In Praise Of A Happy Hit Streak

Leitch|published: Mon 31st July, 16:15 2006

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Little known rule around Deadspin world headquarters: When a hitting streak — one of our favorite baseball occurrences — reaches 30 games, we are obliged to honor the achievement with its own post. Therefore, congratulations to Phillies second baseman Chase Utley — his name sounds like one of the pilots in Top Gun — for his 32-game hitting streak. (He singled in the sixth inning today to keep it going.) It's the longest streak since teammate Jimmy Rollins made it to 38 earlier this year.

If you're into the counting stats, here's every hitting streak over 30 games coming into this season. There's some fun names on the list, including:

• Benito Santiago hit in 34 straight games in 1987. Imagine if they'd have had steroids for him back then.

• A bunch of people got stuck right at 30, illustrious names too: George Brett, Albert Pujols, Tris Speaker, Stan Musial, Nomar Garciaparra, Eric Davis and the immortal Jerome Walton.

• Pete Rose is the closest anyone has come in the last few decades with 44 games; no one's been above Rollins' 38 in 20 years.

So go go, Chase. We do love a good hitting streak.

Marlins-Phillies Box Score [Yahoo Sports] 30 Game Hit Streaks [The Baseball Page]