1939 Playball Joe Dimaggio (minus halftone)

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

, a hitting streak is the number of consecutive official games in which a player appears and gets at least one

base hit In baseball statistics, a hit (denoted by H), also called a base hit, is credited to a batter when the batter safely reaches or passes first base after hitting the ball into fair territory with neither the benefit of an error nor a fielder's ch ...

. According to the

Official Baseball Rules The rules of baseball differ slightly from league to league, but in general share the same basic game play. Rules There are several major rules, which differ only slightly. The "Official Baseball Rules" govern all professional play in the Unite ...

, such a streak is not necessarily ended when a player has at least 1 plate appearance and no hits. A streak shall not be terminated if all official plate appearances result in a base on balls, hit by pitch, defensive interference or a sacrifice bunt. The streak shall terminate if the player has a

sacrifice fly In baseball, a sacrifice fly (sometimes abbreviated to sac fly) is defined by Rule 9.08(d): "Score a sacrifice fly when, before two are out, the batter hits a ball in flight handled by an outfielder or an infielder running in the outfield in fair o ...

and no hit.

Joe DiMaggio Joseph Paul DiMaggio (November 25, 1914 – March 8, 1999), nicknamed "Joltin' Joe", "The Yankee Clipper" and "Joe D.", was an American baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career in Major League Baseball for the New York Yank ...

holds the

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

record with a streak of 56 consecutive games in 1941 which began on May 15 and ended July 17. DiMaggio

hit Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization ...

.408 during his streak (91-for-223), with 15

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s and 55

runs batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the bat ...

Major League Baseball records

There have been 55 occurrences in

where a player had a hitting streak of at least 30 games. Multiple streaks in the same season have occurred in 1922 (

George Sisler George Harold Sisler (March 24, 1893 – March 26, 1973), nicknamed "Gorgeous George", was an American professional baseball first baseman and player-manager. From 1915 through 1930, he played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis B ...

and

Rogers Hornsby Rogers Hornsby Sr. (April 27, 1896 – January 5, 1963), nicknamed "The Rajah", was an American baseball infielder, manager, and coach who played 23 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played for the St. Louis Cardinals (1915–1926, 1933 ...

), 1987 (

Paul Molitor Paul Leo Molitor (born August 22, 1956), nicknamed "Molly" and "the Ignitor", is an American former Major League Baseball (MLB) player and former manager of the Minnesota Twins, who is in the Baseball Hall of Fame. During his 21-year baseball car ...

and

Benito Santiago Benito Santiago Rivera (born March 9, 1965), is a Puerto Rican former professional baseball player. He played as a catcher in Major League Baseball from 1986 to 2005, most prominently as a member of the San Diego Padres, with whom he was a fou ...

), 1997 (

Nomar Garciaparra Anthony Nomar Garciaparra (; born July 23, 1973) is an American retired Major League Baseball player and current SportsNet LA analyst. After playing parts of nine seasons as an All-Star shortstop for the Boston Red Sox, he played shortstop, third ...

and

Sandy Alomar Jr. Santos "Sandy" Alomar Velázquez Jr. (, ; born June 18, 1966) is a Puerto Rican former professional baseball player, coach, and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher between 1988 and 2007, most notably as a member of the Cleve ...

), 1999 (

Vladimir Guerrero Vladimir Alvino Guerrero Sr. (born February 9, 1975), nicknamed "Vlad the Impaler", is a Dominican former professional baseball player who spent 16 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a right fielder and designated hitter. He played for ...

and Luis Gonzalez), 2006 (

Chase Utley Chase Cameron Utley (born December 17, 1978), nicknamed "The Man" and "Silver Fox", is an American former professional baseball second baseman who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for 16 seasons, primarily for the Philadelphia Phillies. He ...

and

Willy Taveras Willy Taveras (born December 25, 1981) is a Dominican former professional baseball player. A center fielder, Taveras has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Houston Astros, Colorado Rockies, Cincinnati Reds, and Washington Nationals. Pr ...

), and 2011 (

Andre Ethier Andre Everett Ethier (; born April 10, 1982) is an American former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2006 to 2017 and is second all-time in post-season appearances as a Do ...

and

Dan Uggla Daniel Cooley Uggla (born March 11, 1980) is an American former professional baseball second baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Florida Marlins, Atlanta Braves, San Francisco Giants, and Washington Nationals. In 2010, Uggl ...

). In addition, 1924 included one whole streak (

Sam Rice Edgar Charles "Sam" Rice (February 20, 1890 – October 13, 1974) was an American pitcher and outfielder in Major League Baseball. Although Rice made his debut as a relief pitcher, he is best known as an outfielder. Playing for the Washington Se ...

) and the beginning of another (

). A similar event occurred in 2006 with two whole streaks ( Utley and Taveras) and the end of another (

Jimmy Rollins James Calvin Rollins (born November 27, 1978), nicknamed "J-Roll", is an American former professional baseball shortstop, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Phillies (–), Los Angeles Dodgers (), and Chicago White S ...

). Keeler's streak started in his final game of the 1896 season, and continued through the first 44 games of the 1897 season. Rollins ended the 2005 season with a 36-game streak and extended it through the first two games of the 2006 season. Sisler had a hit in the last game of 1924 and the first 34 games of 1925. Major League Baseball recognizes two hitting streak records: Longest hitting streak in one season, and longest hitting streak over multiple seasons (e.g. Rollins 2005–2006). Keeler's, Sisler's, and Rollins' streaks are listed as 44, 34, and 36 games when discussing ''single-season'' streaks, and 45, 35, and 38 games when discussing ''multiple-season'' streaks. This list omits

Denny Lyons Dennis Patrick Aloysius Lyons (March 12, 1866 – January 2, 1929) was an American Major League Baseball player. He played third base for the Providence Grays (1885), Philadelphia Athletics (1886–90), St. Louis Browns (1891), New York Gia ...

of the 1887

American Association American Association may refer to: Baseball * American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891 * American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997 * American Association of Profe ...

Philadelphia Athletics The Philadelphia Athletics were a Major League Baseball team that played in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954, when they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and became the Kansas City Athletics. Following another move in 1967, the team became the Oaklan ...

, who had a 52-game hitting streak. In

1887 Events January–March * January 11 – Louis Pasteur's anti-rabies treatment is defended in the Académie Nationale de Médecine, by Dr. Joseph Grancher. * January 20 ** The United States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Har ...

, the major leagues adopted a new rule which counted walks as hits, a rule which was dropped after that season. Lyons hit in 52 consecutive games that season, but his streak included two games (#22 and #44) in which his only "hits" were walks. In 1968, MLB ruled that walks in 1887 would not be counted as hits, so Lyons' streak was no longer recognized, though it still appears on some lists. In 2000 Major League Baseball reversed its 1968 decision, ruling that the statistics which were recognized in each year's official records should stand, even in cases where they were later proven incorrect. Paradoxically, the ruling affects only hit ''totals'' for the year; the batting champion for the year is not recognized as the all-time leader despite having the highest single-season average under the ruling, and Lyons' hitting streak is not recognized. Ty Cobb, Sam Rice, and George Sisler are the only players with multiple streaks of 30 games or longer. There have been 129 single-season streaks of 25 games or more. The lowest

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

ever recorded during a hitting streak of 25 games or more was .304 by Bruce Campbell in

1938 Events January * January 1 ** The Constitution of Estonia#Third Constitution (de facto 1938–1940, de jure 1938–1992), new constitution of Estonia enters into force, which many consider to be the ending of the Era of Silence and the a ...

. The highest was .486 during

Chuck Klein Charles Herbert Klein (October 7, 1904 – March 28, 1958), nicknamed the "Hoosier Hammer", was an American professional baseball outfielder. Klein played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Phillies (–, –, –), Chicago Cubs ...

's streak in

1930 Events January * January 15 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. This is the closest moon distance at in recent history, and the next one will be ...

. Joe DiMaggio hit .408 during his record-holding 56-game streak. In probability theory, every baseball game is a

Bernoulli trial In the theory of probability and statistics, a Bernoulli trial (or binomial trial) is a random experiment with exactly two possible outcomes, "success" and "failure", in which the probability of success is the same every time the experiment is c ...

in which a hitter either does or does not get a hit. DiMaggio's streak of 56 consecutive games with hits awaits an equal streak: "The probability is .0003 that a .350 hitter will have a hitting streak of at least 56 games in a season. If there are about 4 such seasons per year in the future, we would expect to see such a streak, assuming the Bernoulli trials model, every 1/(.0003 x 4) = 833 years."

Major League Baseball records by franchise

Only currently extant franchises are included on this list. Where a player had a significant streak while the team was in other than its current city, the records in these other cities are displayed. As above, for a multi-year streak, the single-season streak is shown in parentheses.

Minor League Baseball records

The longest streaks in the history of Minor League Baseball and other

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

leagues: DiMaggio set the Minor League record as a member of the San Francisco Seals. Unrecognized by Minor League Baseball is the 69 game hitting streak by Joe Wilhoit in 1919. Wilhoit was in the independent Western League at the time and his record is considered the all-time Professional Baseball record.

College Baseball records

College Softball records

References

External links

Major League Baseball hitting streaks at mlb.com
{{Major League Baseball records Baseball accomplishments Baseball terminology