Record will be tough to beat

Records are set to be broken.
Some, however, never will be surpassed.
In Major League Baseball there are a number of records that are said to be impossible to break.
•Cal Ripken Jr.’s record of consecutive games played of 2,632.
•Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak.
•Ricky Henderson’s total of 1,406 stolen bases.
•Nolan Ryan’s 5,714 career strikeouts.
•Pete Rose’s 4,256 career hits.
Those, among many other obscure feats, may never be touched again.
The same is true for a Fort Recovery High School record that was set earlier this week.
Senior pitcher Jackson Hobbs set the school record Monday with his 27th career victory, a 7-2 win over Midwest Athletic Conference rival Versailles Tigers.
Hobbs and the Indians (15-6, 5-2 MAC) won in typical Fort Recovery fashion.
The righty dazzled on the mound, commanding all three of his pitches to keep the Tigers guessing as to what was coming next. Hobbs — he’s never been much of a strikeout pitcher — fanned eight batters, and was aided by a solid defense behind him.
Jacob Homan made a couple diving plays at shortstop. His throws to first base may not have been in time, but his efforts were enough to halt any chances for Versailles to grab extra bases.
Sophomore transfer Nick Thwaits tracked down a deep fly ball at the warning track, and the middle of the Fort Recovery infield turned a key double play to preserve a shutout.
But during the seventh inning, Hobbs was running out of gas. After recording two quick outs, he allowed his only two walks of the game, leading to the Tigers scoring twice. But a groundout gave the teenager with uniform No. 11 career victory No. 27, moving him ahead of the 26 wins by Dale “Whitey” Bruns, a 1955 FRHS graduate.
“When I walked in the door my freshman year I thought there was no chance I was going to break it,” Hobbs said. “For one, we weren’t very good when I was a freshman. Two, Dale “Whitey” Bruns pitched every single game when he was in high school.
“To break that record and to be up there with some great names like him, it is just awesome.”
Jackson Hobbs. Dale Bruns. Greg Snyder. Dick Walls. Jerry Obringer.
Those are the career wins leaders.
Some of those names are from generations ago, an era before pitch counts and before concerns of ligament damage. It was a time during which teams had a single pitcher who handled all the duties on the mound, sometimes more than seven complete innings, and occasionally more than one game in a day.
That in and of itself makes Hobbs’ feat nearly insurmountable — the fact he was able to win 27 games in less than four full seasons without pitching every day.
Hobbs is 4-2 this season, and tied Bruns with 11 wins last year. He had nine wins his sophomore season and three as a freshman. While his junior year stands out as his best in terms of win total, what he was able to do the year before is more impressive.
He tore his ACL in his right knee during football season as a sophomore. Less than six months later, he was back on the mound pitching for the Indians. He had a brace on his knee — the leg he uses to push off the mound, a key component to any pitcher gaining power toward the plate — and had to alter his pitching.
Instead of using his full body behind each pitch, his strides were short and less powerful. He pitched with all upper body. He wasn’t the type of kid to light up radar guns, but he worked on making his offspeed stuff — his curveball and changeup — as nasty as they could be.
“I was 225 pounds,” Hobbs said, looking back at his sophomore year. He his since gotten back below 200 pounds and is at 195. “It was rough. I thought that was our year.”
“He suffered an ACL tear and did not miss a season of baseball,” said FRHS coach Jerry Kaup, who laughed at the thought of what Hobbs had to go through that season. “High fives to that.”
Then with a clean bill of health as a junior, Hobbs pitched the Indians to district and regional championships, a place they hadn’t been since the Bruns era of the 1950s.
“Last year was a great year,” Hobbs said. “I was a little bit healthier then but this year I feel great.”
Hobbs has been an integral part of the turnaround for the Indians, who in 2011 had just two wins. Four years later they were two wins away from a state championship.
“He’s been a big part of the growth and the process,” Kaup said. “He’s given us the mindset that when he takes the mound we have a chance.
“The thing that makes a difference in this program is the ability to give us the mental confidence we can play this game. I think that’s huge of what he’s done (for the program).”
Bruns won 26 games pitching 231 1/3 innings. Hobbs has 27 wins in 212 2/3 innings.
Thing is, Hobbs isn’t done yet. The Indians, who are ranked ninth in Division VI and earned the top seed in the district tournament, have four regular season games remaining. They travel to St. Henry at 5 p.m. tonight and Fort Loramie at 5 p.m. Friday before hosting Marion Local on Tuesday and St. Mary’s on May 12.
And with the postseason tournament beginning Wednesday, Hobbs very well could reach 30 career victories.
Records. They’re meant to be broken.
Hobbs may never be passed.