Longest/most impressive streaks in sports.

Great Debates
1

I realise there are many, many variables at play here. What I would like to do is discuss/debate the longest and or most impressive streaks in sports history.
I would like to open the debate to all sports, including golf, auto racing, bowling and any other sport that you think is worthy of mention. The term streak can be used loosely here. It can be the course of a season (Oscar Robinson’s Triple Double average for the year), career (Rocky Marciano’s undefeated record), or somewhere in between (Cal Ripken, Brett Favre, Edwin Moses, Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong, Byron Nelson, etc.).

Come up with the sport, athlete, and the streak and then try to defend it.
You may also debate whether or not some of the mentions in other sports (say, golf or bowling) are really worthy of mention and why. So, in essence, we shall debate not only the streak itself but how the sport that the streak is involved with stands up to other sports. IOW, someone may suggest that Rocky Marciano’s record of 49 and 0 is the best streak in sports history. The next poster may add that nobody faught back then, he never faced Tyson…
then mention that he thinks that Dana Quigley’s record of consecutive tour events is the most impressive streak ever and then defend that.
Someone may then add that anyone can learn to be a good golfer but it takes natural talent to be a great basketball player and then give an example of such a streak and why.

We’ve done this before so I think you get the idea.
I’ll attempt to moderate the thread (in the sense that the OP can) as it goes along and try to determine the winner based on the arguements given and the input from the rest of you based on process of elimination (this, I don’t think has been done here before). Maybe by the end of the thread we’ll have something that resembles a consensus. Well, that is the intent anyway.

Disclaimner; The OP has the right to take the necessary actions to avoid “Train Wreck”. So, I may switch tracks to keep the thread moving along more gracefully.

Oh, My suggestion will be; (An obscure one by choice) John Force and his Ten consecutive NHRA drag racing titles from '93-'02. In racing you have to depend on your whole team, not just the driver and the car, to win at this level. We’re also talking hundredths of seconds and 5,000 plus horsepower. So many things could go wrong it boggles the mind. Everything must go perfect in every pass as you work your way through the brackets - timing, mechanics, reaction, traction, weather, health, etc., for you to win. One minor mistake during this stretch and the streak is broken, there is no room for error of any kind. The only break you get if you screw up is to hope your opponent also does, - at the same time.

Ok, fire away.

2

I always have to go with DiMaggio’s streak here. 56 games in a row with a hit is astonishing. Just the numbers involved.

Example:

IN 1940-1942 (I’d use five years but he was out of the game for 42-45 for the war) DiMaggio hit .352, .357, and .305. Take an average of that (1659 AB and 558 hits) and we’re looking at .336. So his odds of getting a hit in any particular at bat is 33.6%. Pretty sweet on the face of it.

But multiply that by 56 games. In 1941 DiMaggio had 541 AB in 139 games. That’s 3.89 AB per game. 33.6% of 3.89 is 1.30704. So over any particular game one could expect him to generate a hit. Well and good.

Except that baseball never breaks evenly. That is, the odds never break exactly balanced over the course of a season. There are good games and bad games. Good streaks and bad streaks. It happens.

To expect the odds to break so even over the course of more than 1/3 of a players games in any particular season is foolhardy in the extreme.

3

Year 200 Essendon Bombers team in the Aussie Football League :slight_smile: Won the pre-season competition, which is roughly 4-5 games won, then won 20 games straight through a 22 game season, lost game 21 by 5 points due to an exceptional strategy and last minute goal by the opposing Western Bulldogs team, went on to win every other game of the season including the Grand Final. I go for the Bombers so I am biased but that year is the best year of football i’ve ever seen. However, unfortunately they failed to prove themselves the best team ever by only winning one championship. Another is the Brisbane Lions who won 3 Grand Finals in a row, the 3 years after the mentioned Grand Final above :slight_smile: 2001-2003 and lost the 2004 final. Arguably the best team ever.

4

I think on the basis of sheer exuberance, the most impressive streak would be Sheila Nichols at the England vs Australia cricket at Lords in May 1989.

… that is what you meant, isn’t it?

5

Reading about UCLA’s basketball streak still makes me shake my head. Eighty-eight consecutive wins is not going to fall for a long, long time. Seven straight NCAA championships and 38 straight NCAA tournament victories. All of these are impressive, but the 38 straight tourney wins gets my vote. This was before the 64 team field, so there were no Fairleigh Dickinson or NC A&T to feast on. We saw how hard it was to go undefeated in one season (Illinois), but to get 38 straight tourney wins, mostly against very good teams, is unbelievable.

6

Only if you provide links with pictures.

7

Dough Jarvis suited up and played in 964 straight hockey games from October 8, 1975, to October 10, 1987.

This guy got the crap kicked out of him for twelve straight years.

I wonder if he ever dated my ex.

8

While I’m not much of a sports fan, I’m amazed that Johnny Vander Meer pitched a no hitter in baseball then repeated the feat in his next start. Link - see bottom

Beating that would require someone to go three in a row. Since only five pitchers have ever gotten three in their careers. It is a daunting streak of two.

9

DiMaggio’s hitting streak, which simply shouldn’t be statistically possible.

Lance Armstrong’s winning streak in the Tour de France.

10

I’d consider going with Gretzsky’s 51-game scoring streak.

More than Jordan, Marciano, even Nelson or Joltin’ Joe, Wayne was more suited to the game he played than anyone else, ever. He was hockey.

11

Well sure, Lance Armstrong.

But also, Ingemar Stenmark in men’s downhill skiing. That’s 86 world cup wins in a 16 year career! :eek:

12

Is this mathematical analysis of Dimaggio’s streak correct?

Use Dimaggio’s 1941 Stats

139 games, 541 AB, 193 hits

AB per game = 541/139 = 3.892
Hits per AB = 193/541 = 0.3567

chance of going hitless in one game= (1 - 0.3567) ^ 3.891 = 0.17970

chance of getting a hit in one game = 1 - 0.17970 = 0.8203

chance of getting a hit in 56 straight = 0.8203 ^ 56 = 1.5222 x 10-5= 0.0015%

This amounts to 1.5 in 100,000- not the likeliest occurence but not astronomical in magnitude.

13

I’m not going to violate board rules by posting a direct link, but I can tell you that I stumbled upon a site with photographs the other day, while trying to assist in an insect identification thread, which was about a cricket in Australia.

14

I dunno if the math works or not but I was never a big fan of the 56 game hitting streak as far as it’s value as the best in sports history. I think a bunch of things happened consecutively for the streak to occur. Among those are; luck, a hot streak (all players have these to some extent), and the opposing pitching was in his favor for whatever reason for 56 games. I know the odds are huge, but I could (if I had the math background) probably come up with bigger odds for some of the other streaks that happened in the history of sports.
For instance, what are the odds that a quarterback in the NFL would start 200+ consecutive games? Or the Wayne Gretzsky streak, is there a way to figure the odds of such an event?

15

Here is a link that states that Joe had a 1 in 8,300 shot of a 56 game hitting streak over the course of his carreer.

The link.

16

Yes- the odds should be more favorable. My calcs are for a specific set of 56 games. Since Joe D. had many sets of 56 games, his odds would be greater by some two orders of magnitude.

17

Just because I’m a homer, I’m gonna nominate the Atlanta Braves winning 13 straight division titles in the Free Agency era.

18

Not that it matters this early, but we happen to be 2.5 games up in the division currently… :cool:

19

I wasn’t disagreeing with you. Your math was the same as the links. Adjusted for the stats in his carreer, his odds were 1- 8,300. You calculated the odds for just one year. The guy in the link does the same thing and gets about the same number as you. :wink:

20

New England Patriots 21 game winning streak 2003-2004.