Records

Baseball · The clockless chess match where a round bat meets a round ball and the best hitters on earth still fail seven times out of ten.

Baseball's record book is the deepest and best-documented in sport, a ledger stretching back to the nineteenth century in which nearly every achievement can be compared across generations. Some marks reflect a single moment of concentration; others reward two decades of unbroken durability. A handful are considered untouchable, protected by permanent changes in how the game is played, while others still fall as training, technology, and roster rules evolve.

The records below trace the outer limits of the possible, and several were reframed in 2024 when MLB folded Negro Leagues statistics into its official history, moving Josh Gibson to the top of the career batting-average leaderboard. Many of the counting records endure precisely because the modern game — with its pitch counts, bullpen specialization, and shorter careers — no longer produces the conditions that made them. Each stands as a benchmark against which every new star is measured.

Records

762

Career home runs

Barry Bonds2007

Bonds passed Hank Aaron's 755 in 2007, capping a career whose late-stage power surge is inseparable from the BALCO scandal. No player active in 2025 is within 400 of the mark.

73

Single-season home runs

Barry Bonds2001

Bonds broke Mark McGwire's three-year-old record of 70, itself set during the 1998 chase with Sammy Sosa. Three players topped 60 in a four-year window that now defines the steroid era.

4,256

Career hits

Pete Rose1985

Rose, nicknamed Charlie Hustle, passed Ty Cobb in September 1985 across 24 seasons. His lifetime ban for gambling kept the sport's hit king off the Hall of Fame ballot until after his death.

.372

Highest career batting average

Josh Gibson2024

When MLB incorporated Negro Leagues records in 2024, Gibson's .372 displaced Ty Cobb's .366 atop the official leaderboard — a statistical correction of an exclusion that lasted a century.

2,297

Career runs batted in

Hank Aaron1976

Aaron's RBI record reflects 23 seasons of remarkable consistency. Paired with 755 home runs and a record 6,856 total bases, it anchors the most complete power career in history.

511

Career pitching wins

Cy Young1911

Young's win total, achieved alongside 749 complete games, belongs to a vanished workload. With modern aces rarely reaching 250 wins, the record is universally regarded as permanent.

5,714

Career strikeouts

Nolan Ryan1993

Ryan pitched a record 27 seasons and finished nearly a thousand strikeouts ahead of Randy Johnson. He also holds the single-season modern record with 383 in 1973.

1,406

Career stolen bases

Rickey Henderson2003

Henderson stole more than 400 bases beyond second-place Lou Brock. He also set the single-season modern record with 130 in 1982 and scored a record 2,295 runs.

2,632

Consecutive games played

Cal Ripken Jr.1998

Ripken broke Lou Gehrig's 2,130-game streak in September 1995 and extended it more than three years, spanning over sixteen seasons without a day off. Widely called the ironman record.

56 games

Longest hitting streak

Joe DiMaggio1941

DiMaggio hit safely in 56 straight games from May to July 1941, a feat no one has approached since; Pete Rose's 44-game run in 1978 remains the modern challenger.

652

Career saves

Mariano Rivera2013

Rivera closed games for the Yankees for 19 seasons with a single devastating cutter. In 2019 he became the first player ever elected to the Hall of Fame unanimously.

1.12

Single-season ERA (live-ball)

Bob Gibson1968

Gibson's 1968 mark over 304 innings was so dominant it helped force MLB to lower the mound the next year. It stands as the lowest ERA of the post-1920 live-ball era.

59 innings

Consecutive scoreless innings

Orel Hershiser1988

Hershiser closed the 1988 season with 59 straight scoreless innings, breaking Don Drysdale's mark, then led the Dodgers to a World Series title as postseason MVP.

Keep exploring

More sports

Soccer

The simplest game on Earth, played by hundreds of millions and argued over by half the planet.

🏀

Basketball

Five players, 24 seconds, and geometry at full sprint — the city game that conquered the world.

🎾

Tennis

The loneliest duel in sport: no clock, no teammates, no place to hide until the last point is won.

🏎️

F1

Twenty drivers, a thousand horsepower, and the most expensive engineering arms race in sport.

Golf

A six-century test of nerve where the only opponent is the ground, the wind, and yourself.

🏈

Football

Four downs, ten yards, one end zone: the ultimate game of territory, collision, and coaching.

🏏

Cricket

The bat-and-ball contest where a single match can last five days and still turn on one ball.

🏉

Rugby Union

Fifteen players, eighty minutes of collision and continuity, and a code that prizes the contest for the ball above all else.

🏒

Hockey

The fastest team sport on Earth: six skaters, one frozen puck, and no time to breathe.

🥊

Boxing

The sweet science: two fighters, twelve three-minute rounds, and nowhere to hide behind a team.

🥋

MMA

Combat's most complete test — striking, wrestling and submission grappling settled inside a single cage.

🏐

Volleyball

Three touches, no second chances: the fast, vertical duel fought across a net no one may cross.

🏓

Table Tennis

The fastest ball sport on Earth, decided in the width of a fingernail and the spin no eye can fully read.

🏸

Badminton

The world's fastest racquet sport, where 400 km/h smashes and feather-soft net shots collide inside a single rally.

🏃

Track & Field

Faster, higher, stronger — the oldest contest in sport, settled in seconds and centimetres.

🏊

Swimming

Four strokes, one clock, and the oldest question in the water: who reached the wall first.

🚴

Road Cycling

An individual sport won by teams, where drafting, mountains and split-second timing decide everything.

🏍️

MotoGP

The premier class of motorcycle Grand Prix racing: 1,000cc prototypes, 360 km/h straights and 64-degree lean angles, decided by tenths of a second.

🎮

Esports

Competitive video gaming turned global spectator sport, where reactions measured in milliseconds decide million-dollar prizes in front of millions of viewers.