An Interview With Author Richard Sowers
About His Latest Book:

Shatterproof
The 100 Most Unbreakable Records in Sports and Why

Q. Why did you write this book?

As much as I enjoy sports, I've often been somewhat startled by those who blatantly state opinions that aren't necessarily based on facts or informed research. While I've often seen lists about the topic that Shatterproof explores, whether the 10 most unbreakable records, the 10 most impressive streaks or whatever, I don't know if I've ever seen a similar list for which I couldn't readily think of a dozen, perhaps even a couple of dozen, records that seemingly would be infinitely more unbreakable than those that were listed. So I decided to study all available sports records I could find, and I think I pretty much found them all, rank them in order of their predicted durability and offer what I believe to be the closest thing to a "definitive" list ever compiled. And the project proved to be terrifically enjoyable.

Q. In calling these records "the 100 most unbreakable in sports," is this indeed a definitive list?

I certainly hope so, but there are certain caveats. Anyone who merely glances at the Table of Contents and sees the 100 most unbreakable records in sports ranked in order may have a lot of questions or hesitations when they notice that Record "A" is ranked ahead of Record "B" or that Record "Y" is ranked lower than Record "X" or that Record "Z" isn't even mentioned. But once anyone has read the book, which strongly emphasizes why each particular record is "unbreakable," I think they'll understand why a record that is ranked perhaps 80th isn't nearly as invincible as one that is ranked 15th and that readers might be compelled to change their minds about any pre-conceived ideas they may have had. And there are a lot of records that I've seen on various top-10 lists of unbreakable records that didn't earn a spot among my top 100, and many people may question why they didn't.

Although I suspect that indeed will be the case, in the Preface I used two examples of extremely impressive and famous records that did not earn recognition among the 100 most unbreakable, Hank Aaron's 755 career home runs and Barry Bonds' 73 home runs in a season, to illustrate why, as impressive as they are, they simply don't rank among the most unbreakable.

And, while I contend that no one will read the book and dispute that No. 80 should be ranked higher than No. 15, or No. 90 ahead of No. 10, it would take someone with far more wisdom than Job, which I don't have, to assert with great confidence that the difference in vulnerability between No. 15 and No. 16 or No. 80 and No. 81 isn't minute.

Q. You mentioned pre-conceived notions. Did you have any before you wrote the book?

I had three records in mind as strong possibilities to be ranked No. 1. Two of them made the top 10, and the other one didn't miss being in the top 10 by much. Once I began studying the records, and their probability of being broken, or indeed enduring forever, I was overwhelmed by a "common thread" that, ultimately, eight of the top 10 records shared.

Q. There seem to be a lot of records in the book that are more than a century old. Are these still relevant?

Of course they are. Anyone who visits the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum or takes a few minutes to glance at The Baseball Encyclopedia might notice that Hugh Duffy has been enshrined in Cooperstown and that he hit a record .438 in a single season, the reason for his inclusion in the book. What the chapter on Duffy, and most chapters in the book, for that matter, reveal is far more in-depth information than a mere listing of the particular record. The chapter on Duffy, and so many more, offer history lessons that look beyond the obvious and, in Duffy's case, offer ample evidence that, although batting averages indeed were higher in 1894, the year he hit .438, perhaps no player in history ever had a more dominating season in terms of towering over his contemporaries.

In the cases of many others who earned records that were included in the book, including, but by no means limited to, Will White, Tommy Bond and Lida Scott Howell, they carved indelible records that truly have stood the test of time. Not only should their records be remembered, but so should the athletes who set them. Although White, Bond and Howell are by no means household names, they performed some pretty incredible feats. Perhaps any true sports fan or historian should be familiar with those athletes, and I hope the many history lessons offered in Shatterproof will help generate the recognition these record-breaking athletes deserve.

Although no one alive saw the aforementioned trio compete, history, including sports history, didn't begin the day any of us were born. And, as difficult as it may be to believe, the incredible feats being performed by Tiger Woods, the youngest athlete whose record-setting feats merited inclusion in the book, and others are going to seem like "ancient history" to future generations who don't know sports history and perhaps don't realize what an incredible golfer Woods has been and still is.

Q. How difficult was it to rate the 100 most unbreakable records in order?

It was extraordinarily difficult. For starters, it is very difficult to compare the records in one sport with those in another. That's one flaw that seems to be so common in similar lists of the 10 most unbreakable records in sports I've seen elsewhere in the past: Too many people, particularly those who cover sports and make such lists, often become specialists in one or two or three sports and aren't necessarily familiar enough with all sports to be able to evaluate them properly. Perhaps because I've covered so many sports extensively in my career, college and pro basketball, college and pro football, horse racing, auto racing, baseball, golf, boxing, tennis and track & field, and actually have spent far more time as an editor who, out of necessity, had to pay significant attention to every sport, that task probably was a little easier for me than for most other people who may have tried to undertake this mission.

Still, it is not only very difficult to compare the records in say, football and golf, but it is equally difficult to compare how invincible or vulnerable a record set in the course of a career is with one set in a single season or calendar year, in a single event or consecutively, or compare records set by teams with those established by individuals.

And, as the five "most unbreakable" records and eight of the top 10 clearly illustrate, in certain sports, or at least in certain aspects of certain sports, conditions, whether rules changes or prevailing strategies, have changed so dramatically that many records have been established that indeed should last forever.

After trying to no avail to apply reason, logic and, in a few cases, actual mathematical odds, in an attempt to rank the 100 most unbreakable records in the best possible order, I gave up and tried a different approach. I eliminated many records from consideration and embarked on writing the chapters on the "finalists," of which there were perhaps 150 to 160. Once I actually had written the chapters and presented all possible arguments for a record's invincibility, or vulnerability, in each sport, I then found it somewhat easier to rank the records in each sport and actually wrote the book one sport at a time, not in the order the records appear in the book. Many of the "finalists" that were not included are listed in the book as "honorable mention" selections. In cases in which the team or person who holds a record that indeed was included had other records that merited strong consideration, those additional records that did not make the final cut are discussed in those chapters.

And, although I managed to whittle the choices down to 150 to 160 before I began writing, I probably wrote between 125 and 130 chapters because I'd begin to pontificate on some of the "finalists" and see that, while the record indeed may be very impressive and will take a tremendous effort to break, the arguments simply were in no way strong enough to merit a spot among the 100 most invincible.

Q. Although Shatterproof boasts that these are the 100 most unbreakable records in sports, why are 33 of the 100 baseball records?

As I hope I explained satisfactorily in the Preface, there are few, if any, sports for which comprehensive records have been around as long and are as well chronicled as in baseball, dating to the formation of the National Association of Professional Baseball Players in 1871, the first organized major sports league as we know them today. So baseball has more than 130 years of recorded history, far more than most other sports can claim. The other reason is that few sports have undergone such dramatic changes in the conditions of play and prevailing strategies as baseball has, which, as I explained in the Preface, is a significant key to a record's durability.

And, although baseball and other sports have undergone significant changes in the conditions and prevailing strategies since many of the unbreakable records were set, it's certainly possible that a 360-degree evolution that returns the prevailing conditions and strategies to those that existed when those "unbreakable" records were established could happen. Because there has been a sufficient passage of time since those strategies were prevalent and those records were set, however, that scenario is highly unlikely.

Further, in other sports, changes in playing conditions and/or strategies actually make existing records more vulnerable to erasure. And, in other sports, particularly in certain locales, the "records" can't be trusted with reasonable accuracy to merit inclusion.

Q. One athlete has seven records in the book. Does that mean he was the greatest athlete in history?

As I hope I clearly state, it doesn't necessarily mean that. But it's certainly a measure of that athlete's greatness that he left such an indelible mark on his sport's record book that he authored seven of the 100 most unbreakable records in sports and had an eighth that came agonizingly close to inclusion.

So I truly think that an argument could be made that any athlete who posted seven of the 100 most unbreakable records in all sports quite possibly dominated his particular sport like no other athlete ever has.

And it doesn't mean that those who were included are the greatest athletes or greatest teams, simply that they established records that will be extraordinarily difficult for anyone to break.

Many of the greatest athletes I've seen in my lifetime not only didn't have a record included, but didn't even have one that merited honorable mention, or even serious consideration.

Q. Who were some of those athletes?

To name more than a few: Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, Willie Mays, Ted Williams, Sandy Koufax, Roger Clemens, Stan Musial, Gale Sayers, O.J. Simpson, Dick Butkus, Brett Favre, Jim Brown, Bobby Orr, Maurice Richard, Arnold Palmer, Annika Sorenstam, Pete Sampras, Steffi Graf, A.J. Foyt, Dale Earnhardt, Bill Shoemaker, Secretariat, Carl Lewis, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Pele, Mia Hamm, Sugar Ray Leonard and, of course, Muhammad Ali.

Q. Will this book settle all arguments about which record, and records, are the most unbreakable in sports?

I think it will settle a lot of them, and start a lot more.

Q. What did you learn in the course of researching and writing this book that you found particularly enlightening?

Among other things, I learned that the record I've probably heard cited most frequently as the "most unbreakable" in sports shouldn't even merit serious consideration in that category. As impressive as that particular record may be, it isn't remotely among the most unbreakable in baseball, and there are several streaks in other sports that figure to endure far longer. Without identifying that record, I think most readers will notice immediately that it is rated far lower than they would have expected. That being said, once they've read the chapters about the records that are ranked as more unbreakable than that very famous record, and the next five or six or seven chapters that follow it, they'll probably agree that, if anything, that record could be moved down a few notches more logically than it could be elevated.

Q. What is the biggest difference between the 100 most unbreakable records as listed in Shatterproof and similar lists that have been compiled before?

First, as I noted in the Preface, certain records weren't eligible for consideration because they were not set in top-level competition: big-league, major-college or top-level amateur sports, whether national or international. Logic dictates that it would be far easier to strike out minor-league batters, for example, than major-league hitters if someone merely was attempting to set a record. And those that weren't set in the crucible of significant competition weren't considered. But, more significantly, I studied and weighed the merits either for or against the inclusion of all eligible records instead of picking one and declaring it the most unbreakable. If someone reads the first 20 or 25 chapters, for example, they'll wonder how I managed to rank them considering that it's improbable that anyone alive ever will see any of them broken.

Q. Do you have a favorite chapter?

I have a lot of chapters of which I'm quite fond, but if I really had to pick one, it would be No. 100.

Q. Why?

Because, for more than a century, it has been extraordinarily foolish to consider any record that can be measured with a stopwatch or a tape measure invincible. Whether it's the four-minute mile; Bob Beamon's long jump, or Secretariat's 2:24 in the 1973 Belmont Stakes, which is still a world record for a mile and a half on dirt, records that are measured with a clock or a yardstick continue to be broken every year. In some cases, high school girls now have to jump higher or run faster to win a state title than men had to do to win Olympic gold medals a century ago.

So it may be foolhardy to include such a record in a book that chronicles the 100 most unbreakable in sports and why, but No. 100 is indeed such a record that could prove very elusive.

That being said, its inclusion in the book just might serve as an incentive for someone to make every effort to break it.

Q. What impact do you hope this book will have on sports?

I hope those who read and embrace Shatterproof will win most, if not all, of their arguments with friends or fellow experts every time the subject of the most unbreakable records in sports is broached.