Record number of games with a hit in a season

May 22, 2006 6:58 AM

BaseballFilter: A friend is trying to determine who has the single season Major League Baseball record for most games in a season with at least one hit.

Obviously, there is plenty of information out there on consecutive games with a hit, which seems to be what most people care about. This inquiry is similar, but I don't care about consecutive games with hits, and want to see this spread over an entire season.

posted by saladpants to sports, hobbies, & recreation (17 comments total)

mlb.com has a fantasy game based around this called Beat The Streak. It says the record is 56 set in 1941, but strangely doesn't say by who.
posted by nitsuj at 7:03 AM on May 22, 2006

Okay, well I thought I read your question correctly... but apparently not. Sorry!
posted by nitsuj at 7:04 AM on May 22, 2006

Interesting question. I can definitely say that the '56 in 1941' refers to Joe Dimaggio's 56-game hitting streak that year, not the number of games in which he had a hit over the entire season.
posted by Doofus Magoo at 7:05 AM on May 22, 2006

From baseball-almanac.com:

Did you know that Rogers Hornsby (1922), Chuck Klein (1930), Wade Boggs (1985), Derek Jeter (1999) and Ichiro Suzuki (2001) each had at least one (1) hit in one-hundred thirty-five (135) games tieing themselves for the most games during a season with at least one hit?

posted by Doofus Magoo at 7:07 AM on May 22, 2006

Thanks for the answer.

Amazing that DiMaggio isn't on that list after his 56 game streak season. I guess the rest of that season just wasn't so great.

Edgar Renterria has hit in every game this season except one, but has missed ten games. We were wondering how much that would hurt his chances.
posted by saladpants at 7:12 AM on May 22, 2006

Hornsby and Klein did it in shorter seasons, which is impressive. And stick a fork in Renteria. No way a middling talent like him can make a run with substantial time off.
posted by Kwantsar at 7:17 AM on May 22, 2006

Amazing that DiMaggio isn't on that list after his 56 game streak season. I guess the rest of that season just wasn't so great.

Basically. He hit .409 during the streak, but "only" .320 in the remainder of the season. Plus he only played in 139 games that year.
posted by Doofus Magoo at 7:21 AM on May 22, 2006

?! Dimaggio would have had to hit in all but four of the games he played in 1941 to have a hit in 135. /what doofus said
posted by Dick Paris at 7:23 AM on May 22, 2006

Indeed. I was not aware he had missed a number of games.
posted by saladpants at 7:47 AM on May 22, 2006

Surprising that Ichiro didn't take the record in 2004 when he had 262 hits. He must have averaged about 2 hits a game.
posted by poodlemouthe at 8:26 AM on May 22, 2006

I'm also surprised that Rickey Henderson isn't on the list. I can't imagine he's very far behind.
posted by maxreax at 9:22 AM on May 22, 2006

Ichiro...must have averaged about 2 hits a game.

1.63, actually...he played 161 games that year. One hit every 2.7 AB.
posted by pdb at 10:43 AM on May 22, 2006

Ichiro...must have averaged about 2 hits a game.

1.63, actually...he played 161 games that year. One hit every 2.7 AB.

But he got a hit in less than 135 games.
262/134=1.96 if it was 134 games. NAMM
posted by poodlemouthe at 11:36 AM on May 22, 2006

Sorry, that is when he got a hit. DNAMM
posted by poodlemouthe at 11:39 AM on May 22, 2006

Actually, Rickey Henderson never had more than 179 hits in any one season. Pete Rose, however, had 230 hits in 1973 (160 games played).

Another interesting statistic might be to see in how many games in 2004 Barry Bonds reached base. He had 232 walks that year and only played in 147 games.

It's kind of surprising that all those guys got exactly 135 games with a hit. You'd think one of them might end up with 136 games at least.
posted by mattbucher at 12:00 PM on May 22, 2006

from here:

After the streak was stopped, thanks in large part to a pair of fine defensive plays by Cleveland third baseman Ken Keltner, Joe started a 16-game hitting streak. Thus, he hit safely in 72 of 73 games.

posted by Chuckles at 1:48 PM on May 22, 2006

Edgar Renterria has hit in every game this season except one, but has missed ten games. We were wondering how much that would hurt his chances.

The problem is Edgar never had a chance. Nice player, no chance in hell.
posted by justgary at 2:28 PM on May 22, 2006