Iron man (sports streak)

This article is about athletic performance. For other uses, see Iron Man (disambiguation).

An Iron man is an athlete of unusual physical endurance.[1][2] This durability is generally measured by an athlete's ability to play without missing a game and/or start for an extended period of time, sometimes, even for an entire career.[3][4][5][6][7] Some of the more notable athletes with significant streaks in sports history includes baseball's Cal Ripken, Jr.,[8] American football's Brett Favre,[9] basketball's A. C. Green,[10] ice hockey's Doug Jarvis,[11] and stock car racing's Jeff Gordon.[12][13]

Background

In 1941, endurance by an athlete was recognized as an "iron man" by the press when Lou Gehrig had a streak of 2,130 consecutive games end when he had asked the manager to take him out of the line up due to his fading abilities. Gehrig had been a consistent performer on the field having attained a batting average of at least .300 throughout his career until the previous season when he had fallen to .295.[14] A common characteristic of an iron man is the ability to play through injury. Gehrig displayed this trait in 1934 when his streak was in jeopardy of being snapped at 1,427 games. He had been injured during a game and was pulled from the lineup. The next day, after receiving heat treatments and massages for a stiff back, he was able to get a hit before leaving the contest.[15][16] Gehrig's record stood for 62 years until surpassed by Cal Ripken Jr. in 1995.[17][18] After Ripken's record-breaking streak garnered attention from the media,[19] the NBA's A.C. Green received attention for his own streak of consecutive games played in 1997 as he was approaching Randy Smith's record.[20] Then in 1999, Brett Favre set the record for consecutive starts by a quarterback when he started his 117th consecutive game surpassing the mark established by Ron Jaworski.[21] In 2009, Favre would surpass Jim Marshall's starts streak at any position with his 271st consecutive start.[22]

In international cricket, because players can be taken out of the squad due to injuries, bad discipline, poor form, or even illegal bowling action or unfavourable conditions against certain bowlers, especially spin bowlers, even for Shane Warne or Muttiah Muralitharan, so it was remarkable that players to start more the 90 test matches are batsmen.

In 20 February 2016, Brendon McCullum would finish his international career, having started all 101 tests, which is remarkable not only because he has never been dropped due to poor form or poor health (though he has given up wicketkeeping due to back and knee issues), but because New Zealand has a far leaner schedule compared to Australia and England, even when he is nowhere near Allan Border's actual record of 153, but it wasn't throughout his own career.[23] Also, since Test and limited-overs cricket would also feature different players, the consecutive starts streak would be counted separately. Brendon McCullum also started 122 consecutive One-Day Internationals from 2004-2010, the same as Mahela Jayawardene of India with 122 each, but the record is held by Sachin Tendulkar, when his streak was snapped due to injury.[24]

The iron man streak can also be ended due to ill discipline. On November 3, 2015, Matt Kenseth was suspended after he caused a crash that ended Joey Logano's race, and NASCAR handed a 2-race suspension, ending his streak at 571 as an active pursuant.[25]

Iron man leaderboard

League Type Player Streak Yrs Eq Held since Surpassed Streak Active pursuant(s) Streak References
ICC TC Matches started Allan Border 153 15.08 1994 AB de Villiers 98 Alastair Cook 124 [23][26]
ICC TC Matches started from debut Brendan McCullum 101 11.75 2015 AB de Villiers 98
ICC ODI Matches started Sachin Tendulkar 185 7.99 1998 Andy Flower 172 Mohammad Nabi, Luke Ronchi 61 [24]
ICC T20I Matches started Angelo Mathews 55 6.18 2015 Saeed Ajmal 54 Shahid Afridi 40 [27]
ICC TC/ODI/T20I Matches started Sachin Tendulkar 239 7.99 1998 Andy Flower 224 Several players <80 [28]
ITF Grand slams played Roger Federer 65 15.25 2014 Wayne Ferreira 56 Feliciano Lopez 57 [29]
MLB Games played Cal Ripken, Jr. 2,632 16.25 1995 Lou Gehrig 2,130 Manny Machado 162 [30][31]
MLB Innings played Cal Ripken, Jr. 8,264 5.67 1985 George Pinkney 5,152 Several players <1,450 [32]
NASCAR Races started Jeff Gordon 797 22.76 2015 Ricky Rudd 788 Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Newman 517 [12][13][25]
NBA Games played A. C. Green 1,192 14.54 1997 Randy Smith 906 Tristan Thompson 370 [10][33]
NFL Starts at the quarterback position Brett Favre 297 18.56 1999 Ron Jaworski 116 Eli Manning 191 [21][30][34]
NFL Starts at any position Brett Favre 297 18.56 2009 Jim Marshall 270 Eli Manning 191 [22][30][34]
NFL Games played Jeff Feagles 352 22.00 2005 Jim Marshall 282 Shane Lechler 230 [30][35][36][37]
NHL Games played Doug Jarvis 964 11.76 1986 Garry Unger 914 Andrew Cogliano 704 [30][38]

See also

References

  1. "Iron Man - Definition of Iron man by Merriam-Webster". Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  2. "Iron-man - Define Iron-man at Dictionary.com". Dictionary.com. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  3. Randy Lutz. "Iron Man Competition: Brett Favre vs. Cal Ripken Jr. vs. A.C. Green". Bleacher Report. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  4. "Pulsepoint". Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  5. "Penguins Adams Suspended, Iron Man Streak Ends". Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  6. "Ryan Phillips' ironman streak appears in jeopardy". www.vancouversun.com. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  7. JONATHAN FEIGEN
    , Copyright 2011 Houston Chronicle (March 8, 2011). "Rockets notes: Scola's iron man streak ends at 311". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  8. "Ripken Ends Iron Man Streak". September 20, 1998. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  9. "Columns". CBSSports.com. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  10. 1 2 "Yearbook, Nov. 20: AC Green's record streak". ESPN.com. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  11. How to be an NHL ironman like Doug Jarvis
  12. 1 2 "Jayski's® NASCAR Silly Season Site - Sprint Cup Series All-Time Starts". Jayski. ESPN.com. Retrieved September 27, 2015.
  13. 1 2 Road to 789: The journey to 'Iron Man'. November 2, 2015. Retrieved January 17, 2016 via YouTube.
  14. "LOU GEHRIG'S CONSECUTIVE GAME STREAK ENDS AT 2,130". Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  15. Lou Gehrig’s Streak Should Have Ended at Navin Field — Not Briggs Stadium
  16. The Original Iron Man
  17. "Today in History for 17th August 1933". OnThisDay.com. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  18. "Ripken breaks record for consecutive games played". HISTORY.com. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  19. Lawrence Barreca. "Cal Ripken's 2131 night- A Record That Saved Baseball". Bleacher Report. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  20. Move over Cal Ripken. A.C. Green of the Mavericks
  21. 1 2 "Iron Man". Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  22. 1 2 "Columns". CBSSports.com. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  23. 1 2 "McCullum's most satisfying ton". Stuff. Retrieved 2016-02-11.
  24. 1 2 "Records | One-Day Internationals | Individual records (captains, players, umpires) | Most consecutive matches for a team | ESPN Cricinfo". Cricinfo. Retrieved 2016-02-11.
  25. 1 2 "NASCAR suspends Matt Kenseth for two races | NASCAR.com". www.nascar.com. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
  26. "Records | Test matches | Individual records (captains, players, umpires) | Most consecutive matches for a team | ESPN Cricinfo". Cricinfo. Retrieved 2016-02-11.
  27. "Records | Twenty20 Internationals | Individual records (captains, players, umpires) | Most consecutive matches for a team | ESPN Cricinfo". Cricinfo. Retrieved 2016-02-11.
  28. "Records | Combined Test, ODI and T20I records | Individual records (captains, players, umpires) | Most consecutive matches for a team | ESPN Cricinfo". Cricinfo. Retrieved 2016-02-11.
  29. "Consecutive Slam Appearances Open Era". Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  30. 1 2 3 4 5 "The Drill: Longest sports streaks". Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  31. Ripken ends historic playing streak at 2,632 games
  32. "Ripken's Record for Consecutive Innings Played - SABR". Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  33. "Forward Tristan Thompson on verge of becoming franchise's all-time leader in consecutive games played". Akron Beacon Journal. Retrieved March 27, 2016.
  34. 1 2 "Eli Manning". NFL.com. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  35. "Giants' Feagles sets consecutive games record". ESPN.com. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  36. "Giants punter Jeff Feagles retires after 22 seasons and record 352 consecutive games". Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  37. "Shane Lechler". NFL.com. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  38. "Jarvis the Iron Man - Historical Website of the Montreal Canadiens". Retrieved January 17, 2016.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/9/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.