Baseball records, especially for Home Runs, still dominate, even over TD passes.

Last night Peyton Manning set an NFL record for career touchdown (TD) passes thrown, passing Brett Favre.  If you had asked me while I was watching the New York Giants lose to the Dallas Cowboys earlier in the day who held that record I could not have told you.  I'm guessing that even with that news available this morning if you did a quick survey of Americans and asked about the season and career records for TD passes and home runs, that answers about home runs would be much more accurate.

I'm a pretty good NFL fan but I cannot tell you who holds the season and/or career records for TD scored, points, rushing yards.  I know that Jimmy Brown held the season rushing record until O.J. Simpson ran for 2,000 yards still in a 14 game schedule but that Brown continued to hold the career rushing record.  I think Walter Payton broke it and that Emmitt Smith broke Payton's record but I don't know who else might have passed Brown.  Most TD?  Jerry Rice?

Home Run records dominate even over other baseball records.  RBI: I think that Hank Aaron holds the career record and Hack Wilson the season record: 191 up from 190 due to research.  But I don't know Aaron's number.  Runs scored?  Probably Aaron career.  Season?  Beats me.

But homers?  Still without looking:
Barry Bonds (762, I think)
Hank Aaron 755
Babe Ruth 714
Willie Mays 660
Alex Rodriguez (654, I think)
Ken Griffey ...

Jim Tome and Sammy Sosa are over 600, too.  Then:
Mark McGwire 583
Harmon Killebrew 573?
Frank Robinson nnn?
Rafeal Palmero nnn?
Manny Ramirz nnn?
Mike Schmidt 548
Reggie Jackson nnn?
Mickey Mantle 536
Jimmie Foxx 535

That's enough.  I could do the same for season home runs: be 80-90% accurate.  But I cannot do it for other baseball records much less those for football or basketball. I know that Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a 1962 NBA game in Hershey, PA against the New York Knicks (Reggie Jackson claims to have attended) and that Chamberlain averaged 50 points and 50 minutes per game in that 1961-1962 season.  I'm pretty sure that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has the NBA career record for points scored, which Chamberlain held for many years.  That's about it on NBA records.

I believe this is why fans are so emotional about the use of performance enhancing drugs (PED) by baseball players but don't really care that much about their use by football and basketball players.  And in baseball the concern is almost exclusive to home runs.  By far my most viewed post:

Nolan Ryan: more on possible steroid use.  Tuesday, August 31, 2010

OK, some answers about records mentioned above:

Rank	Player (yrs, age)	Home Runs	Bats	HR Log
1.	Barry Bonds (22)	762	L	HR Log
2.	Hank Aaron+ (23)	755	R	HR Log
3.	Babe Ruth+ (22)	714	L	HR Log
4.	Willie Mays+ (22)	660	R	HR Log
5.	Alex Rodriguez (20, 38)	654	R	HR Log
6.	Ken Griffey (22)	630	L	HR Log
7.	Jim Thome (22)	612	L	HR Log
8.	Sammy Sosa (18)	609	R	HR Log
9.	Frank Robinson+ (21)	586	R	HR Log
10.	Mark McGwire (16)	583	R	HR Log
11.	Harmon Killebrew+ (22)	573	R	HR Log
12.	Rafael Palmeiro (20)	569	L	HR Log
13.	Reggie Jackson+ (21)	563	L	HR Log
14.	Manny Ramirez (19, 42)	555	R	HR Log
15.	Mike Schmidt+ (18)	548	R	HR Log
16.	Mickey Mantle+ (18)	536	B	HR Log
17.	Jimmie Foxx+ (20)	534	R	HR Log

Rank	Player (yrs, age)	Runs Batted In	Bats
1.	Hank Aaron+ (23)	2297	R
2.	Babe Ruth+ (22)	2214	L
3.	Cap Anson+ (27)	2075	R
4.	Barry Bonds (22)	1996	L
5.	Lou Gehrig+ (17)	1995	L
6.	Alex Rodriguez (20, 38)	1969	R
7.	Stan Musial+ (22)	1951	L
8.	Ty Cobb+ (24)	1938	L
9.	Jimmie Foxx+ (20)	1922	R
10.	Eddie Murray+ (21)	1917	B

Rank	Player (age that year)	Runs Batted In	Year	Bats
1.	Hack Wilson+ (30)	191	1930	R
2.	Lou Gehrig+ (28)	185	1931	L
3.	Hank Greenberg+ (26)	183	1937	R
4.	Jimmie Foxx+ (30)	175	1938	R
5.	Lou Gehrig+ (24)	173	1927	L
	Lou Gehrig+ (27)	173	1930	L
7.	Hank Greenberg+ (24)	170	1935	R
	Chuck Klein+ (25)	170	1930	L
9.	Jimmie Foxx+ (24)	169	1932	R
10.	Babe Ruth+ (26)	168	1921	L

Rank	Player (yrs, age)	Runs Scored	Bats
1.	Rickey Henderson+ (25)	2295	R
2.	Ty Cobb+ (24)	2246	L
3.	Barry Bonds (22)	2227	L
4.	Hank Aaron+ (23)	2174	R
	Babe Ruth+ (22)	2174	L
6.	Pete Rose (24)	2165	B
7.	Willie Mays+ (22)	2062	R
8.	Cap Anson+ (27)	1999	R
9.	Stan Musial+ (22)	1949	L
10.	Derek Jeter (20, 40)	1923	R

Runs scored in a season after 1901:
Ruth 177 in 1921
Gehrig 167 in 1936
Gehrig 163 in 1931
Ruth 163 in 1928

Rank	Player (age), + - HOFer, Bold - Active	TD	Years	Teams
1.	Peyton Manning (38)	510	1998-2014	2TM
2.	Brett Favre	508	1991-2010	4TM
3.	Dan Marino+	420	1983-1999	mia
4.	Drew Brees (35)	374	2001-2014	2TM
5.	Tom Brady (37)	372	2000-2014	nwe
6.	Fran Tarkenton+	342	1961-1978	2TM
7.	John Elway+	300	1983-1998	den
8.	Warren Moon+	291	1984-2000	4TM
9.	Johnny Unitas+	290	1956-1973	2TM
10.	Vinny Testaverde	275	1987-2007	7TM

Rank	Player (age), + - HOFer, Bold - Active	Yds	Years	Teams
1.	Emmitt Smith+	18,355	1990-2004	2TM
2.	Walter Payton+	16,726	1975-1987	chi
3.	Barry Sanders+	15,269	1989-1998	det
4.	Curtis Martin+	14,101	1995-2005	2TM
5.	LaDainian Tomlinson	13,684	2001-2011	2TM
6.	Jerome Bettis	13,662	1993-2005	2TM
7.	Eric Dickerson+	13,259	1983-1993	4TM
8.	Tony Dorsett+	12,739	1977-1988	2TM
9.	Jim Brown+	12,312	1957-1965	cle
10.	Marshall Faulk+	12,279	1994-2005	2TM

Rank	Player (age), + - HOFer, Bold - Active	TD	Years	Teams
1.	Jerry Rice+	208	1985-2004	3TM
2.	Emmitt Smith+	175	1990-2004	2TM
3.	LaDainian Tomlinson	162	2001-2011	2TM
4.	Randy Moss	157	1998-2012	5TM
5.	Terrell Owens	156	1996-2010	5TM
6.	Marcus Allen+	145	1982-1997	2TM
7.	Marshall Faulk+	136	1994-2005	2TM
8.	Cris Carter+	131	1987-2002	3TM
9.	Marvin Harrison	128	1996-2008	clt
10.	Jim Brown+	126	1957-1965	cle

Rank	Player	PTS
1.	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar*	38387
2.	Karl Malone*	36928
3.	Michael Jordan*	32292
4.	Kobe Bryant	31700
5.	Wilt Chamberlain*	31419
6.	Shaquille O'Neal	28596
7.	Moses Malone*	27409
8.	Elvin Hayes*	27313
9.	Hakeem Olajuwon*	26946
10.	Dirk Nowitzki	26786