Baseball is the owner of the widest array of unbreakable records. The biggest reason behind this being the way baseball as a whole has transformed throughout the decades and even centuries. Strategies and player protection have changed so much that many of these records are physically impossible. The only reason my number 5 and 4 are that low is because they are physically possible-but not really.

After careful consideration, I gave the number 5 spot to Joe DiMaggio, who had a hit-streak for 56 games. For those of you who are unfamiliar with baseball, that means that Joe got a base hit in 56 straight games. Let that sink in.

One of the greatest athletes of all time, Ted Williams, once stated that the hardest thing to do in sports is hit a baseball. DiMaggio did that and was lucky enough that the ball found a gap in the field in 56 straight games. An MLB Hall of Fame worthy batting average is roughly .300, which means out of 10 at-bats, 3 of them would result in a hit. That goes to show just how difficult it is to be a hitter in baseball, yet Joe DiMaggio has a very healthy lead for the hit-streak record.

These days, many aspects of hitting and pitching have changed, which makes it substantially more difficult to achieve a lengthy hit streak. Pitchers have evolved to pitch to certain batters in different ways than others, which gives the batter a disadvantage. Also, intentional walks have become way more frequent, which can take away an at bat, a simple walk can take away an at bat, and obviously just losing to the odds and getting out in any way can end the streak.

All it takes is one game to end the streak. Think about if a player’s team has a bad game too. If a batter stays in the entire game, he is guaranteed only 3 at bats, and remember that only 30% of at bats for the best hitters results in a hit. 30% of 3 is less than 1, meaning the odds are against getting that one hit per game. Based on that, the player’s team would need to get a lot of hits together so that the player can get 1 or 2 more at bats, but that’s still not very many in the game of baseball.

The last 40+ game hit streak was back in 1978 and achieved by Pete Rose at with games, and DiMaggio has been holding the record since 1941. The closest active player was Whit Merrifield with 31 in 2019.

An honorable mention goes to Shohei Ohtani with 10+ wins and 30+ home runs in a single season. Ohtani took this record by winning 15 games as a pitcher and hitting 34 homeruns as a hitter this year in 2022. Unfortunately, his team [the Angels] didn’t make it to the playoffs, which could have given him the chance to increase his numbers by a good amount. The reason I don’t find it to be in the top 5 is because not only could Shohei himself break his own record in the coming years, but also because he could be inspiring new generations to follow his lead and become two-way players.

So, what should we take away from this? It’s simple. No one has come close to breaking the streak, and no one will.