I’m not sure if anyone else feels this way, but as I have gotten older, my love of sports has diminished.  Not enough to make me not obsessed or anything, but it’s easy for some interest to wane due to those things called “responsibilities” - or the fact that I am now older than many of the players and it’s kind of strange to worship those younger than you so much. Baseball is a different story, though.  This was the most excited for baseball I have ever been, and my love for it grows every year.  It has been an absolute pleasure to have baseball back this week. I even took in an entire Marlins/Nationals game.

As for the Top 7, this week’s list looks at the most impressive baseball streaks of the last 20 years, dating back to 1989 (more on why that is important later).  The list originally started with all sports, but there were so many impressive baseball streaks, that non-baseball will be dealt with next week.  Onto the list.

7. Atlanta Braves

It’s amazing to think about the transformation of the Braves during their run of 14 straight division titles.  In 1991, they were the worst-to-first former laughingstock of the league who had about 90% of the country behind them as they made the World Series.  For the next couple of years, they were known as the team who always made a late charge and made the playoffs.  After winning the World Series only once in the 90s despite making the playoffs every year, they became the Bills of baseball.  When their run finally ended, they were known as the team in the playoffs who could rarely sell the games out, and if they did, it was to 60% Cub fans.  This run is still unbelievable, but it takes a hit for two reasons: first, the Yankees just had their own 13-year playoff-making run come to an end, and the Braves may not have even made it during the strike year of 1994.



6. Bobby Jenks

In probably the most underrated streak on the list, Jenks retired 41 straight batters during the 2007 season, tying the major league record.  Had this been a starting pitcher, it probably would have gained much more notoriety, but doing it as a reliever is probably even more impressive since he had to keep it up over a 27-day span.  Jenks is also responsible for perhaps the most obvious strikeout in history, hosing down Juan Encarnacion of the Cards to complete a 2006 sweep.  Did you know that there is a website where you can bet on games during the games?  For fans of teams who watch games all of the time, it seems like you can make a few bucks betting on obvious strikeouts.  Almost every team has a guy who you can predict, with 97% accuracy, certain times that he will strike out.  A better term for this may be “The Ron Gant of… blank.”



5. Albert Pujols

The Great Pujols has had 8 years in a row with (at the very least) a .300 average, 30 homers, and 100 RBI.  If you also added in “at least 99 runs,” he would have that as well.  It’s hard to not call him at least a little underrated too—his defense doesn’t get the mainstream credit it deserves, and he was robbed of at least one MVP.  This season, he already looks locked in like it’s June or July. (Editor's note: Jason Major has been penalized one point for early season over-reaction. Major, two minutes for over-reaction.) What would an Albert Pujols career year look like?  .375/51/139 with another 50 doubles?



4. Anthony Young

Young is baseball’s version of that one guy you always hear about who was struck by lightning twice.  He lost 27 straight decisions during seasons where his ERAs were  4.17 and 3.77.  By comparison, Jason Marquis has won 10 or more games five years in a row, and his ERA has been below 3.77 once (as well as above 6 once).



3. Eric Gagne

Over a three-year span, Gagne converted 84 straight saves.  For fans of teams like the Cardinals, it’s simply unfathomable to think of such a streak when your bullpen can’t seemingly go four games without blowing one.  This one’s true longevity and sense of accomplishment is yet to be determined because saves are a relatively new stat.  In addition, there is the whole deal about sometimes only having to protect a three-run lead over one inning in order to get a save.  As Henry Rowengartner proved, it is possible to have a beyond-atrocious outing and still rack one up.  Actually, Matt Lindstrom had a great example of that on Wednesday: loaded the bases, gave up a run, had to have a diving play made on a laser by Austin Kearns to end the game, and still had a two-run win and a save to show for it.  Gagne has another ridiculous streak: he once saved six consecutive team games for the Dodgers, tying The Shooter, Rod Beck, for longest ever.



2. Oakland A’s

It always seems like when books or movies follow teams or players, something amazing happens.  In Season on the Brink, Indiana wins the national title.  In “Wrestling With Shadows,” Vince McMahon screws Bret Hart out of the WWF title.  During Moneyball, the A’s go on a 20-game win streak.  Just two of the wins were by one run.  The craziest part is that after losing, they rattled off three more in a row, making them 23-1 in a 24-game span.  Reasons like this and the 2007 Rockies are why you shouldn’t completely count teams out, even when ESPN has their playoff probability at 1.4% in late July.  There is another team streak more amazing, the Orioles’ 21-game losing streak to begin 1988, but it misses this list’s cut by one year.



1. Cal Ripken

As goes with any record as huge as this one was, it took some criticism—that he should have been out of the lineup once he wasn’t a top player but kept it going for selfish reasons, that he shifted from shortstop too late, among other complaints—but Miguel Tejada had the longest current streak since end back in 2007, and it was 1152, or not even half of Ripken’s 2,632.  It’s hard to say that records will “never” be broken, but it is hard to imagine anyone topping this one.  By the way, Orel Hershiser’s 59 straight scoreless innings streak would have beaten this one, had it not happened in 1988.



The Top 7 is written by Jason Major. He's entering his 7th straight baseball season with at least four bedroom posters of Pujols on his wall. Email him at jason@joesportsfan.com.