27 Responses to “Teammates with simultaneous 20-game hitting streaks”

1. Jesse Spector Says:
   August 7th, 2011 at 2:30 am

   Looks like Steve Finley and John Flaherty started their streaks one day apart in 1996.

   Just as interesting, Shawn Green's streak was June 29-July 31, 1999, followed by Blue Jays teammate Shannon Stewart from August 1-29. One ends, one begins!

2. Jeff Says:
   August 7th, 2011 at 2:31 am

   I saw Baseball Tonight had listed 4 occurences of simultaneous 20 game hitting streaks for teammates. I dont remember what they were except that Al Oliver was involved in 2 of them for different teams about a decade apart.

3. Seth Dussault Says:
   August 7th, 2011 at 2:34 am

   64 Steve Finley 1996-06-20 1996-07-14 21 93 23 39 10 3 7 18 8 7 2 1 .419 .461 .817 1.278 SDP
   65 John Flaherty 1996-06-21 1996-07-27 27 112 12 42 5 0 7 24 15 3 1 2 .375 .393 .607 1.000 SDP

   These ones!

4. Doug Says:
   August 7th, 2011 at 3:48 am

   @1, @3.

   But, Flaherty did not appear in 3 of the games Finley appeared in (on July 3rd, 6th and 13th) during the time both their streaks were active.

   So, when Finley's streak ended on July 15th, Flaherty's streak was still active, but at only 17 games.

5. Doug Says:
   August 7th, 2011 at 4:20 am

   @2.

   The two streaks Jeff referred to involving Al Oliver are these:

   Al Oliver, TEX, 1980-08-19 to 1980-09-09, 21 games
   Mickey Rivers, TEX, 1980-08-14 to 1980-09-09, 24 games

   Al Oliver, PIT, 1974-08-04 to 1974-08-28, 21 games
   Richie Zisk, PIT, 1974-08-06 to 1974-08-28, 20 games

   Those 1980 Rangers also featured these overlapping 20+ game streaks, albeit not overlapping for the requisite 20 games each. But close.

   Mickey Rivers, TEX, 1980-06-17 to 1980-07-11, 20 games
   Buddy Bell, TEX, 1980-06-24 to 1980-07-17, 21 games

   Tony Gwynn and Bobby Brown also had 20+ game streaks for the Padres in 1983, but the streaks only overlapped for 9 days.

   Not teammates, but in 1984 Eddie Murray (Aug 17 to Sep 10, 22 games) and Dave Winfield (Aug 17 to Sep 8, 20 games) had perfectly matched 20+ game streaks.

   The 1971 Cardinals almost had back-to-back 20+ games streaks to start the season. Joe Torre went 22 games from opening day to April 28. Then, after a one-game interruption on Apr 29, Lou Brock went 26 games from April 30 to May 30.

   That's it for the 70s and 80s.

6. Doug Says:
   August 7th, 2011 at 5:29 am

   The 1951 Indians had the the longest overlapping streaks by teammates of the 50s and 60s. Dale Mitchell's streak ended on Aug 15 at 23 games, with Larry Doby at 16 games, enroute to a 21 game streak ending on Aug 21. Meanwhile, in the NL, Pee Wee Reese had a 22 game streak that exactly matched the dates (Jul 20 to Aug 15) of Mitchell's streak.

   The 1943 Cardinals had these 4 players with 20+ game streaks that overlapped at various points (incl. all 4 players overlapping for 2 days).
   - Whitey Kurowski, Apr 27 to May 23, 22 games
   - Lou Klein, May 9 to May 30, 21 games
   - Stan Musial, May 16 to Jun 5, 22 games
   - Harry Walker, May 22 to Jun 15, 22 games

   The 1936 Indians trumped those Cards with 5 players with heavily overlapping 20 game streaks, including all 5 overlapping for 15 days.
   - Earl Averill, Jul 4 to Jul 25, 20 games
   - Hal Trosky, Jul 5 to Aug 2, 28 games
   - Roy Weatherly, Jul 9 to Jul 28, 20 games
   - Joe Vosmik, Jul 11 to Aug 4, 20 games
   - Odell Hale, Jul 11 to Jul 30, 21 games

   Since Trosky reached 20 games on July 26, both Trosky/Weatherly and Trosky/Hale reached 20+ games simultaneously.

   The 1942 Yankees had these completely overlapping 20 game streaks.
   - Joe Gordon, May 13 to Jun 14, 29 games
   - Buddy Hassett, May 20 to Jun 8, 20 games

   The 1938 Browns had the streaks below. When Almada's streak ended on Aug 11, McQuinn's streak had reached 21 games.
   - Mel Almada, Jul 12 to Aug 11, 29 games
   - George McQuinn, Jul 24 to Aug 25, 34 games

   The 1932 Pirates had Lloyd and Paul Waner turn the trick. Lloyd was at 21 games when Paul's streak ended.
   - Paul Waner, Jun 25 to Jul 13, 20 games
   - Lloyd Waner, Jun 21 to Jul 21, 22 games

   The 1937 Giants had back-to-back 20+ game streaks with no overlap and no gaps. Mel Ott from Aug 15 to Sep 6 (21 games) and Jo-Jo Moore from Sep 8 to Sep 27 (20 games).

7. Doug Says:
   August 7th, 2011 at 5:54 am

   Last instalment, from the 1920s.

   1929 As
   - Mule Haas, Jun 5 to Jun 25, 20 games
   - Bing Miller, May 30 to Jun 27, 28 games

   1927 Pirates
   - Paul Waner, May 27 to Jun 20, 23 games
   - Clyde Barnhart, May 29 to Jun 22, 23 games

   1922 Browns
   - Ken Williams, Jul 27 to Aug 24, 28 games
   - George Sisler, Jul 27 to Sep 17, 41 games

8. jason Says:
   August 7th, 2011 at 2:02 pm

   didn't the royals have something like this earlier in the year? gordon, cabrera, francouer and butler all had long ones at the same time.

9. oneblankspace Says:
   August 7th, 2011 at 2:25 pm

   When Paul Molitor's 30+game streak ended in August of 1987, there was another player with a 20+game streak that also ended in that game. I forget if he was a teammate or an opponent.

10. Mike Says:
    August 7th, 2011 at 2:37 pm

    Well, at this point (top fifth), Freeman and Uggla are both 0-3. But considering I'm a die-hard Braves fan, I would certainly like to see the streaks continue (not because I really care about a hitting streak, but because hits generally help a team win ballgames).

    When's the last time teammates had 20-plus-game streaks end in the same game, hmm?

11. Doug Says:
    August 7th, 2011 at 3:59 pm

    @9 and Molitor's streak.

    Actually, it wasn't another streak ending concurrently with Molitor's. What happened was that on the same day Molitor's 39 game streak ended (Aug 25, 1987), Benito Santiago started a 34 game streak.

    @10 and teammate's streaks ending the same day.

    Al Oliver's two streaks @5 (in 1974 and 1980) both ended simultaneoulsy with his teammate's concurrent streak.

12. Ken Says:
    August 7th, 2011 at 6:51 pm

    I think it should not make any difference whether or not both teammates played exactly the same games or not. As long as the "overlap" occurred whenever a teammate reached 20 games at the same time another teammate also had 20 or 20+ games, it should not make any difference. The main thing is that there were two 20-game streaks operating concurrently. The fact that they might not have played literally on the same days during the streaks is of no consequence. Why should that be a factor?

13. Neil L. Says:
    August 7th, 2011 at 7:12 pm

    @5-@7
    Doug, thanks for all the leg work on the overlapping streaks.

    However, we all know that this kind of thing is just Elias or ESPN showing off the power of their computer processors. It's not as if one player's streak inspires a teammate to change his approach at the plate to start his own consecutive hit streak.

    JA, certainly no slight of your blog meant, but this is just a curiousity made possible by the information age we live in, not by any underlying cause and effect inherent in the game of baseball.

    And, of course, with the game today, only one streak is left.

14. Steve Says:
    August 7th, 2011 at 8:58 pm

    Man the Mets have no luck but bad luck against the Braves.Uggla was a Met killer for the Marlins now he continues it with the Braves.Actually,the Mets stink against the Marlins too.Looks like Jose's chance of scoring 100 runs this year are done now and probably the batting title.

15. John Autin Says:
    August 7th, 2011 at 9:30 pm

    @14, Steve -- While another Reyes injury obviously hurts the Mets, it might actually help his chance at the batting title. He hasn't exactly been tearing it up since coming back from the first injury, so some time off might help his performance when (if) he does return, or at least will keep him from losing much more ground. He's only 40 PAs away from qualifying, which is no more than 10 games, and I don't think anyone else is likely to finish higher than his current .336 mark. I think he's still the favorite to win it, as long as the injury isn't much worse than the initial report.

16. Trent McCotter Says:
    August 7th, 2011 at 9:31 pm

    GAMES WHEN TEAMMATES EACH HAD ACTIVE 20-GAME HITTING STREAKS:

    Bill Dahlen & Jimmy Ryan, CHI NL, 7/18/1894 (Ryan's 20th, Dahlen's 26th)
    Hugh Duffy & Jimmy Bannon, BOS NL, 8/23-8/25/1894 (Bannon's 20th-23rd, Duffy's 23rd-26th)
    George Decker & Bill Everitt, CHI NL, 7/27/1896 (Everitt's 20th, Decker's 23rd)
    Patsy Donovan & Denny Lyons, PIT NL, 8/25-8/26/1896 (Lyon's 20th-21st, Donovan's 23rd-24th)
    Carson Bigbee & Charlie Grimm, PIT NL, 7/8/1921 (Grimm's 20th, Bigbee's 22nd)
    Ken Williams & George Sisler, STL AL, 8/22-8/24/1922 (Sisler's 20th-22nd, Williams's 26th-28th)
    Paul Waner & Clyde Barnhart, PIT NL, 6/19-6/20/1927 (Barnhart's 20th-21st, Waner's 22nd-23rd)
    Bing Miller & Mule Haas, PHI AL, 6/25/1929(G2) (Haas's 20th, Miller's 26th)
    Hal Trosky & Roy Weatherly, CLE AL, 7/28/1936 (Weatherly's 20th, Trosky's 22nd)
    Hal Trosky & Odell Hale, CLE AL, 7/29(G2)-7/30/1936 (Hale's 20th-21st, Trosky's 24th-25th)
    Joe Gordon & Buddy Hassett, NYY AL, 6/8/1942 (Hassett's 20th, Gordon's 25th)
    Al Oliver & Richie Zisk, PIT NL, 8/28/1974 (Zisk's 20th, Oliver's 21st)
    Mickey Rivers & Al Oliver, TEX AL, 9/8-9/9/1980 (Oliver's 20th-21st, Rivers's 23rd-24th)
    Freddie Freeman & Dan Uggla, ATL NL, 8/6/2011 (Freeman's 20th, Uggla's 27th)

17. Doug Says:
    August 7th, 2011 at 11:03 pm

    @16.

    I think you can add 7/13/1932 (1st game) to the list above.

    http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT193207131.shtml

    Paul Waner hit in his 20th straight game to join his brother Lloyd at that mark. Personally, I don't think it matters that Lloyd did not appear in this game, nor in the next game when Paul's streak was broken - they were two teammates who simultaneously had active 20 game streaks.

18. Doug Says:
    August 8th, 2011 at 11:09 am

    @16.

    And, another one.

    Mel Almada & George McQuinn, STL AL, 8/11/1938 (G1 & G2), (Almada's 28th-29th, McQuinn's 20th-21st)

19. Trent McCotter Says:
    August 8th, 2011 at 7:07 pm

    @18.

    Thanks for the addition. Not sure how I missed that one when I did the original list.

    Isn't it weird that, before the Bravos this yr, the only NL team to do it (assuming I didn't miss anyone else) is the Pirates--and they'd done it the last FOUR times??

20. Trent McCotter Says:
    August 8th, 2011 at 7:08 pm

    I meant that the Pirates had done the last four NL times--not that they were the ONLY nl team to do it.

21. Doug Says:
    August 8th, 2011 at 8:44 pm

    @20.

    Hadn't noticed that, but yeah that is weird about the Pirates.

    Also weird that something that has happened all of 3 times in the last 59 years, would have occurred 9 times in the 22 years before that. Or that Waner and Oliver would show up on two different occasions.

    Say, Trent, where do you get the 19th century (or pre-1919) box scores from?

22. Doug Says:
    August 8th, 2011 at 8:45 pm

    @21.

    Actually, make that 3 times in the last 69 years.

23. Doug Says:
    August 8th, 2011 at 8:49 pm

    @20.

    Actually, Trent, if you count the Waner/Waner streaks @17, the Pirates had done it the last 5 times in the NL, before the Braves a few days ago.

24. Trent McCotter Says:
    August 8th, 2011 at 9:06 pm

    @21

    19th century stuff came from sheets at hall of fame, made in 1960s

25. John Autin Says:
    August 8th, 2011 at 10:04 pm

    @19, Trent -- Those Pirates were deep in line-drive hitters who liked to get their cuts in. (Did I say hackers?)

26. Eric Says:
    August 9th, 2011 at 10:47 am

    Somewhat off-topic, but it's remarkable that when Uggla began his hitting streak, his batting average was an abysmal .173. Has anyone ever launched a 20-game hitting streak when hitting under .200? (Much less 29-games-and-counting and .173.) You'd probably have to exempt streaks launched early in the season, so perhaps 100 AB would be a good cutoff (Uggla had 318 prior to his streak). Any way to investigate this using PI?

27. John Autin Says:
    August 9th, 2011 at 12:55 pm

    @26, Eric -- I don't know of any to approach your specific question via the Play Index. I do know that Elias has reported that no one ever ended a 25-game streak with a BA under .260-something.

    I had asked myself a related question -- what's the lowest season batting average for a player with a 25-game hitting streak? In principle, there is a way to investigate that question via the Play Index, by doing a 2-layer search:

    1. Do a Streak Finder for all players with hitting streaks of 25+ games, and save that report (via the Share button > Link URL).

    2. Do a Season Finder, filtered on that saved report, and sorted in ascending order by batting average. Note that this will return *all* seasons by those players with N-game hitting streaks, not just the seasons of the streaks.

    3. Check the hitting streak seasons against the batting average list.

    However ... this search isn't working right now, at least not for me. I can't perform any Season Finder on a saved report of Streaks.