Major League Baseball Consecutive Games Played Streaks
Listed below are the 15 longest consecutive games played streaks in Major League Baseball history. To compile such a streak, a player must appear in every game played by his team. The streak is broken if the team completes a game in which the player neither takes a turn at bat nor plays a half-inning in the field.
The record of playing in 2,632 consecutive games over more than 16 years is held by Cal Ripken, Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles. Ripken surpassed Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees, whose legendary record of 2,130 consecutive games had stood for 56 years. Before Gehrig, the record was held by Everett Scott, a shortstop with the Red Sox and Yankees whose streak ended in 1925, less than a month before Gehrig's began.
The record for a National League player is held by Steve Garvey of the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres (1975–1983), though Garvey's 1,207-game streak is less than half the length of Ripken's. Previous holders of the National League record include Billy Williams of the Chicago Cubs (1963–1970), Stan Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals (1952–1957), and Gus Suhr of the Pittsburgh Pirates (1931–1937).
A notable recent streak was compiled by Miguel Tejada of the Oakland A's and Baltimore Orioles, who played in 1,152 consecutive games from 2000 to 2007. As of August 1, 2012, the current player with the longest active Major League consecutive games streak is Prince Fielder of the Detroit Tigers with 285, taking the record after Matt Kemp of the Los Angeles Dodgers was placed on the disabled list, ending his streak at 399 games.
Of the 15 people on this list, eight (Ripken, Gehrig, Williams, Sewell, Musial, Fox, Ashburn, and Banks) are members of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Read more about Major League Baseball Consecutive Games Played Streaks: Key, List, Official Definition, Streak Starts, Continuations, and Ends, Consecutive Innings, Combined Japanese/U.S. Streak
Famous quotes containing the words major, league, baseball, games, played and/or streaks:
“A major problem for Black women, and all people of color, when we are challenged to oppose anti-Semitism, is our profound skepticism that white people can actually be oppressed.”
—Barbara Smith (b. 1946)
“Stereotypes fall in the face of humanity. You toodle along, thinking that all gay men wear leather after dark and should never, ever be permitted around a Little League field. And then one day your best friend from college, the one your kids adore, comes out to you.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“The talk shows are stuffed full of sufferers who have regained their health—congressmen who suffered through a serious spell of boozing and skirt-chasing, White House aides who were stricken cruelly with overweening ambition, movie stars and baseball players who came down with acute cases of wanting to trash hotel rooms while under the influence of recreational drugs. Most of them have found God, or at least a publisher.”
—Calvin Trillin (b. 1935)
“Criticism occupies the lowest place in the literary hierarchy: as regards form, almost always; and as regards moral value, incontestably. It comes after rhyming games and acrostics, which at least require a certain inventiveness.”
—Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880)
“Let us then examine this point, and say, “God is, or he is not.” But to which side shall we incline? Reason can decide nothing here. There is an infinite chaos which separates us. A game is being played at the extremity of this infinite distance where heads or tails will turn up. What will you wager?”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)
“The grey-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night,
Checkering the eastern clouds with streaks of light.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)