not even a record that is
recognized by the official NFL record book. The record that is so often misquoted is consecutive
regular season games won. Am I deliberately bashing on the Patriots because I hate them? Yes, a little. I do understand that 18 games is impressive, especially when it includes the playoffs and Super Bowl, blah, blah, blah. That's not the point. The point is they haven't tied any record yet. They're still 2 games short of the 1933-1934 Chicago Bears, who hold the real record.
I also realize that with their next 3 games being against Miami, Seattle, and the New York Jets, all at home, the Patriots have a good chance of tying or breaking the record. Good for them if they do it. But
they haven't done anything yet, record-wise.