Today in sports history

Twenty-five years ago today, Wayne Gretzky of the Edmonton Oilers set an NHL All-Star Game record by scoring four goals in one period, leading the Campbell Conference to a 9-3 win over the Wales Conference. So he scored more goals in one period than the other team did the whole game.

Gretzky, just 22 at the time, was already in his fifth NHL season, and was already considered the sport's best player. I'm not sure whether he was "The Great One" yet, but he had already made a mockery of some long-standing NHL records. He broke the league's record for scoring in just his second season, 1980-81, at age 19, with 164 points. He then went on to break his own record the following year, with 212. The previous record was 152; he topped it by 60.

That's Babe Ruth territory. Ruth first broke the home run record by hitting 29 in 1919, and the next year, he hit 54. Ruth would go on to break his own record two more times; Gretzky would break his own record one more time. Both men would spend a decade or so dominating the sport as no one ever had before. Gretzky won four Stanley Cups; Ruth won seven World Series (including three in the 19-teens with the Red Sox, when he was a pitcher).

As everybody knows, Gretzky would go on to be the all-time leader in all the major scoring categories, and is almost universally considered the greatest player ever to lace up the skates. It's too bad Cleveland never had a hockey team during his career, because he would have been fun to see in person.