Francisco Rodriguez's windup and delivery is so exuberant that I feel bad when he doesn't get the call on a close pitch. It's like wasted effort.Baltimore, still needing something to celebrate besides being at the butt-end of a 30 to 3 loss Wednesday, can high-five Kevin Millar for extending his consecutive games on base safely streak to 51. But what's the record for CGOBS? In 2003 Barry Bonds reached base safely in 58 consecutive games, tying the NL record with Duke Snyder's 1954 effort, and that's fortunate because it means somebody has already done all the research for me.
Ted Williams in 1949 reached base safely 84 times-- amazingly done in 155 games. That's for a single season... I don't know if those numbers carried over to 1950 or if he was finishing up what he started in 1948. Either way, for that particular season Williams safely reached first base (and often beyond) in over half the games he played in.
While Williams finished the season batting .343 with 43 home runs and 159 RBIs, Millar is only batting .264 with 12 home runs and 54 RBIs. While it might be unfair to compare a Ted Williams MVP season with any given statistical Millar year, it is interesting to note how skeletal Millar's hitting has been even though he's on base all the time. Since the All-Star Break, Millar is hitting only .242 with a SLG% of .409. Credit the 13 of those 36 games he's gone hitless, but still scored a BB or HBP. In fact since his streak started in June his batting average has actually fallen from .249.
To be especially mean with our comparisons, during the 44 games in which Barry Bonds' reached base safely after the All-Star Break he batted .393, had a SLG% of .838, and went hitless only 11 times.
So of those who've had substantial CGOBS streaks (Williams with 84, Joe DiMaggio with 74 in 1941, Snider with 58 in 1954, Bonds with 58), three of them won MVPs in their respective streak seasons. Only the Duke missed the award, but his offensive numbers were nearly identical to MVP winner Willie Mays.
I'm not entirely convinced that Kevin Millar has a shot at the MVP award this season (understatement used for comedic effect), but he is keeping some good company.Also, Kevin, Gene Simmons doesn't think you're wearing enough eye black.
