27 MLB records that will never be broken

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Only six players in Major League Baseball history have had at least one hit in 40 consecutive games, and only one has done so since George Sisler had a 41-game streak for the St. Louis Browns in 1922. Willie Keeler was the first, and still holds the National League record with a 45 game hit-streak between the 1896 and 1897 seasons. It was a big league record that stood for 44 years until Joe DiMaggio smashed it with a 56-game streak in 1941 that will probably never be broken.

Since DiMaggio’s streak, Pete Rose came the closest with a 44-game effort in 1978. Paul Molitor hit safely in 39 games in 1987, and Jimmy Rollins posted an impressive 38-game hitting streak that began in 2005 and ended in 2006. However, no one has seriously challenged DiMaggio for the top spot.

As Jayson Stark pointed out in a 2011 article named “Baseball’s unbreakable record“:

"Only three players since World War II — Rose (44 games), Molitor (39) and Rollins (38) — have even gotten within THREE WEEKS of DiMaggio."

"There isn’t an active player in baseball whose TWO longest streaks, over an entire career, would add up to 56 games. In fact, the only players who could make that claim since DiMaggio’s streak ended are Rose, Molitor and Tommy Holmes (whose streaking days came to an end in the late ’40s)."

"The last player who even had two streaks in his career that lasted HALF as long as DiMaggio’s? That would be George Sisler — in the 1920s."

"And there hasn’t been another hitter since 1900 — not ONE — who has even gotten a hit in 55 of 56 games."

Simply put, it’s an incredible record, and among the rarest in baseball.

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