Here’s a tough one to beat: Consecutive batters retired by a relief pitcher: 26 by Ernie Shore June 23, 1917. The game was started by Babe Ruth, who walked the first batter and got into a fight with the umpire (actually throwing punches). Ernie Shore came in to relieve the ejected Ruth, the runner that Ruth left him was caught stealing and Shore retired the 26 batters he faced.
Is there an interesting story behind this? Just curious.
This was following the civil unrest in Baltimore and they weren’t confident that they the city could maintain order.
Ah, thanks. I get it now – a record that could be repeated (some similar circumstances could arise someday)…but never beaten:
Can’t have -1 people!
Ha – good one.
St. Louis 6 vs. New York 2, 55 minutes on 09-26-1926.
Given the length of in between inning commercials alone now (~ 35 minutes), this record can never be broken.
Given that this was basically a publicity stunt (all of two at-bats by a one-time great player), it’s not impossible that someone else will be resurrected for a curtain call when they’re older (unlikely though, given the stuffed-shirtism of baseball’s rulers).
I think it’s not unlikely that DiMaggio’s batting streak will be “broken”, given sportswriters’ penchant for extending a batter’s hitting streaks from one season to the next in an effort to drum up interest in a phony record chase.
I mentioned this in another thread, but I doubt a pitcher will ever again win 20+ games in a season while losing 30 (something Phenomenal Smith did for the Baltimore Orioles in 1887 - W25, L30).
Are all MLB games broadcast on TV ?
The famous 26 inning tie (called because of darkness) between Brooklyn (the Robins, not the Dodgers) and the Boston Braves produced some records that won’t be broken any time soon. Both pitchers went the distance establishing records not only for most innings pitched in a game, but also most innings pitched in a game without a decision. Neither pitcher would be ready for another outing for over a week.
While the number of innings is still the record, the game also produced a record for number of consecutive scoreless innings (20). Neither team scored after the sixth inning.
If not, on the radio where there are still commercial breaks.
On a related subject, I seriously doubt we’ll ever see someone win 30+ games in a season. Denny McLain, who won 31 playing for Detroit in 1968, was the last one and even that was a bit of an anomaly.
As long as guys like Brad Miller and Adrian Beltre can keep starting jobs with their bats, I believe that at least the career number here could possibly be broken. 122 in a season is pretty safe.
Okay, never mind. I just looked up Beltre, and he only has 296 (and it turns out he’s the current active leader.) I wasn’t thinking that 1000 career errors means 20 years of 50 errors per year. Dear lord.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned Nolan Ryan’s 7 no-hitters. I don’t see that record being broken anytime soon.
I did some light Google searching and I think the nearest active player right now may only have 2 (Jake Arrieta).
Scherzer had two in the same season.
ETA: I should add that, while there are several pitchers who have done it twice in a year, I don’t think that one’s likely to be broken, either.
Didn’t notice this one the first time around - I think this one is even more unbreakable than the pitching records. I could imagine medical advances making it possible for an ace pitcher to pitch every other game (or every game!), but it’s hard to imagine what might boost error rates back up to dead-ball levels.
Here’s a record theoreticaly unbreakable: Number of brothers in the same outfield at the same time (Alou brothers, three times for the SF giants in September 1963).
Possible but extremely unlikely to break: 4 strikeouts in one inning (done several times).
Possible but exceedingly unlikely: more than three outs in one inning. Under the rules of baseball it could happen on appeal play that prevented a run from scoring, but has never happened.
My son holds an unlikely record: Most games witnessed that ended on a game-ending triple play. The last two such (out of seven, I think, in ML history), one in NY in 2009 (unassisted no less–I was there too), and one in Montreal in 1991.
Kelly Wunsch, a pitcher in the Milwaukee (?) system, struck out five in an inning in a minor league game back in 1994. Of course the minors are different from the majors, but as you say, it’s possible. I for one would love to see it happen…
Excellent post.
Also worth noting another fundamental change to the game, in that it’s much more widely played than it was in the early days. Besides for the black and Latino players, there’s also the (even bigger, IMHO) factor in that the pay scale has vastly improved to the point where anyone who can play baseball will (unless they can play some other sport). It’s not like people who can be MLB players or accountants are going to spend much time thinking about which to choose.
The implication of this is that the top talent in baseball really is the top talent in the country. And what this does is it lessens the spread between the top tier and the next tier. By contrast, back in the real old old days, the pay scale wasn’t nearly what it is now, and many potentially talented players opted for other careers. This means that the dropoff between the top tier and the next tier was greater.
The upshot of all this is that there are certain levels of complete dominance that are harder to achieve now than were possible in the early days of the game, and some records that are a lot harder to match as a result.
This is my favorite one of the thread. I wonder if there’s any way to verify it?
How about career or single season triples? Records have stood for many years…
Brian
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