ESPN.com columnist Gene Wojciechowski wrote a column about what is the greatest record in all of sports. It's an interesting take, considering Barry Bonds just broke Hank Aaron's home run record.

Gene lists 32 records in bracket form, and matches them up. Such as Cal Ripken Jr's consecutive game streak vs. Lance Armstrong's seven consecutive Tour de France victories. (Ripken won for some reason).

Gene used some bizarre logic to announce who won each round. It wound up being more of who was the greatest athlete of all time, instead of the actual greatest record. For example, he rationalized that Hank Aaron's home run record is greater than Barry Bond's home run record, because "integrity always beats asterisks." Fair enough. But then he turns around and announces that Jim Brown's career rushing records of yardage and touchdowns was greater than Rocky Marciano's 49-0 record. Huh? Nine years of playing football trumps 8 years in the ring? Hmmmm.

What does this have to do with hockey? Well, he lists Wayne Gretzky's career mark of 2,857 points better than DiMaggio's 56-game hit streak, Jordan's career's scoring average and Cy Young's 511 career victories. Every single decision came down to the fact that Gretzky owned 61 NHL records at the time of his retirement. A bizarre way to look at it, but whatever.

So No. 99 made it to the "final four", along with Hank Aaron's home run record, Bill Russell's 11 NBA titles and Ty Cobb's career batting .366 average. How he came to the majority of these decisions is beyond me. And the thing that gets me is Gretzky lost to Russell! Gretzky's mark is a personal achievement, whereas Russell's is a team achievement. Apples to oranges, if you ask me. And the end result? Aaron beats Russell. Go figure.

If I had the patience or the desire, I'd draw up my own "final four" and back it up with facts. But why let the facts get in the way of a good story? Gene's approach was too broad. I'll narrow it down, focusing on one aspect from each of the Big Four: sheer numbers. This puts Gretzky's career points with Jerry Rice's career touchdowns, Kareem Abdul Jabbar's career points, and Barry Bond's home run record. Gretzky would sweep any matchup scenario I could come up with. Why? Because compared to the other players, Gretzky made his team better. How's that for logic?