511

The record number of baseball games Cy Young won in his storied career back in the day, widely considered an unbeatable feat. The modern saying goes, "Win 20 games for 20 seasons, and you'll still be 111 wins shy of Cy."

As of this post, Greg Maddux has 243 wins. Roger Clemens has 264. They have nine Cy Young Awards between them, but still aren't good for one Cy Young's worth of wins (though that will change in the near future).

Will anyone ever be able to break the 511 mark, ever? Most say "no". With good cause, too. If a starting pitcher stays healthy all season nowadays, he can start around 35 games. Suppose a supremely dominant pitcher on a team with a potent offense comes along and stays healthy all season. He can probably win...say, 27 games. Let's further say that he gets discovered early and starts pitching in the majors when he's 18. Let's go on to say that he pitches for a perennial power, never gets traded or decides to become a free agent, never gets injured or loses the power in his arm. He'll be able to break Cy's mark in under 19 seasons, when he'll be around 36. That is the only reasonable scenario in which 511 can be surpassed, and it requires a magnificent confluence. But it's still not quite impossible.

511 is also the position of "Alex Chilton" by The Replacements on CFNY's Top 1002 New Rock Songs of all-time.

And it deserves to be about 510 positions higher.

Akin to 911, 711 or 411, this three-digit phone number has been set up in the United State to allow people to gain access to information about transportation. Requested by the United States Department of Transportation and implemented by the Federal Communications Commission on July 21, 2000, 511 should help travelers make informed decision on what on routes and times to travel.

511 is one communication medium of the larger Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), which includes web sites, variable message signs and highway advisory radio. These systems are intended to give the traveler real time information on road conditions and highway incidents (such as construction, accidents or basically anything that impedes the flow of traffic).

Similar to 911, 511 is operated by State and local agencies and not the federal government. Also, there is no federal funding provided to implement or maintain information for 511. Because of this, the system is not yet in wide spread use, and may take 5 years (2005) to become commonplace.

Ideally, 511 systems will be computer driven (no live operators) with speech recognition, opposed to keying in commands by pressing a bottom on your phone. This is imperative to safety, as a lot of users will be calling from their cell phones while driving.

511 systems should be available to the public for free (excluding the taxes, of course). Although per-call fees are not prohibited, they are discouraged by the Feds. These systems have several benefits that are only effective if people use them and charging a per-call fee would be a great deterrent.

Sources:
http://www.itsa.org/
http://www.its.dot.gov/511/511.htm