50-year old Dan Marino saw his once NFL record 5,084 passing yards record broke last night by Drew Brees of the Saints.  The record stood for 27 years, but records are made to be broken.  I hear a lot of people saying that Dan Marino is the best QB to never win a Super Bowl.  That’s a bunch of crap as he was a lot better than a lot of QBs that won the Super Bowl (Doug Williams, Jeff Hostetler and Trent Dilfer come to mind).  In his historic season of 1984, Marino played in 16 games (all starts) for the Dolphins and he completed 362 of 564 passes (64.2%) for 5,084 yards with 48 TD passes (#3 all-time) and 17 interceptions (108.9 QB Rating).  His Dolphins were 14-2 during the regular season in 1984 and they lost the Super Bowl 38-16 to Joe Montana’s 49ers.  Marino played 17 seasons (all with the Dolphins) and he played in 242 games (240 starts) in which he completed 4,967 of 8,358 passes (59.4%) for 61,361 (#2 all-time) with 420 TD passes (#2 all-time) and 252 interceptions (86.4 QB Rating).  He also carried the ball 301 times for 87 yards (0.3 ypc) with 9 TD runs.  Marino was elected into Pro Football’s Hall of Fame in 2005.  Marino played in 9 Pro Bowls in his career and he compiled a 147-93 (61.3%) as the Dolphins’ starting QB.  His records might be starting to fall, but Dan Marino was one of the 5-10 best QBs in NFL history.

67-year old manager Tony LaRussa has gone out on top after deciding to retire after winning the World Series for the third time in his career in 2011.  LaRussa retires as the #3 manager in wins with 2,728 of them.  He is only behind Connie Mack (3,731) and John McGraw (2,763) in career wins.  Tony LaRussa managed 33 years in the major leagues and he compiled a 2,728 - 2,365 (53.6%) record during the regular season.  He was also 70-58 (54.7%) in the post-season in his career as he won 6 pennants and 3 World Series.  His World Series wins game in 1989 with the Oakland A’s and in 2006 and 2011 with the St. Louis Cardinals.  LaRussa will be inducted into the Hall of Fame, five years from now.

45-year old knuckleballer Tim Wakefield has been around forever.  He just won his 200th career game earlier this week against the Blue Jays.  Wakefield has pitched in 31 games (21 starts) so far this year for the Red Sox and he is 7-6 with a 5.13 ERA and a 1.33 WHIP.  He has now pitched in 625 games (461 starts) in his first 19 years in the majors and he is 200-178 with 22 saves, a 4.41 ERA and a 1.35 WHIP.  Wakefield’s 200 wins has got him tied for 109th in major league history with Chuck Finley and George Uhle.  Wakefield has won 15 or more games four times in his career so far.  He only has made it to one All-Star team (2009) despite having all of those wins.  It will be interesting to see if the Red Sox bring him back for the 2012 season.

41-year old righty reliever Mariano Rivera became only the second player to ever get 600 saves last night against the Mariners.  He is going to set the new record for saves in major league history before this year is over as Trevor Hoffman had 601 of them.  Rivera is showing no signs of slowing down.  He has pitched in 59 games (0 starts) for the Yankees this year and he is 1-2 with 41 saves, a 2.05 ERA and a 0.93 WHIP.  Rivera has only given up 46 hits and an amazing 7 walks this year in his first 57 innings while whiffing 55 batters.  Those are eye popping numbers for a 41-year old pitcher with essentially one pitch (a cut fastball).  Rivera has now pitched in 1,037 games (10 starts) in his first 17 years in the majors and he is 75-57 with 600 saves, a 2.22 ERA and a 1.00 WHIP.  2011 is Rivera’s 8th season in which he has had at least 40 saves.  He is a 12-time All-Star in the American League.  Rivera has the 13th lowest ERA in Major League History (2.22) and he is also #3 in WHIP (1.00).  The Yankees have been to the playoffs 15 times in Rivera’s 17 years.  He has pitched in 94 games (0 starts) in the post season for the Yankees and he is 8-1 with 42 saves, a 0.71 ERA and a 0.77 WHIP.  Mariano Rivera is quite simply, the best relief pitcher in Major League History!

Cy Young was a righty starting pitcher who worked from 1890-1911.  Over his 22 year major league career, Young set some records that will never be touched.  He is the majors’ all time leader in games started (815), wins (511), losses (316), complete games (749), innings pitched (7,356) and hits allowed (7,092).  Cy Young won at least 20 games in a season an amazing 15 times and he won more than 30 games in a year five times.  Cy Young pitched in 906 games (815 starts) in his 22 years in the majors and he was 511-316 with 17 saves, a 2.63 ERA and a 1.13 WHIP.  Young was elected into Baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1937.  He is the measure by whom all pitchers are judged as the award for the best pitcher in each league is named after him…..the Cy Young Award.  Forget about the 56-game hitting streak of Joe DiMaggio or Ted Williams’ .406 batting average……no one will EVER touch Young’s all-time record of 511 wins.  To put it into perspective, 44-year old Tim Wakefield is the current leader of active players in wins and he has 194 of them.  34-year old righty Roy Halladay is #2 on the active wins list with 175.