It ’s a simple rule ofbaseball fandometiquette : If ever an statement ensues , the person who name seven statistic down to the third decimal billet in support of his or her team win the day . Go involve any barkeep in Chicago , New York , St. Louis or Boston . It ’s genuine .
That ’s becausebaseballfans , no matter how much they might deny it , are number geeks at heart . Sure , the U.S. interior pastime has depth , psyche and history , but sportscaster need more than mushy notion to talk their way through a game that usually lasts upward of three hours [ beginning : MLB ] . So out occur the spreadsheets : RBIs , Hs , Rs , SOs , AVGs and many more .
But there ’s one thing that all the acronym in the humankind ca n’t shout down – triumph . If your team wins , it does n’t matter how many on - bases the other bozo get by to get after the seventh frame on alternate Wednesdays . And the only thing bigger than a win is an full streak of wins . take it a royal flush mitt in the humankind of mutant .
What ’s a stripe ? It ’s any consecutive telephone number of victories by a single team or actor . Note that we said victories . draw games do n’t count .
By all definitions , a streak signify dominance , because long stripe do n’t happen by accident . Sure , some of the win within a stripe may be chalked up to luck , but no team gets lucky 8 , 9 , 20 , 21 or 26 prison term in a row . That ’s just acquirement .
So permit ’s head out to the old clod game and search some of the game ’s biggest win bar – that mystical territory where baseball ’s soul , history and statistics converge .
5: Longest Winning Streak in Segregated Baseball
The fact that this distinction can even be made is a sad part of baseball chronicle , but it ’s a testament to the fun ’s longevity through U.S. history . Though some African - Americans played professionally in the former 1800s , segregation ram them out by 1900 [ germ : Negro Leagues Baseball Museum ] . Even whenJackie Robinsonbroke the coloring material roadblock in 1945 , it still took many years for Major League Baseball to fully integrate .
Compared to the ashen teams of the times , calamitous teams wreak in a much more fractious system . When they were coerce out of professional baseball in 1900 , the player organized teams that would hit the field almost any chance they got . This direct to multiple leagues , inconsistent , brusque - lived teams and wretched record book - keeping . Some clubs were found in big home city while others barnstormed from townspeople to town , playing for anyone who would pay to look on . And since winning streaks are based on formally sanctioned game , it ’s been very difficult to substantiate a top squad . Because of this , neither the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum nor the National Baseball Hall of Fame formally recognize a leader for winning streaks in the Negro Leagues . Yet .
How you determine a win bar for The Major League of this same era could have a lot to do with where you endure . If you ’re from New York , a winning streak probably mean how long your team went without a exit . That ’s because the 1916 New York Giants managed to put together 26 triumph in a row . Sort of . They in reality had 12 victory , one tie against the Pittsburgh Pirates and then 14 more victories [ origin : Baseball Almanac ] . The Giants were an arguably great squad that class , still regarded as one of the best ever . Earlier in the same time of year , they had a 17 - secret plan streak . But if you ’re a Chicago Cubs lover , that one tie in middle of the Giants ' run is a period of great contention . That ’s because the 1935 Cubs had 21 unbent victories . Nothing but Ws .
4: Longest Winning Streak of the Modern Era
The 2002 time of year commence pretty bleakly for the Oakland A ’s , as anyone who ’s seen the plastic film " Moneyball " eff .
During the offseason the golf club lost outfielder Johnny Damon , pitcherJason Isringhausen and first baseman Jason Giambi to free representation . Basically , most of the cardinal players who had taken the A ’s to the playoffs had just left for better paychecks , leaving wide statistical holes in crime and defense . And the franchise could n’t declare oneself much budget to practice as backfill . It ’s a classic problem feel by smaller - market teams across the U.S. : The big - budget team snap up all the good players .
To work their job , general handler Billy Beane and his help Paul DePodesta mined the data of the league ’s garbage heap to identify some of the most affordable and overlooked thespian . While it was a key strategy to the team ’s success that year , you could contend that the squad already had a ripe base of players in place , making its return to the playoffs not such a surprise [ source : Corcoran ] .
Either way , winning 20 games in a quarrel is no accident . initiate at biz 120 of their time of year , the A ’s form their way of life through the Blue Jays , Whitesox , Indians , Tigers , Royals and the Twins [ germ : Baseball Almanac ] . That ’s when the baseball squad , fans and pundits jump take Beane and DePodesta ’s experiment very seriously . Without that streak and their subsequent trip to their conference playoffs , their strategy might have been compose off .
Some say they reinvent the secret plan . Others say they reinvent the biz for teams with smaller budgets by creating a blueprint for making the most of what they have . It should be said that they also change the game for every fan who ever won abaseballargument by boring their opposite into submission with a wall of statistical minutia . You ca n’t debate with the numbers , and for the A ’s , that number is 20 .
3: Longest Pitching Streak
Call it the defensive offense : Besides thepitcher , no other single position on thebaseballteam aim to memorialise wins in their stat cards . To count as a bar , the win have to be consecutive for that pitcherful , but they do n’t have to be played all in a row .
You need to dig very late in the file cabinet of baseball statistics to find the longest pitcher ’s single - time of year win run of Major League history – more than 100 age , to Richard " Rube " Marquard ’s 1912 time of year . Looking at his stat circuit card and his professional story , Marquard was one of those players who could seem extremely average at times and invincible at others . Having play semiprofessional for a manufactory team as a teenager , he move up to the fry , where he rule for two seasons directly , earning 23 wins his first yr and 28 the next [ source : Mansch ] .
With numbers like that , Marquard draw the aid of Major League teams , and by 1908 , he had received the unheard - of offer of $ 11,000 - – between $ 250,000 and $ 300,000 by 2012 touchstone . sport writers hailed him as the next prevalent force-out in New York City baseball , calling him the " $ 11,000 Peach . " But his first head trip to the hill was a disappointment . Soon he was being call the " $ 11,000 Lemon . " In 1909 , his win - red ink record read 5 - 13 , and the next year it charge out at 4 - 4 [ source : Baseball Reference ] .
With the help of a new assistant coach , he discover his terms during the 1911 time of year . His game record that season leapt to 24 - 7 . In 1912 , he rose to 26 - 11 , include the 19 - plot come through bar that cement his place in baseball ’s phonograph recording books . The streak commence at the beginning of the time of year and had him beat every team in his league . It almost ended at the thirteenth game when the Cubs came closely to gain . Marquard was relieved in the eighth inning , the Giants rallied back into the hint and the triumph was attributed Marquard . It was a airless call that foreshadowed which squad would end his streak six game subsequently – the Cubs .
2: Longest World Series Winning Streak
Alright Yankees lover , this is where your team shines , but you already knew it , did n’t you ? Not only do the Yanks have by far the most World Series winnings of any team since the serial began in 1903 , but also the long streak of World Series victory , too .
The Yankees ' five - year - long record - setting streak occurred during the season spanning 1949 - 53 . The next closest squad is the Oakland Athletics , which cash in one’s chips three straight from 1972 - 74 [ source : MLB.com ] . The roster of this era learn like the Super Friends of mid - century probaseball , with names like Yogi Berra , Phil Rizzuto , Joe Collins , Billy Martin , Joe DiMaggio and Whitey Ford .
As for longest winning streaks during a single playoff season , this is the band of stats that Boston Red Sox fan just wo n’t let Yankees fans forget . Not only did the 2004 Red Sox stage the longest win stripe of any playoff season , it also was one of the big comebacks in World Series history , too .
The story depart like this : The Yankees had the Sox down three games to zero in a seven - game American League serial . Game three had been a 19 - to-8 obliteration . The Yankees ' sweeping advance to the World Series seemed foregone . But in the fourth game , the Red Sox carry on for 12 innings through the longest game of an American League Championship Series ( it lasted more than five hr ) for a 6 - 4 victory [ origin : Feinsand ] . In the next game , the Red Sox battled back to wed the game in recent innings , which run to another record rill time ( 5:49 over 14 inning ) and another win . Momentum had clearly swung in Boston ’s favor as the club appoint through two more games to pull ahead its conference . Boston followed up by cross the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals . The team correct the streak track record at eight wins and became the first club to come back and win the World Series after being down 3 - 0 in League Championship period of play .
1: International Streaks
Baseball may have started in North America , but over the last century , it has gone orbicular . As evidence of the sport ’s outside popularity , we had the Baseball World Cup , which jump in 1938 to bringbaseball - play countriestogether under a single tourney . organize by the International Baseball Federation ( IBAF ) and hosted by a dissimilar country every four ( and later two ) year , the World Cup sport unskilled player until late [ source : IBAF ] .
So which country has the longest winning streak in the tourney ? Not the United States . in reality , it ’s Cuba . Baseballis huge throughout Asia , the Caribbean island , Central America , South America and even sure European country , but it ’s just as pop in Cuba as in the States , and Cuba has the wins to show for it . Of the 39 World Cup serial played over the years , Cuba took home the gold 25 times . The nation took nine straight trophies between 1984 and 2005 , beating out teams from the United States , South Korea , Chinese Taipei , Nicaragua and Panama in the finals . Cuba so dominated the competition that it really holds title to the top three winning streaks ( 9 , 5 and 3 uncoiled wins ) [ germ : Baseball Reference ] .
Midway through Cuba ’s nine - game sovereignty , the World Cup opened up to allow professional histrion to compete . During the 2000s , the World Cup ’s agenda change , invest the serial at the same time as spring breeding and allowing American big leaguers the opportunity to represent their land . With players like Barry Bonds , Mark McGwire , Alex Rodriguez and many others on the roster , the U.S. team scramble Cuba in 2007 and 2009 to win the statute title [ rootage : Baseball Reference ] . The final World Cup was played in 2011 and was come through by the Dutch team .
Today , the IBAF operates the World Baseball Classic , which is coordinated with Major League Baseball and professional baseball association in various countries . Japan won the first two classic in 2006 and 2009 , get for a mini streak of its own !
Lots More Information
My son was only a few months old when the Red Sox made their historic World Series comeback . And he was right there in my arms , sucking on his bottle of rule , as we watched secret plan seven against the Yankees in 2004 together . To be honest , I had never been a Sox lover before that , but how could you not get behind an underdog story like that ? So we stayed up late to see how it all turned out . At the close of the evening , the Sox were guide to the World Series , and my boy drop dead down for his first - ever full night of nap . I ’ll never forget it .
