start or finish?

I heard today someone talking about Tiger Woods and they mentioned that he is off to the best 10 year start of any athlete in the history of sports. I'm not disputing that, but a 10 year start? Am I wrong to think that in sports your rookie year is your start, your last year is your finish, and everything in between in the middle? I hate subjective stats.

BTW, how about the Pirates' 42-70 "start".......