To all who read this-

I'm having a minor, friendly, debate with the commissioner of a league I play in.

The crux of the debate is this:

It was my opinion/assertion, that WiS tallies "hitting streaks" incorrectly, than what the everyday baseball fan knows them to be.
To wit, WiS simply tallies consecutive GAMES PLAYED IN with a hit during a respective streak. You can have a player get a hit in 3 straight games, send him to the minors, recall him 50 games later, and his 3 game hit streak is still active.
My understanding of a valid hitting streak, such as DiMaggio and Roses', was that you also HAD TO PLAY EVERY GAME CONSECUTIVELY AND HIT IN SAID GAMES, for a hitting streak.

What say you?

MLB does not define it that way

If there’s a game where you have 0 ABs in, then it won’t count against ya.

Posted by d_rock97 on 7/19/2020 12:21:00 AM (view original):
If there’s a game where you have 0 ABs in, then it won’t count against ya.

That's not quite true.

Here's the relevant excerpt from MLB rule 9.23(b):
(b) Consecutive-Game Hitting Streaks
-- A consecutive-game hitting streak shall not be terminated if all of a batter’s plate appearances (one or more) in a game result in a base on balls, hit batsman, defensive interference or obstruction or a sacrifice bunt. The streak shall terminate if the player has a sacrifice fly and no hit.
-- A player’s individual consecutive-game hitting streak shall be determined by the consecutive games in which such player appears and is not determined by his club’s games.

So, you could come into the game as a PH, hit a sac fly (no at bat in the box score) and that would end your streak.

But to the original question, note that the second part of this rule very clearly states that it's determined by games in which the PLAYER appears, not by his team's games. So if you don't appear in a game that your team plays, that does NOT end the hitting streak.

A good example of a hitting streak in which a player missed games is Benito Santiago 1987. 34 games, from 8/25/87 through 10/2/87.

This is listed on any list of the longest MLB streaks ever, and it was notable at the time for many reasons:
-- He was a catcher
-- He was a rookie
-- It happened at the very end of the season and there were questions about whether the streak should continue into 1988. Ultimately the streak ended in the second to last game of 1987, so that became a moot point.

But if you go through the daily box scores (www.retrosheet.org is a good source) you can find examples of off days that Santiago had (as any catcher would) during his 34 game hitting streak). Just to pick one, he did not play on September 20th against the Astros.

Wow! Thanks