Wojciechowski: And the greatest record is...

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In case you missed it, Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig, who's a teensy-weensy biased, said the baseball home run record is "the greatest record in American sports.''

Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. And how would it do if we added a few international entries? There's only one way to find out.

BILL WALSH BRACKET
PLAY-IN GAME: Jack Nicklaus' 18 major victories vs. Secretariat's 1973 Triple Crown. Winner: Nicklaus -- Secretariat covered the 1½ miles at Belmont in an ohmigod-that-can't-be-possible 2 minutes and 24 seconds. I've driven rental cars that don't go that fast. Twice A Prince, which finished "second," was 31 lengths behind. But Nicklaus' body of work edges Secretariat by a nose. Plus, you didn't need to brush Nicklaus down after a big win.
OPENING MATCHUPS	ROUND 2	ROUND 3	ROUND 4
Jack Nicklaus' 18 majors vs. Sadaharu Oh's 868 career home runs	Nicklaus beats Oh Oh retired when he was 40. Nicklaus was winning his 18th major (the 1986 Masters) when he was 46. And when he was 58, the Golden Bear tied for 6th at the 1998 Masters. Petty beats Nelson In a battle of twang royalty, The King edges out Lord Byron.	Petty beats Nicklaus Generally speaking, you can't die playing golf. Petty risked his life every time he strapped into a Plymouth, Dodge, Oldsmobile, Buick, etc. Tough call, but I'll take The King's record (7 Daytona 500 wins, 27 wins in 1967, 7-time Grand National/Winston Cup champion) over The Bear. Aaron beats Ripken I think even Ripken would vote for Aaron on this one.	Aaron beats Petty Nothing against the gearheads, but Aaron put the pedal to the medal on this matchup.
Richard Petty's 200 NASCAR wins vs. Byron Nelson's 11 consecutive PGA Tour victories
Henry Aaron's 755 vs. Barry Bonds' 757	Aaron beats Bonds Integrity always beats asterisks. Ripken beats Armstrong Iron Lungs vs. Iron Man. Ripken's longevity and career numbers allow him to advance to the next round.
Lance Armstrong's seven consecutive Tour de France wins vs. Cal Ripken's consecutive games played streak of 2,632

JACKIE ROBINSON BRACKET
PLAY-IN GAME: Tiger Slam vs. Jones Slam. Winner: Bobby Jones -- Jones advances because he basically invented the Grand Slam and, in a tiebreaking distinction, won all four majors in the same calendar year. Figuring out a winner in this matchup was like splitting grass blades.
OPENING MATCHUPS	SECOND ROUND	THIRD ROUND	FOURTH ROUND
Bobby Jones' Grand Slam vs. Ty Cobb's .366 career batting average	Cobb beats Jones Two Georgians who both wore spikes go at it. Cobb wins because nobody, absolutely nobody, is going to do what Cobb did: play 24 seasons and finish with a .366 average. Powell beats Lewis Our first true upset. Those nine golds are almost impossible to ignore, but Powell broke a record (set by Bob Beamon at the Mexico City Olympics) that had stood for 23 years -- and he broke it by two inches. And I swear I'm not penalizing Lewis for his rendition of the national anthem.	Cobb beats Powell Cobb could make Barry Bonds look like an absolute sweetheart, but the man could hit. Maravich beats Ryan Maravich is the NCAA career leader in Division I scoring -- and he played only 83 games at LSU. That's the lowest game total of any of the all-time NCAA career leaders (Larry Bird, for example, played 94 games). Notre Dame's Austin Carr is second on the all-time scoring average list, but he's almost a full 10 points behind.	Cobb beats Maravich Sorry, Pete. Cobb was the all-time leader in hits (until Pete Rose passed him) and his batting average is eight points higher than No. 2 Rogers Hornsby.
Mike Powell's long jump of 29-4½ vs. Carl Lewis' nine Olympic gold medals
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's 38,387 career points vs. Nolan Ryan's 5,714 strikeouts	Ryan beats Abdul-Jabbar Skyhook or K? I go with Ryan's K's because he was still bringing the blue-flame heat at age 40 and beyond. And nobody is even close to him in career strikeouts. Maravich beats Gable First of all, I know Cael Sanderson finished his extraordinary NCAA career with a 159-0 record and four individual championships, and he also won an Olympic gold medal. But Gable helped put college wrestling on the map, won a gold medal at the 1972 Olympics and later coached Iowa to nine consecutive NCAA titles, 15 in all. And still, it's not good enough to sneak by the amazing Maravich.
Pete Maravich's career NCAA scoring average of 44.2 points vs. Wrestler Dan Gable's 118-1 NCAA career record

MUHAMMAD ALI BRACKET
PLAY-IN GAME: Red Auerbach's nine NBA titles vs. Scotty Bowman's nine Stanley Cups. Winner: Auerbach -- Tough draw for Bowman. Yeah, he's the all-time winningest NHL coach. And he has those nine Stanley Cups. But Auerbach's victory cigars are the difference.
OPENING MATCHUPS	SECOND ROUND	THIRD ROUND	FOURTH ROUND
Bill Russell's 11 NBA titles in 13 seasons vs. Nolan Ryan's seven no-hitters	Russell beats Ryan The Ryan Express can't do much about the Russell express. Nobody has more no-no's than Ryan, but Russell's championship run is too incredible to ignore. Russell has those 11 titles, including two as a player-coach for the Boston Celtics. And just as a reminder, Russell was the first African-American head coach in the NBA as well as the first in all of major professional sports. Wooden beats Auerbach Auerbach won eight consecutive NBA championships, while Wooden won seven NCAA titles in a row. Since then, Phil Jackson has won as many as three NBA titles in a row three different times. But no NCAA coach has more than two consecutive titles since Wooden's reign, which, by the way, included four undefeated teams.	Russell beats Wooden Flip-a-coin time. Wooden has those 10 championships and 88 consecutive victories. Russell has those 11 titles as a player and/or player-coach. Tiebreaker goes to Russell. Brown beats Rice Rice and Brown are on the short list of Greatest Players in NFL History. The truth is, you can't make a wrong decision between these two. But I'm going with Brown because he almost single-handedly redefined the running back position. Nobody has won more rushing titles (eight) than Brown. Defensive players ran away from Brown.	Russell beats Brown If Brown had played just a little longer (he retired still in his prime after the 1965 season, having just won his eighth rushing title in nine years), who knows if the record book would have ever recovered. But Russell advances because of his longevity, his level of excellence, his championships and his coaching responsibilities.
John Wooden's 10 NCAA championships vs. Auerbach's nine NBA titles
Jerry Rice's 208 career touchdowns vs. University of Oklahoma's 47-game football win streak	Rice beats Oklahoma The Sooners didn't lose a game forever, but Rice's numbers are even more eye-popping. He's the all-time NFL leader in TDs, receptions, receiving yards and bad dancing. Brown beats Marciano Marciano is the only heavyweight champion to retire without a loss, but, c'mon, Brown put up obscene numbers in just nine seasons.
Rocky Marciano's 49-0 career boxing record vs. Jim Brown's 12,312 rushing yards and 126 touchdowns

STEVE BARTMAN BRACKET
PLAY-IN GAME: Michael Schumacher's Formula One record of 91 victories as well as seven championships and 154 podium finishes vs. Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak. Winner: DiMaggio -- Where have you gone, Michael Schumacher? Just doesn't have the same ring to it, does it? DiMaggio's streak has stood since 1941, and will stay that way.
OPENING MATCHUPS	SECOND ROUND	THIRD ROUND	FOURTH ROUND
DiMaggio's 56 vs. Wayne Gretzky's 2,857 career points	Gretzky beats DiMaggio You can build an ice rink in the space between The Great One's points total and everyone else. DiMaggio's streak is iconoclastic, but Gretzky's totals can't be ignored. Jordan beats Moses MJ led the league in scoring 10 times and is tied with Wilt Chamberlain in career scoring average. Those points helped produce six NBA titles. And Jordan has just as many Olympic gold medals as Moses: two.	Gretzky beats Jordan Jordan was the NBA's Gretzky, and Gretzky was the NHL's Jordan. It's almost impossible to separate their accomplishments. Jordan isn't going to like it, but Gretzky moves forward because his résumé, relatively speaking, is slightly more impressive. Of course, this is like saying Lincoln's face on Mount Rushmore is slightly more impressive than Washington's. Young beats Graf Graf is arguably the greatest female tennis player of all time (all those in favor of Martina Navratilova, you are duly noted). But Young could have won almost 100 fewer games and he'd still be the all-time MLB leader in career wins.	Gretzky beats Young First of all, Young is dead, so I don't think he's going to care who reaches our Records Final Four. And second, Gretzky left the game with 61 NHL records. Works for me.
Edwin Moses' 122 consecutive victories in the 400-meter hurdles vs. Michael Jordan's career 30.1 scoring average
Pete Sampras' 14 Grand Slam singles titles vs. Steffi Graf's 22 Grand Slam singles titles	Graf beats Sampras Graf's career record overshadows even the great Sampras. It is ridiculously impressive: 377 weeks as the No. 1 ranked player, at least four singles championships in each of the four Grand Slam events, 107 singles titles in all. Young beats Rose One day somebody is going to play long enough to break Rose's record. Nobody is going to break Young's mark. Put it this way: Roger Clemens would have to win 159 more games to tie Young.
Cy Young's 511 career victories vs. Pete Rose's 4,256 career hits

FINAL FOUR
MATCHUPS	SEMIFINAL WINNERS	WINNER
Aaron's 755 home runs vs. Cobb's .366 career batting average	Aaron beats Cobb Cobb wouldn't have won any Humanitarian of the Year awards, but he did hit better than .400 three different times, he led the American League in stolen bases six times, and there are those 4,191 career hits. But Aaron reaches the championship bracket not only because of what he accomplished (those dingers, 24 All-Star Game appearances, all-time leader in RBIs and total bases, MVP) but also because of what he endured. Russell beats Gretzky There's no comparison on titles. Russell won 11, Gretzky four. The Great One retired with almost every conceivable scoring record (points, goals, assists) and his impact on the league was a seismic event. But Russell was the human championship machine -- NCAA titles, Olympic gold medal, NBA titles. He was a basketball defensive savant, a rebounder with few peers and a man willing to become a head coach in a city (Boston) and during a time (the 1960s) when white America resisted such things.	Aaron beats Russell Can't we just call it a tie? As it is, this one goes into triple overtime. Aaron ... Russell. Russell ... Aaron. In the end, Bud Selig was right: Aaron's record endures. Aaron and Russell were athletic and social pioneers, and both men were subjected to unspeakable doses of racism. And yet they redefined their sports, and they did it not only with numbers such as 755 but also with dignity and talent that transcends generations.
Russell's 11 NBA titles vs. Gretzky's 2,857 career points

Tournament notes
• Last ones in: Schumacher, Scotty Bowman, Tiger Slam

• Last ones out: Rickey Henderson's 1,406 stolen bases, Muhammad Ali's bouts with Joe Frazier, Dan Marino's 61,361 career passing yards, Roger Federer's 11 Grand Slam singles titles, Josh Gibson's estimated 800 home runs, Henri Richard's 11 championships, Bobby Bowden's 366 career victories, the University of North Carolina women's soccer team and its streak of 103 games without a loss, Wilt Chamberlain's single-season scoring record, Phil Hellmuth Jr., three-time Westminster Kennel Club Best in Show winner Warren Remedy (a fox terrier), thoroughbred trainer Woody Stephens' five consecutive Belmont victories, John Gagliardi and Eddie Robinson career victories, Brett Favre's 257 straight starts (including playoffs).

Gene Wojciechowski is the senior national columnist for ESPN.com. You can contact him at gene.wojciechowski@espn3.com.

Source: ESPN.com