Monday, April 25, 2011
MLB Trivia: Stealth streaks
Every baseball fan seems to know about Joe DiMaggio's record-setting 56-game hitting streak. However, the all-time record for reaching base in consecutive games was set by Ted Williams in 1949 when he reached base in 84 straight games. Among currently active players, three of them have reached base in more than 56 consecutive games in a single season. Can you name those three players? (Hint: Derek Jeter has reached base in more than 56 consecutive games a few times, but never in a single season.)
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4 comments:
Castillo had a pretty long hit streak, so he'd be one of my guesses.
I think that Pujols had a long hit streak, and he walks a bunch, so there's another guess.
Last guess? We'll go with Joe Mauer.
Wow. I just looked up the answer. One of the choices is out of nowhere (along the lines of Castillo). The other two make much more sense.
Haha. Yeah, one of the three would be pretty tough to guess. He also happens to have the longest streak of the three. Although, if I'm giving a hint to other people, this guy has been on multiple playoff teams (different franchises), and he's got a reputation for not being a good clubhouse guy. Whatever that means.
So here are the three active players who have had single-season on-base streaks of at least 56 games:
1) Orlando Cabrera (63)
2) Joey Votto (57)
3) Johnny Damon (57)
I got this answer from a Joe Posnanski column in Sports Illustrated. Here's an excerpt:
Orlando Cabrera’s 63-game on-base streak in 2006 is the longest of the last 20 years and the most unlikely, since Cabrera’s lifetime on-base percentage is .320. DURING THE STREAK his on-base percentage was only .372. But it was uncanny. Look: The streak lasted from April 25 to July 6.
April 25-30: 5-game hitting streak
May 1: Walk
May 2-5: 4-game hitting streak
May 6: Two walks
May 7-13: 6-game hitting streak
May 14: Walk
May 16: Three hits
May 17: Walk
May 18-31: 12-game hitting streak
June 2: Two walks
June 3-9: 6-game hitting streak
June 10: Walk
June 11-13: 3-game hitting streak, all multiple hits
June 14: Walk
June 15-16: 2-game hitting streak
June 17: Walk
June 19: Walk
June 20-28: 8-game hitting streak
June 30: Hit by pitch
July 1: Walk
July 2-6: 5-game hitting streak
And there you go — 63 straight games of reaching base. I don’t remember hearing a word about it.
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