sporting record

Baseball records have long provided benchmarks of individual achievements. No individual accomplishment possesses more drama for fans than the tally of home runs. Babe Ruth’s single-season record for home runs (60 in 1927) stood for 33 seasons until it was broken by…

…in modern times are called sports records. The gladiatorial games, however, like the Greek games before them, had a powerful religious dimension. The first Roman combats, in 264 bce, were probably derived from Etruscan funeral games in which mortal combat provided companions for the deceased. It was the idolatry of…