Streaks
Photo credit to Associated Press.
July 27, 1978. I climbed into my AMC Gremlin dressed in a District 18 Knothole Umpire shirt and unaware that this might be the most intimidating night of my life. I drove the short mile from my home to Haubner Field in Cincinnati ready to umpire a 6:00 p.m. game. With my balls-strikes-outs indicator in my pocket and home plate umpire mask in hand, I arrived at the park around 5:30 p.m. There was a buzz in the air; Pete Rose Jr. would be playing in this game. His famous Dad, Pete Rose, was in the midst of a consecutive games with a hit streak that had reached 39 games the night before. He was gunning to break Joe DiMaggio’s best all-time 56-game streak set in 1941.
In the second inning of this little league game Pete Rose arrived to see his son play. The Reds had a scheduled day off. Word soon got out in the surrounding neighborhoods. By the fourth inning or so, there were hundreds of fans in the park hoping for a chance to get Rose’s autograph. It reminded me of Rocky’s run through the streets of Philadelphia in the first “Rocky” as more and more fans flocked to the park. The visiting team manager asked me if Pete could sit in the dugout so that he could enjoy the game. I nodded my approval. I don’t remember much about the game other than concentrating on every call for the fear I’d blow one. And sometime late in the game I called Pete Rose, Jr. out on a third strike. I never looked over to the dugout after that call, and Pete Rose’s streak would end the next week at 44 games. Perhaps the events were related.
In the first couple weeks of this 2022 season, we witnessed a streak that may not go into the record books but may be very significant. Steven Kwan, rookie outfielder for the new Cleveland Guardians, went 128 consecutive pitches at the plate without swinging and missing. In 42 of those pitches he swung the bat and either put the ball in play or fouled off the pitch. In today’s game where way too many at bats result in strikeouts or walks, seeing a new age contact hitter is certainly refreshing. Guardians manager Terry Franconi has deemed Kwan the prototypical old school #2 hitter in the batting order. In his rise through the Cleveland minor league system Kwan’s propensity to be a contact hitter has been apparent with a 3.3% swinging strike rate. He is baseball’s new singles hitter, reminiscent of Pete Rose. Kwan’s style of exciting play might bring more fans to the game.
Many streaks in baseball are indeed for the record books, and a handful of them may never be broken. No hitter since Rose has even approached the mark set by Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees. DiMaggio, nicknamed the “Yankee Clipper”, played centerfield for New York for the entirety of his 13-year career. He was a three-time American League MVP and an All-Star in all thirteen seasons. DiMaggio led the Yankees to ten AL pennants and nine World Series championships! In baseball’s centennial year of 1969, he was voted baseball’s greatest living player. Despite all of the championships and awards, Joe will always be synonymous with one number – 56! Getting a hit in 56 straight games from May 15 through July 16 in 1941 seems unreachable in today’s game of swing and miss.
Just one world championship, in 1988, brings fame to a Dodgers pitcher, Orel Hershiser. Beginning August 30 of that season, Hershiser pitched a record 59 consecutive, scoreless innings, just surpassing another LA hurler, Don Drysdale, with his 58 2/3 innings in 1968. The Hershiser streak carried the Dodgers into the 1988 playoffs and beyond, as Hershiser captured the World Series and NLCS MVP awards, as well as the Cy Young, the only player to have swept all through three accolades in the same season. He also garnered an NL Gold Glove that year. Throughout his 18 years on the mound Hershiser was famous for taking the ball every fifth day and keeping his team in the game. Although he won just 204 games overall in his career, his tenacity was portrayed in his nickname, “Bulldog”.
No one’s career in baseball will ever compare to the longetivity of another great nickname in the sport, the “Iron Man”, Cal Ripken, Jr. Ripken played 21 seasons for his beloved Baltimore Orioles, a two-time AL MVP and 19-time All-Star. Ripken was the first real offensive shortstop the game had seen, compiling 3,184 hits, 431 HRs, and 1,695 RBIs in his career. When he debuted with the Orioles in 1981, who could fathom his reaching the ultimate number, 2,130, the number of consecutive games played by Yankee great, Lou Gehrig. But Ripken reached that goal, and surpassed it, playing in 2,632 consecutive games. It’s also difficult to imagine that 2,632 will ever be reached. To put it in perspective, Whit Merrifield of the Kansas City Royals holds the current streak at 481 games.
After Steven Kwan’s streak ended with a swing and miss two weeks ago, he told FOX Sports: “I remember when I was younger, every time I struck out, I would want to cry. So I think I just told myself, ‘I don’t like to cry, so I just won’t strike out.’” When I called Pete Rose Jr. out on strikes that summer night in 1978, I don’t recall him crying, but I do remember my own sadness when his Dad’s streak ended the next week. Streaks in baseball are so memorable, whether for the record books or not.
Until next Monday,
your Baseball Bench Coach