Here are seven records across the four major American professional sports that are close to being broken. By Pat Devlin

There’s an old saying that records are made to be broken. The great thing about sports is that records can come in all shapes and sizes, positive or negative, obvious and obscure. Sometimes it’s the players we know the best that hold the records because they’ve played for so long, and sometimes it can be a guy we’ve only heard about because he holds a record. When career records are broken, sometimes we can see it coming, and sometimes it sneaks up on us. Here are some of the career records in pro sports that have a chance to be broken in the near future…

If someone asked “Who is on the verge of breaking Gordie Howe’s record for all-time games played," and gave as a clue of “San Jose Sharks legend," that might not necessarily give away the answer. Some might say “Joe Thornton," who is actually ninth all-time. But it’s Thornton’s long-time teammate, Patrick Marleau, who currently sits fifth on the list. The 41-year-old Marleau has not missed a game since April of 2009 and, whenever the NHL starts its season again, Marleau will need to play in 45 games to pass the four greats in front of him on the all-time list. Of course, that’s assuming Jaromir Jagr (currently No. 3) will officially retire, not try a comeback, and beat Marleau there.

Alex Ovechkin has a chance to break Wayne Gretzky’s All-Time Goals record, but we’re probably still a handful of years away from that. He is much closer, however, to breaking another all-time record, with a good chance of doing it the next NHL season. Ovi’s 260 career power play goals rank him third on that list, behind Hall of Famers Dave Andreychuk (274) and Brett Hull (265). He has led the league in PP goals six times, and while he has slowed down a little bit, he has averaged 16 per season over the last three years. So, netting 15 by this time next year is certainly feasible.

Harvey Pollack, the Sixers' legendary stat man, is said to have “invented” many stats that are commonly known today, like assists and blocked shots. Some also credit Harvey with coming up with “Triple-double," double figures in three different categories. For years, the personification of the triple-double in the NBA was Oscar Robertson. The “Big O” recorded 181 in his career, which is recognized as the all-time record. For 55 years, he was the only man to average a triple-double for a season. Then Russell Westbrook did it not once, not twice, but thrice. Westbrook’s total currently stands at 146 for his career. Westbrook’s rebounds and assists dipped in his first season as a Rocket, as did his triple-doubles. But, now that the NBA seems set to play a 72-game schedule next season, 35 triple-doubles and a new record is attainable for Russ in the next year or two.

Baseball is a game built on numbers and records. Most fans grow up knowing how many home runs Hank Aaron hit and about Joe DiMaggio's hit streak. Problem is, with so many career records currently out of reach, it’s hard to find anyone close to breaking any. It’s probably unrealistic to think that Albert Pujols will get the 198 RBI to break Aaron’s all-time record any time soon. But there is one guy in the game who will almost certainly break a record next season, and when he does, chances are he’ll get booed if it’s announced. “Cowboy” Joe West needs to ump just 32 more games to pass Bill Klem and have the top spot to himself. The many fans that love to loathe him might say that being in the spotlight is right where Cowboy wants to be.

The great ones that are around a while will always have their names on all sorts of lists. And that’s the case for LeBron James. He’s still a few years away from overtaking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at the top of the scoring list and will make a run at a handful of other leaders. When you are in the playoffs and Finals as much as he is, you also have a chance at a number of post-season records. If the Lakers make the Finals to defend their title next season, that’s where King James could do the most damage on the record book.
He would need 118 points to pass Jerry West for most points in the Finals. He also needs 10 steals, 25 field goals and 118 field goal attempts to top all of those Finals lists. And of course, if the Lakers do repeat, it would give the franchise 18 titles, passing the Celtics for most in history. But the regular-season record he is most likely to break first is probably one that he doesn’t want – turnovers. James has exactly 100 turnovers less than all-time leader Karl Malone, meaning the Mailman will likely “give away” the top spot to James in the first half of next season.

Much like James, Tom Brady has been around long enough, and obviously has been successful enough, to be sitting at or near the top of a lot of lists. He already holds numerous records, especially when you include the postseason. He and Drew Brees will probably go back and forth on career TD passes until one of them finally retires. But the record that Brady could take for himself this year would be regular season games started in a career. Brady needs to take the first snap for the final seven Buccaneers games to pass Brett Favre on the all-time list. And while the NFL canceled the game this year, there will still be players honored with the Pro Bowl distinction. So, with a strong second half, TB12 could also be named to his record-breaking 15th (and first NFC) Pro Bowl team.

Think about return TDs and the Bears, and you probably think of Devin Hester. And while Hester holds the all-time punt return TD record, he “only” took 5 kickoffs to the house. But the current kick returner in Chicago, Cordarrelle Patterson, is on the doorstep of history. Five of his 7 career KO TDs came in his days with the Minnesota Vikings. If he can take two more the distance, Patterson would pass Josh Cribbs and Leon Washington for the top spot all-time.