/ AP

Jim Brown averaged 5.22 yards per carry during his career, which helped him become the only back in history to average more than 100 yards per game. That's just one of our list of possibly unbreakable records in sports.

Starting with Martin Brodeur who, this season nudged aside his idol Patrick Roy, setting the record with 552 wins by an NHL goaltender. Don't expect anyone to ever nudge aside Gretzky when it comes to career goals — he finished with 894, 91 more than Gordie Howe. Only two active players (Brendan Shanahan, Joe Sakic) are over 600, and both are near the end.

Nor does anyone in baseball expect a serious challenge to Cy Young's unfathomable record of 511 pitching victories, because that sport has changed so much in the 98 years since Young retired. The same goes for Young's 749 complete games or Walter Johnson's 110 shutouts. Starting pitchers don't finish games nearly as frequently anymore, and they perform every fifth day rather than every fourth.

As former major leaguer and current Florida Marlins television analyst Cookie Rojas put it: "We might not see anyone win 300 again."

Then again, no one expected any player to approach Lou Gehrig's mark of 2,130 consecutive games played, and Orioles infielder Cal Ripken not only did so, but eventually bested it by more than two full seasons.

Now Rojas thinks a new number (2,632) will stand forever.

"Nobody will come close," Rojas said. "There's more travel. Sooner or later, you're going to get a cold. The way these players are today, they get a cold, they don't play."

Several celebrated baseball records have fallen over the past few years, some legitimately (such as Ichiro passing Sisler) and a couple under dubious circumstances. Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa (all alleged to have used performance-enhancing drugs) bested Roger Maris's single-season home run record of 61, with Bonds pushing the bar up to 73. Then Bonds finished his controversial career with 762 home runs, seven more than Aaron.

Because it would seem to require less bulk to hit a ball through the infield than over a fence, one baseball record has survived the steroid era, and many experts expect it to survive every era that follows.

That is Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak.

Since DiMaggio accomplished that in 1941, Pete Rose has come closest (44) and Paul Molitor, Jimmy Rollins, Tommy Holmes Luis Castillo and Chase Utley have hit in at least 35 games.

Joe Torre, the Dodgers manager, deems it baseball's most unbreakable record, now more than ever.

"Fifty-six is tough," said Torre, who was a nine-time All-Star as a player. "With so many different pitchers every game that you have to deal with. The plus part of facing guys you know is knowing what to look for, and where it's coming from. To face four or five pitchers a game, that makes it a little more difficult. And now the media makes you aware. Who knows? DiMaggio probably had 35 before anybody paid attention to him. Now the pitcher doesn't want to be that guy. I don't think they'll ever break that record."

Neither does Ryan Zimmerman. The Nationals third baseman said he didn't feel much pressure at all as he hit in 30 straight games earlier this season, and that attention "made it fun."

Fun, but still not attainable.

"The game has changed so much, there's just so many specialty pitchers," Zimmerman said. "Not taking anything away from what he did, by any means, but it's just a different game now. First of all, I still had a whole month to go, which shows you how difficult 56 really is."

Even more difficult than 14, which in men's tennis was the standard until Sunday.

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