Nothing speaks to us sports fans like accomplishments that go into the record books. When a running back breaks his school’s rushing records or a basketball guard sets the mark for the number of assists in a season we sit up and take notice, but how often are these new records based on an uneven playing field?
This issue was brought back to my attention while watching the Pittsburgh – Cincinnati Big East Game which is the 12th game of their season. The announcers were going on about Dion Lewis, whose 1,640 yards are 46 shy of Dorsett’s freshman season total of 1,686 yards in 1973. However, Tony Dorsett had 1 less game to get those yards.
College sport is a bit worse than professional sports where season totals are kept separate from the Play-offs. If Lewis gets those 46 yards in their bowl game then he breaks Dorsett’s mark, but with an extra game. However, what about marks from before when teams played only 9 games (10 if they made a bowl). In conferences where there is a championship game they can have as many as 14 games now and all of them count for their season totals. It seems unfair that some great marks are being passed just because there are 4 more games.
This argument clearly circumvents all sports where seasons have become longer. Another current case in point would be the possibility that Titans running back Chris Johnson might break Eric Dickerson’s mark of 2,105 yards. However, O.J. Simpson ran for 2003 yards in 1973 in a 14-game season. As he was averaging over 140 yards per game that year we have to ask what he could have done with 2 more games.
The same principles could be applied to the technical aspects that have changed their sports. When swimming records are being broke right and left at a particular meet it is not just due to the new swimsuits, but things such as pool temperature and other conditions are much more ideal than they used to be. Track & Field athletes have modern track surfaces, better shoes and even their clothing is more air resistant.
In some cases the longer seasons might be considered a handicap for the pursuit of certain records. In baseball, most people consider DiMaggio’s mark of 56 straight games with a hit to be one record that will never fall. One problem, according to experts, is that the longer season takes a bigger toll on the players. Even a physical specimen and dominant player like Albert Pujols takes days off during a season that are not related to any direct injuries. It is having a similar effect on pitching marks as pitchers are completing fewer games to keep them as healthy as possible.
You hear about “an asterisk” being applied to records. Major League Baseball’s home run record has one according to many due to the probability that steroids contributed to many of the big numbers in recent years. Many sporting bodies have considered separating their records based on the length of a season and this seems the fairest solution when that is possible, but records based on single games or season averages wouldn’t necessarily require that approach.
In reality, outside of individual sports where records are based on speed, height or distance much of this is not that important, but we are a culture that is infatuated with statistics and records are the ultimate expression of that. We love the guy who breaks the single-season touchdown record, the scoring leader, the fastest runner, the longest jumper. It just seems a shame that records of old that were considered to be untouchable have been or will be beaten on an unfair playing field…and that just seems to defeat the whole meaning behind “sports”.
