In the early 1970’s, running nude across college campuses (primarily) was named “streaking”. They’d run anywhere … people who saw them often giggled…it was such a novelty. The “fad” lasted a year or 2. Well, right now there are all kinds of STREAKS in the sports world but no one is giggling. Sooo…here we go into ‘STREAKING W/O THE GIGGLES”.
…Right here in the Lou, the Cards are streaking! The Cardinals are coming off a 9 game winning streak. The last time the Cards were STREAKING was in Aug. 14-22, 2022 when they won 8 straight games. For this young team, the winning streak will add some “real” confidence that they CAN play (and win) at the MLB level. Cards fans weren’t giggling then either…they were cheering 😊
…Is that close to the longest Cardinal “STREAKING” run? Not even close! The Cardinals longest winning streak is 17 games, achieved from September 11 to September 28, 2021 under Whitey Herzog. That streak broke their previous franchise record of 14 games, set in 1935. The streak ended with a 4-0 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers.
…According to the Cards historical data, when the Cards pile up a 9-game winning STREAK, the Cardinals have made it to the post-season 6 times—4x it led them to become a pennant winner, another time they landed in the World Series (1944) and in 2001, the result was a first round post-season appearance! Now, it is easier with the expanded playoff system to reach the post-season, than it was for many decades when it was only 1 team from each league.
…Which players are “leading the way” in the STREAK. The top 3 in batting average are or have been non-starters. The leader as I write this on 5/16 is Ivan Herrera who holds a .385 batting average. Thomas Saggese is #2 on team @ .341. At #3 is backup catcher, Yohel Pozo who holds a .333 batting average. Wilson Contreras is the RBI leader with 25. He’s followed by Lars Nootbar (22) and 3rd in RBI’s is Brendan Donovan with 19 ribbies. The issue with Herrera is that he’s a catcher that can’t throw runners out trying to steal 2b regularly as most catchers do.
…For some reason, Saggese was sent back to the minors. Really, Brendan Donovan, Lars Nootbaar and Willson Contreras are the only “regulars” who have been the early season leaders at the plate as one looks across the entire board at batting marks. Cards are overloaded with catchers. So much so that last year’s starting catcher now wears a 1b glove daily. I think a trade involving Arenado and a catcher could be “in the making”
…The Longest Winning STREAK of 26 games in MLB history belongs to the 1916 NY Giants. There is a slightly weird component with that record. They actually TIED one game in the STREAK! In those days, a tie wasn’t considered to be stopping the STREAK! In modern MLB history, the Cleveland Guardians won 22 straight games in 2017. It’s surprising to me that the NY Yankees don’t own this record with all the winning that they do annually, and have been doing, for many decades.
…But…maybe the Blues set the tone with their 12 game winning STREAK this year! It was the longest in the franchise history. It’s not a coincidence that the Blues had hired a different Coach—Jim Montgomery. He was/is an experienced, successful coach and immediately turned around the Blues as they posted a 35-18-7 record under his guidance in the last 60 games of the year.
…The Longest Winning STREAK to START an MLB season is 13 straight games. It was done twice! Once in 1982 by Atlanta Braves and also in 2023 by the Tampa Bay Rays.
….An amazing STREAK is the STREAK of Cal Ripken’s consecutive games played. Ripken holds the MLB record for consecutive games played, with a streak of 2,632 games. This record was achieved over a period of 16 years. Wow!!! That would be a great STREAK in any job!
…In the NBA, the longest winning STREAK is 33 games!! It was in 1971-72 season when the LA Lakers, who had 2 Hall of Famers on their roster, Jerry West &Wilt Chamberlain & a very good shooting guard in Gail Goodrich, as their scoring leaders. The Lakers piled up a long 33 game winning streak. The Lakers then went on to wrap up their 6th NBA Championship by beating the NY Knicks in the championship playoff series. The NBA season was 82 games so this winning streak of 33 games was 40% of the season! WOW! Clearly any basketball fan recognizes Jerry West & Wilt Chamberlain as stars. Maybe not with Gail Goodrich?
…Well, Goodrich is also a NBA Hall of Famer! In 1996, 17 years after his retirement Goodrich was the leader(39.9) in highest average per minutes per game in the Franchise history. Goodrich was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1996.
…Btw….In case you’re wondering why the LA team is called the Lakers. Well…originally it was the Minneapolis Lakers. That’s makes lots of sense in Minnesota…but not so much in LA 😊 When the team moved from Minneapolis to Los Angeles, it decided to keep its “Lakers” name…as strange as it is.
… A popular STREAK in the MLB is the STREAK of HITS in successive games by a batter. The longest hitting streak in MLB history is 56 games. Joe DiMaggio (NY Yankees) did it in 1941. He had at least one hit in 56 consecutive games, a feat that still stands as the record. Pete Rose had a streak of 44 consecutive games with a hit in 1978. That’s the closest anyone has come recently. I don’t think it’ll ever be broken with the current use of pitchers. Back in the day…if a team was far behind, often they just kept in the same pitcher. The thought was –why waste another pitcher or 2 in a hopeless game? Currently, it’s already common to see 4 or 5 pitchers in a game. With that many different pitchers (who are fresh) in each game, it’d be almost impossible to keep a streak going for that long of a time.
…In collegiate baseball, only two teams have won as many as 34 straight games. Once by the 1977 Texas Longhorn team and in 1999 by the Florida Atlantic Owls. Both teams did it early the season. Texas opened their 1977 season with their winning streak. Florida Atlantic’s streak was from Feb 19 to April 17 so it was early also. My thoughts are that many of these games were non-conference games to begin the season. Clearly these 2 teams were far ahead of the other schools at that early time of the season. While both were good teams, neither claimed much success in the post-season tournaments. Texas did NOT make the NCAA Baseball Tournament in 1977. Florida Atlantic reached the Super Regional finals before being knocked out of the tournament. While the winning streaks are good, just like NCAA Basketball, teams want to form those STREAKS in the post-season games, not the early season games.
…On the collegiate basketball level, many of you probably remember the winning STREAK of the UCLA Bruins Basketball teams. There are some real unique facts about the streak. It began on Jan 19, 1971
UCLA won 88 consecutive games until Notre Dame beat them 71-70 in 1974. Ironically, the streak began after losing to ND on Jan 19, 1971. Sooo….UCLA went from 1 loss to ND in 1971 to their next loss (also to ND) in 1974! It broke the previous record of a 60 game winning streak at Univ of San Francisco (Bill Russell’s team) in 1956.
…On the individual level, there are some unbelievable STREAKS. In the NBA, the streak for consecutive free throws converted belongs to Michael Williams (Minnesota Timberwolves) . His streak started in in 92-93 season with 84 straight FT. It continued into the 93-94 season until it reached 97 straight free throws.
…Competing against the best in the World, Edwin Moses piled up a phenomenal STREAK of wins in the 400 meter hurdles race. He won 122 straight races against the best runners in the world! It stretched nearly a decade long, the NFL World has “good” teams that come & go as contracts expire for the stars, players age, coaches change, yada-yada-yada. STREAKS are hard to form. As time has moved on, we may not realize that QB Otto Graham of the Cleveland Browns took his team to 10 straight NFL championship games! What a STREAK that was!! His Browns team won 7 of them.
… But…as the worm turns in modern NFL football playoffs..…since the inception of the Super Bowl there are only 4 NFL teams who are in a STREAK but not one that they want! Only the Cleveland Browns Detroit Lions, Houston Texans, and Jacksonville Jaguars, have NEVER played in a Super Bowl.
…a 2 game STREAK sounds pretty “weak”. But…I think that this ‘STREAK” will never be broken. Johnny Vander Meer is the only pitcher in MLB history to throw back-back no-hitters! On Jun 11, 1938 he no-hit the Boston Bees. Just 4 days later, on June 15, he threw another NO-NO against the Brooklyn Dodgers! That STREAK may be an untouchable.
… St Louis U Softball will be playing in the NCAA this spring. They won the automatic bid when they won the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament. The Softball Billikens defeated Fordham twice last Sunday. This is the 1st time EVER that SLU-Softball has qualified for the NCAA Tournament. The Softball Billikens won the bid by winning the Atlantic-10 conference softball tournament. The Billikens, now 34-22 for the season, will be playing int the Fayetteville Regional and hope to start a STREAK of their own as they begin the NCAA Tournament.
…some STREAKS you DON’T WANT!! The Chicago White Sox have finished with the worst record in the MLB for the past 2 seasons. They held records of 41-121 in 2024 and 61-101 in 2023. It appears that the White Sox will be surrendering this unwelcomed title this year. Currently the White Sox are the weakest team in the American league with a 14-29 record (about their usual over the past couple years. However, the Colorado Rockies are a woeful 7-36 for 2025!! That’s less than 1 win per week!! They are on pace for 30 wins for the entire 2025 season! Recently, they were SHUT OUT for the entire series….ugh!! Meanwhile, It looks like our Cards are starting their climb back upwards this season. By comparison to Denver, we’re terrific 😊
…Please feel free to comment on any of the topics above. Agree/disagree—it doesn’t matter. I hoping now that you’ll start to form your own STREAK of checking out the Buzz each week 😊 You don’t have to do it running naked & w/o the Giggles! 😊 Thanks for your time & read! Pass the word!! Thanks!! Bob
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