<< Back

HFWB RECORDS: THE HOLY GRAIL - 2/14/10 As the league grows so does the competition. Each year seems to feature better players and better play. With this being the case many records are broken and set on a yearly basis. For example, there wasn't a single no hitter thrown from 2005-2007, but in the last 2 seasons there have been a total of 10. With a yearly increase in the number of teams, games and overall talent, the truth is that not many records have withstood the test of time. There are still a select few standing strong and defy the odds each year to remain among the leagues holy grail of records.

Lets start with pitching. This first item isn't a record I want to see broken, but rather a record I'd like to see set: A perfect game. There were 8 no-hitters thrown last year, and 2 no-walks, so logic would dictate that a perfect game should be right around the corner, don't be so sure. A perfect game will be ridiculously hard to accomplish regardless of competition and there are several reasons why. Firstly you have to be a great pitcher and speed, movement, accuracy, logic and mental toughness must enter into every pitch you throw. Secondly since our league features a mercy rule you must be going against a team that is weak enough not to get a hit or draw a walk but strong enough not to get mercied. In other words the only way to actually throw a perfect game is to do it against a good team, which is why its never been done.

If I had to guess who would accomplish such a thing I would of course say Hess, but don't sleep on pitchers like BK and J.Longo because they're among the most accurate in the league and it is actually harder to throw a no-walk game than a no-hitter. Even though it may happen one day I think it's safe to say at the end of the 2010 season this record will remain in tact. Another pitching record I would like to see broken is the record for most wins in a season, currently 7. In a 16 game schedule the most games a pitcher can pitch is 8, so to win 8 games would be one of the greatest accomplishments in league history. As a point of reference last year there were only 4 pitchers who recorded 8 decisions and that is due to the increase in pitching depth and strategic game planning that we're seeing across the league. The days of just showing up and playing are gone, teams gathering scouting reports and setting rotations weeks in advance is pretty much the norm now. Many teams will pitch a third pitcher if they see an opportunity or will rest their ace down the stretch so even getting the full 8 starts is an accomplishment in itself. In my opinion this record will not be broken this upcoming season, but watch out for Tom Tierney, he's got a knack for pitching against #2 pitchers and if he can do that 8 times next year than he's got a real shot at the record. The last pitching record I'd like to see flirted with is not a single season record but a career record. Chris Hess won a record 13 regular season games in a row from 2006-2009, the second longest streak in league history is only 7. Josh Longo won 7 in a row from 2008-2009 but there is also another pitcher with 7 in a row and that streak is still current, that is of course Zach Popp. Unlike the previous records I talked about I think this one has a pretty good chance of falling, that is if Zach Popp plays. He needs 6 more wins to tie the record and I don't see any team that could get in his way right now, his stuff on the mound is just electric but his future in the league is still up in the air.

Now for the 'oh-fence.' With the pitching being as good as it has been recently some players may have forgotten what a hit actually is, but the hitting records are actually the most coveted. Really only one name comes to mind when thinking of the offensive records-Nick Sutter. Nicks 2006 season from the plate was legendary and where two of the leagues finest records came from. Nick set both the home run and RBI record that year, both of which have never come close to being broken. His 22 home runs is impressive, more impressive when you consider he did it in only 10 games. Many have tried to dethrone the record: Resue, McKelvey, Fuchs, Aussy, Ciarmiello, Popp. None have succeeded. It certainly speaks to the level of pitching that

hitters deal with these days, in fact in the last 2 years combined no one has hit more than 20 HR's, but it also speaks to the power that Nick had back then. It's not like he was on a superpower either, his team was only 6-4 and pitchers like Hess, Resue and LeClair roamed the sidelines back then. Despite no one giving the record a real run the last few years, I do think it will be broken one day, perhaps by someone who's not even in the league yet. One thing I'm absolutely sure of is that the home run record will be broken long before the RBI record. In fact the leagues RBI record is one of the few records I don't think will ever be broken. The magic number is 84 but it might as well be 84,000. Dan Ciarmiello, perhaps the leagues best power hitter, has 77 total RBI's in 20 games played and both those seasons were in the Lamb. Again, the pitching level has risen but just look at what you would need to do these days in order to beat that record: If you play all 16 games you'll need to average 5.4 RBI's per game. Even playing in a weaker division there's still about a dozen pitchers out there with ERA's under 5, in addition the most runs scored last year by a team was 189, that's 11.8 a game which means in a lineup of 5-6 you'd have to average almost half your teams RBI's every game. The most RBI's last year was 52, maybe just maybe someone will get to 60 this year but if the league continues to feature a 16 game schedule I don't think anyone will even break 75 for the next 5 years. In fact I'm appealing directly to the commissioners office in saying that I believe there should be a $100 bounty set for anyone who can break that record, even 3 games of Andy Hogan's lobbers, Bianchine's meatballs or Falso's drop shots wouldn't be enough padding for their stats to hit the magical 84.

Now there's one more record that I would like to see that isn't individual at all, it's all about team. An undefeated season. The 2006 Cyclones are the only team to go undefeated in the regular season, going 10-0. An undefeated regular season nowadays would be an unbelievable achievement, not only would you have to be an amazingly talented team both pitching and hitting but you'd also have to get lucky, avoiding certain pitching match ups and getting a good schedule etc. A team going undefeated in the regular season and then undefeated in the playoffs would be, if I can steal a line from a fellow media member, absolutely ridiculous. Since the league expanded in 2006 only one team has swept the playoffs, the 2007 No Names, and it's growing harder and harder (that's what she said) to do so. An undefeated championship team may be the holiest of all grails and would certainly obtain the biggest bragging right of all, the greatest team ever.