Hey! Welcome to The Roundtable, a section where our authors all answer a debated question in sports. This time we discuss “Feats In Sports” regardless of gender, era or sport. Here’s the question we all answered “What, in your opinion, is the most unrepeatable feat in history?” Our guidelines focused more on single game or short stretch rather than a full season or career! Answer it below in the comments before you read or after you read and give us what you think is one of the most unrepeatable feats in history!
Jack Linton: 2 Grand Slams in One Inning, Fernando Tatis, April 23, 1999
In my humble opinion, one of the most unrepeatable feats in sports is one player hitting two grand slams in one inning. One Fernando Tatis (father of the new era superstar Fernando Tatis Jr.) accomplished the feat on a fateful April evening in Los Angeles as he hit not one but two grand slams off Chan Ho Park in the 3rd inning on the way to a Cardinals 12-5 victory.
Now you might be saying, “this isn’t that insane of a feat” but I’d argue that as hitting a baseball is one of the hardest things to do in sport, the odds of a man getting the chance to hit twice in one inning is rare, doing so with the bases loaded both times is even more rare, and finally going deep both times is the craziest thing of all. In fact, only 10 people in the history of the game have hit two grand slams in one GAME, let alone one INNING. You can mark my words, this will NEVER happen again in baseball.
Austin Streitmatter: 75 HDB, Joey “Jaws” Chestnut, July 4, 2020 (or whatever record he sets when he retires)
When talking about sports “athletes”, there is no more obscure and wild group of peoplethan the competitive eaters. And when we talk about feats, of course the first thing on my mind is Joey Chestnut’s love for Hot Dogs! Look, I’m not going to tell you that this feat is never going to be beaten because it’s probably going to be beaten next year, but NOBODY outside of Chestnut is coming close to touching this feat. Allow me to read you the most hot dogs eaten at the Hot Dog Contest by anyone not named Joey Chestnut: 64.5 by Takeru Kobayashi in 2008. The closest competitor this decade was Carmen Cincotti with 64 in 2018. Cincotti retired in 2018, Kobayashi doesn’t compete at Nathan’s and Matt Stonie, who had 62 last in 2015, spends his time eating large amounts of random food on his YouTube Channel. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY except for Joey Chestnut is coming close to breaking this True American feat of consuming 75 (probably more) hot dogs in 10 minutes.
Side Note: I almost wrote about Chestnut in last week’s “dominant player” article since Chestnut has won EVERY HOT DOG CONTEST SINCE 2007, but I didn’t want to destroy all of my credibility in the first Roundtable we’ve ever had.
Ryan Hain: 28-3, The Atlanta Falcons, February 5, 2017
The Falcons are really bad. Even when they’re good, they’re bad. Some franchises are historically awful like the Browns or the Lions, but the Falcons take it to a whole different level. They manage to raise fans’ expectations every year just to lay a big doo doo on their heads. For example, in 2016, the Falcons had an improbable season where they won the NFC South and stormed through the postseason on the coattails of a record-smashing offense. They make it to the Super Bowl against the Patriots, and I’m gonna be honest my expectations were low going into that game. The Falcons came ready to play and led 21-3 at halftime. Up to this point, it was the most incredible day of my life. I was actually at a Patriots fan’s house watching this game, so halftime was just a dream. The third quarter starts and the Falcons score again, making it 28-3. A 25 point lead! This is it! The Falcons year! No one had ever blown a 25 point lead in the super bowl; they’ve got this! Wrong. The Falcons managed to blow this lead in ways I didn’t think were possible. I highly doubt any team will ever blow a lead that big in the super bowl again. That game has caused me emotional damage, and I will never forgive them for it, but I still manage to turn on the games every week. I think there is something wrong with us Falcons fans. They finally fired the two clowns running the Falcons during the super bowl, so I guess we’ll see how that goes.
Bo Burgess: 8 Points in 9 seconds, Reggie Miller, May 7th, 1995
Reggie Miller looked up and saw 9 seconds left on the clock and knew he had to do something. So he did what he does best. He buried a three-point basket, cutting the Knicks’ lead in the first game of the 1995 Eastern Conference Semi-Finals to 3. Then the unthinkable happened. In an attempt to find John Starks on the inbounds pass, Anthony Mason threw the ball right to Miller, who had filled the space Starks once occupied, but he had fallen down. Reggie then has the presence of mind, not to race to the wide open basket in front of him, but to take 2 steps backwards and shoot another 3 which, you guessed it, found the bottom of the net. Now the game is tied at 105 and after John Starks missed 2 free throws at the other end and Patrick Ewing missed the put back, Miller grabbed the rebound and was fouled by a clearly frustrated Starks. The Knicks, with the game tied, sent one of the best free throw shooters in the history of the National Basketball Association, to the line which of course he made both and the Pacers won the game 107-105. This will never ever happen again because between both shots going in, Starks missing both free throws, then Ewing missing a putback layup he has made 1000 times in his career, then Reggie making both free throws at the other end, the odds of all of those things happening is microscopic at best. This sequence etched Miller’s name in NBA History forever.
Afternoon Analytics 