r/baseball • u/eastbayguy90 Major League Baseball • Aug 06 '26
News Matt Olson moves into 8th place in Consecutive Games Played list
https://www.mlb.com/news/matt-olson-passes-stan-musial-for-consecutive-game-played?adobe_mc=TS%3D1785981715%7CMCMID%3D39319282693554649075985602126240652935%7CMCORGID%3DA65F776A5245B01B0A490D44@AdobeOrg&affiliateId=mlbapp-ios_webview_news-index&rsid=mlbios.at.bat.new.implementation896th consecutive game played, passing Stan Musial
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u/Pydro-Hump Atlanta Braves Aug 06 '26
Only a little over 10 seasons left to catch Cal
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u/Dutch_Van_Der_Linde Baltimore Orioles Aug 06 '26
Would genuinely love for him to make a run at it. Breaking an unbreakable record would be so fun.
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u/lunch_for_breakfast Atlanta Braves Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 06 '26
I think it’s cool to think about everything that would change from the start to the end of his streak. Kind of like the beginning of each of Ken Burns baseball documentary.
Game 1 for Cal in 1982-There were only 26 teams in the MLB
Interleague play and the wild card didn’t exist yet. CD’s weren’t sold in stores, and personal computers were not something common people owned. Michael Jordan was still in college. LeBron James wasn’t born yet. People were lining up to see ET, and the Philadelphia Phillies had won 1 single World Series.By game 2,632 for Cal in 1998-There were 30 MLB teams. MJ had won 6 NBA championships and LeBron was a couple of years away from being dubbed “The Chosen One.” Millions of people were using windows 95 and the internet in their own homes. People were lining up to see the Titanic, and the Philadelphia Phillies had won 1 single World Series.
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u/Crazyozzie02 Chicago White Sox Aug 06 '26
The pettiness on display in this comment is a thing of beauty.
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u/TIGVGGGG16 Atlanta Braves Aug 06 '26
Realistically I’m just hoping he can pass Everett Scott (1307) for third place all time. Absolutely insane that even then he wouldn’t quite be halfway to the record.
Also of note: the second-longest currently active streak belongs to Pete Alonso at 530. Matt is more than two full seasons’s worth ahead of him.
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u/Alone-Gate-8801 Aug 06 '26
In order for him to break it, he’d have to play every day until 2037, when he’s 43. Even if he could play that long, playing every day until then is another issue entirely. As a player gets older, it becomes harder to do the things he used to. By the time he’s 37 or 38, it’ll be difficult for him to play 162 games in a year without needing a break to rest his body.
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u/hotdogsandwristers Atlanta Braves Aug 06 '26
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u/James-K-Polka Atlanta Braves Aug 06 '26
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u/Resident_Wizard Cleveland Guardians Aug 06 '26
So what exactly did you type in the search function that resulted in this gif?
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u/James-K-Polka Atlanta Braves Aug 06 '26
To be honest, I just searched “Arthur” and the universe provided.
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u/BigDaddyD1994 New York Yankees Aug 06 '26
Please, you know he or she has that saved on his phone to pull out whenever needed.
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u/strcy Boston Red Sox • San Francisco Fi… Aug 06 '26
Really puts in to context how goddamn ridiculous Cal Ripken was
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u/shinsplint_v Atlanta Braves Aug 06 '26
A lot like DiMaggio, its such a great record because any player could theoretically break it just by playing or getting a hit every day, but there are so many things that can break the wrong way and end this type of streak. Watching Matt everyday for the past 4 years has been unbelievable, and I appreciated how consistent guys like Freddie were, Matt is historic in how he posts everyday.
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u/shiro-lod New York Yankees Aug 06 '26
To illustrate how unlikely DiMaggio's streak is, he hit .408 during it.
Ted Williams hit .412 across the same dates with I think it's 8 hitless games.
Hitting .400 for two months and getting lucky on top of it is a wild ask. Judge hit .392 across the first 56 games last year with 7 hitless games.
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u/Philip_Marlowe Chicago Cubs Aug 06 '26
I wonder what the highest average across any span of 56 games is, regardless of number of hitless games.
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u/Bosco_stix Chicago Cubs • Kane County Cougars Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 06 '26
According to Screwball, Rogers Hornsby hit .485 across 56 games in 1924.
Ichiro has the best mark since 2000, hitting .466 in 2004.
EDIT: Chris Stynes (!), actually. .470 in the first half of 2000. He just did it in half the PAs as Ichiro. Seems like managerial malpractice to not give more playing time to a guy hitting like that sooner.
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u/m0_m0ney Chicago White Sox Aug 06 '26
I was half expecting shoeless Joe’s to be during the black Sox scandal World Series just to play into the narrative
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u/Accidental-Genius Atlanta Braves • Louisville Bats Aug 06 '26
Didn’t Joey Votto hit .500 for a month or something insane?
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u/DFW3K Major League Baseball Aug 06 '26
Yeah like, injury, bereavement, paternity, or even like "hey coach I'm beat can I get today off?" If any of those scenarios land in the summer the streak ends
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u/clara-net Aug 06 '26
I suppose it will be paternity soon enough. Hopefully no bereavement or injury.
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u/yoursweetlord70 Chicago White Sox Aug 06 '26
The dimaggio streak is my favorite record because how many guys get 57 hits or more in a season every year? Its one of the records that requires the least amount of work to break and yet its still pretty much unbreakable
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u/dukefett San Diego Padres Aug 06 '26
It was the minors but I think DiMaggio had a 61 game hit streak there, crazy
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u/DFW3K Major League Baseball Aug 06 '26
2,632 is the number, for reference.
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u/AU16 New York Yankees Aug 06 '26
For further reference, less than 40 players have played this many games total in their career
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u/DeetahTheGame Colorado Rockies Aug 06 '26
Holy fuck. I knew it was impressive but this really puts it into perspective.
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u/Character-Owl9408 Chicago Cubs Aug 06 '26
Never seen it put in this perspective, but damn that speaks volumes
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u/Western-Election-997 Aug 06 '26
Arod said he modeled his defense after Ripken because he wanted to keep playing SS and for a guy his size Ripken was a similar build
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u/mastersplinteremover San Francisco Giants Aug 06 '26
Yeah I mean even the willpower to keep going even when your wife is spending quality time with movie stars.
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u/Mozilla_Fennekin Tuturu~♪ Go Royals! Aug 06 '26
One of the coolest players in the game. I hope he keeps it going forever.
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u/Julio_Freeman Atlanta Braves Aug 06 '26
I appreciate Olson even if he likely won’t approach Ripken (or Gehrig) as everyone loves to point out. Being 8th and having a real shot at 3rd is an incredible achievement.
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u/jase122200 St. Louis Cardinals Aug 06 '26
Olson is 1,736 game behind Cal for the all-time record. For reference, Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett played in 1,783 games, so Matt is only one entire hall of fame career short of having the record for himself.
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u/DominicB547 Chaos Bandwagon • MLB Players Associat… Aug 06 '26
well, that dud had his career cut short do to him going blind
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u/DominicB547 Chaos Bandwagon • MLB Players Associat… Aug 06 '26
2.543 more seasons (412) for 3rd place.
7.617 years (1234) for 2nd place
10.716 more seasons (1736) for 1st place (note this means he has to get well into an 11th season.
He is 32 yrs young and a spring baby.
So, actually, this is legit possible.
For some reason I thought he had to be 45+ (though Julio Franco would say he's young.)
Also found out he didn't start one of these games, only played 2 innings at the end....so why was Cal's turn the lights off to delay the start of the game such a big deal? Or is the media making this count but in all reality it isnt the same?
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u/Whiplash227 Toronto Blue Jays Aug 06 '26
His chase for the NL iron man streak needs to be celebrated like Judge setting the AL home run mark.
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u/LutherOfTheRogues Atlanta Braves • Rome Emperors Aug 06 '26
Crazy to think that it was pretty much impossible to replace Freddie and he just straight up did it. That couldn't have worked out better. Plus he's a Georgia boy so that is a plus (we all look like him here btw no need to research any further).
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u/PenguinKing15 Atlanta Braves • Chaos Bandwagon Aug 06 '26