DiMaggio's Record is Not Unbreakable

Atlanta Braves second baseman Dan Uggla saw his MLB season long 33-game hit streak ended on Sunday, mostly thanks to a stellar running catch by Chicago Cubs second baseman Darwin Barney. It was a very impressive streak, even more impressive than most because Uggla was hitting well below the Mendoza line before it began. Yes, Uggla hit in 33 straight, which is good enough for tied for 13^th all time, but amazingly it was still 23 more games away from tying Joe DiMaggio’s all time record of 56 consecutive games with a hit. That is the primary reason why many think that DiMaggio’s record is unbreakable. In fact, the next closest all time was Willie Keeler who hit in 45 straight games in 1897. That’s not even within 10 of DiMaggio. The closest player that I’ve ever seen come to DiMaggio’s record was Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins who got to within 18 games of the mark with a record that spanned from the end of the 2005 season to the very beginning of the 2006.

I’m not going to say that DiMaggio’s record is the most unbreakable record in sports, as some may, because it’s simply not and I do think that it can be approachable and possibly broken someday. Uggla put up a valiant effort and came up 23 games short, but I have hopes that one day someone will at least sniff DiMaggio’s mark a little closer and that would truly be must see TV.