Roll'n Rollins
By Val Thompson
The focus of major league baseball this week is on pennant races. Rightly so. The focus is also on MVP races. Not so rightly so. Meanwhile, hardly anyone is talking about what could be the best individual accomplishment by any player this season.
Jimmy Rollins is in the middle of a 33-game hitting streak. With a hit on Friday, he would move into a tie for 12th for the longest hitting streak in baseball history. No other player in baseball is on the verge of such a momentous single-season accomplishment. Rollins already has the franchise record for a team that's been around since 1897. If he gets a base hit in the final three games of the season, he'll have the longest streak in the majors in the past 18 years. That would be the most impressive individual performance by any player this year.
Many people discount the importance of hitting streaks because it seems like such an arbitrary thing. However, looking at the list of the top hitting streaks of all-time shows that Rollins is joining select company. The top ten features Joe Dimaggio, Pete Rose, Ty Cobb, Paul Molitor, Willie Keeler, and George Sisler, among others. All of them, except Bill Dahlen (who hit in 42 straight in 1894) are career .300 hitters or above. Jimmy Rollins is just two games from joining the top ten.
It's quite remarkable when you think about it. Rollins hasn't gone 0-fer since August 22. In most games, he gets only four at-bats to get a hit. Four bad swings, and it's over. One bad game, and the streak is cut to zero. It's not like an earned-run average of a batting average that a player can pull back up the next game.
Andruw Jones hitting 51 home runs, four more than anyone else in the league at this point, is pretty impressive. David Ortiz is six RBI shy of 150. That would be pretty impressive, but Miguel Tejada did that last year. If Rollins finishes the season with the streak intact, he'll have done something that's only been accomplished five times in the past 100 years.
The hitting streak is incredibly impressive because it is so individual. Getting a base hit is one of the most difficult things to do in all of sports, and Rollins cannot defer it to anyone else. When Greg Maddux was piling up the consecutive seasons with 15 wins, he had strong Braves teams backing him up most of the way. His streak is incredible, but it differs from Rollins' because Maddux could have a bad night and his offense could bail him out. Or, he could have a couple losses, and make up for it later in the season. Rollins has no such luxury.
Some say Rollins' streak will be tainted if it spans two seasons. They argue that for some reason, taking the offseason removes the pressure and that he'd only have to start 2006 with a 21-game hitting streak to surpass Dimaggio.
The likelihood of that happening is about the same as the likelihood of Corey Patterson going the first 21 games of 2006 without striking out (unless, of course, he's not in anybody's lineup). However, if Rollins somehow manages to keep the streak alive to reach 57, sometime in early May of 2006, it may be the most incredible streak in the history of baseball (Cal Ripken Jr. included). Being out of baseball for six months and then picking it back up without missing a beat is more incredible that just keeping a hot streak alive during the course of one season.
But we'll talk about all-time streaks when Rollins hits 57. In all likelihood, he'll go 0-5 tomorrow night and the discussion will be over. But for now, he's three games away from doing the most significant thing any individual player has done this year.
The focus of major league baseball this week is on pennant races. Rightly so. The focus is also on MVP races. Not so rightly so. Meanwhile, hardly anyone is talking about what could be the best individual accomplishment by any player this season.
Jimmy Rollins is in the middle of a 33-game hitting streak. With a hit on Friday, he would move into a tie for 12th for the longest hitting streak in baseball history. No other player in baseball is on the verge of such a momentous single-season accomplishment. Rollins already has the franchise record for a team that's been around since 1897. If he gets a base hit in the final three games of the season, he'll have the longest streak in the majors in the past 18 years. That would be the most impressive individual performance by any player this year.
Many people discount the importance of hitting streaks because it seems like such an arbitrary thing. However, looking at the list of the top hitting streaks of all-time shows that Rollins is joining select company. The top ten features Joe Dimaggio, Pete Rose, Ty Cobb, Paul Molitor, Willie Keeler, and George Sisler, among others. All of them, except Bill Dahlen (who hit in 42 straight in 1894) are career .300 hitters or above. Jimmy Rollins is just two games from joining the top ten.
It's quite remarkable when you think about it. Rollins hasn't gone 0-fer since August 22. In most games, he gets only four at-bats to get a hit. Four bad swings, and it's over. One bad game, and the streak is cut to zero. It's not like an earned-run average of a batting average that a player can pull back up the next game.
Andruw Jones hitting 51 home runs, four more than anyone else in the league at this point, is pretty impressive. David Ortiz is six RBI shy of 150. That would be pretty impressive, but Miguel Tejada did that last year. If Rollins finishes the season with the streak intact, he'll have done something that's only been accomplished five times in the past 100 years.
The hitting streak is incredibly impressive because it is so individual. Getting a base hit is one of the most difficult things to do in all of sports, and Rollins cannot defer it to anyone else. When Greg Maddux was piling up the consecutive seasons with 15 wins, he had strong Braves teams backing him up most of the way. His streak is incredible, but it differs from Rollins' because Maddux could have a bad night and his offense could bail him out. Or, he could have a couple losses, and make up for it later in the season. Rollins has no such luxury.
Some say Rollins' streak will be tainted if it spans two seasons. They argue that for some reason, taking the offseason removes the pressure and that he'd only have to start 2006 with a 21-game hitting streak to surpass Dimaggio.
The likelihood of that happening is about the same as the likelihood of Corey Patterson going the first 21 games of 2006 without striking out (unless, of course, he's not in anybody's lineup). However, if Rollins somehow manages to keep the streak alive to reach 57, sometime in early May of 2006, it may be the most incredible streak in the history of baseball (Cal Ripken Jr. included). Being out of baseball for six months and then picking it back up without missing a beat is more incredible that just keeping a hot streak alive during the course of one season.
But we'll talk about all-time streaks when Rollins hits 57. In all likelihood, he'll go 0-5 tomorrow night and the discussion will be over. But for now, he's three games away from doing the most significant thing any individual player has done this year.
posted by Big Skinny @ 11:00 PM
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