Throwdowns > Closed

Somebody of Note said 12/26, 02:58 PM
That record, admittedly, is pretty difficult to break... but mine is just ridiculous.

On June 11, 2003, the Houston Astros set a ridiculous record. That day, Roy Oswalt, Peter Munro, Kirk Saarloos, Brad Lidge, Octavio Dotel, and Billy Wagner each stepped up to the mound and did not allow a hit. They set a record for...

Most pitchers used in a no-hitter in a 9-inning game.

There are a few things that make this record unbreakable. The first is the rarity of no-hitters. Since 2000, there have only been 13, which averages out to not even two per year. You have a better chance of finding Gruden on a list of Fannation's Most Loved Members than of seeing a no-hitter. Only a select few pitchers have the talent to pull it off, much less seven at the same time.

The second, though, is that no team will want to break this record; they'd rather send Porkins out as a pinch-runner. In order to top it, teams would have to use one pitcher for just over one inning, then switch him out. Not only do teams never take out a pitcher with that degree of success so early in the game, but in this era of specialists and pitcher watches no sane manager will willingly tire out seven great arms.

Somebody of Note said 12/26, 05:35 PM
I think you're severely underestimating how rare a no-hitter is. Over the 132 years of recorded no-hitters, there have only been 257. That's an average of 1.94 a year, or less than even two. There are more division champions crowned each year than no-hitters.

Now, looking at those no-hitters, only ten of them have used more than one pitcher. One of those wasn't in a nine-inning game (it went to extra innings), so that's nine. There's a less than 4% chance that one of those extremely rare no-hitters will have more than one pitcher in it... and to even come anywhere near my record (your two precious 4-ers) occurs in about 0.8% of all no-hitters. I don't care what the circumstances were surrounding that game, but that's very rare.

And if a pitcher gets injured, what are the odds that every single one of his relief men will pitch a game as perfect as he is doing? Slim to none. There are way too many cases of that not happening to even bother researching.

As for your record, the lack of a salary cap is the exact reason why teams could come near. A team could stack up on players in a subpar division like the Braves did, and ride it to divisional glory. Maybe the Angels can?

Somebody of Note said 12/26, 09:50 PM
Are you saying that the rarity of an episode's occurence has nothing to do with the likelihood it gets broken?

Let's put this in terms you'll understand. Say Individual A has 4860 chances a year to have bodily contact with a female. Of those, only two pan out. Now, let's throw in the fact that Individual A has sex with just one woman 97% of the time. Do you actually think that a guy with that low a success rate is going to find himself invited to a seven-woman orgy any time soon? That's just not going to happen.

The TD isn't about which record will be broken, it's about which is more unbreakable. In that respect, mine has yours beat.

The Braves run was built on having a team head and shoulders above the rest of a mediocre division. Baseball's lack of a salary cap promotes a lack of parity, which makes it more than possible that a team could go on a run like that. Anaheim, despite losing Teixeira, is still vastly superior to the rest of the division.

Thanks to the lack of a cap, teams have the ability to build a dynasty in baseball. You're right, free agents gravitate towards the money, and if a team that offers the most can ensure a yearly playoff berth, all the better.