BOISE, Idaho — THIS DAY IN SPORTS…August 1, 1978:
Atlanta pitchers Larry McWilliams and Gene Garber hold Cincinnati’s Pete Rose hitless, snapping Rose’s 44-game hitting streak. The day before he had tied Wee Willie Keeler’s National League record (though Keeler’s mark has since been amended to 45). The streak started on June 14 against Dave Roberts of the Chicago Cubs (no relation to the current L.A. Dodgers manager). It included 70 hits, 13 of which were doubles—there were no triples and no home runs.
The pitchers list included luminaries such as Don Sutton, Tommy John, Vida Blue and Steve Carlton. Plus a pair of accomplished brothers, Joe and Phil Niekro. It was against Phil Niekro that Rose recorded the final hit in the streak on July 30. The remarkable stretch almost came to an end on July 19 against the Philadelphia Phillies. Rose was hitless when he came to bat in the eighth inning—and he walked. But the Reds sent six more batters to the plate in the eighth, giving Rose another shot in the ninth. And he laid down a bunt for an infield single.
The end of Rose’s run reinforced the legend of the most unbreakable of all major league records: Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak. Rose was the first one to come within 15 games of DiMaggio’s mark since it was set in 1941. Baseball Almanac noted, “No one was more interested than DiMaggio himself who often wished Rose well in the press, but was more than happy to keep his record when all was said and done.” The longest streak since has been 39 games by the Milwaukee Brewers’ Paul Molitor in 1987.
Rose would, of course, end up with the MLB career record for hits with 4,256. But his feats are secondary now, as he was banned from baseball in 1989 for betting on baseball as the manager of the Reds. And in early 1991, the Board of Directors of the National Baseball Hall of Fame approved a new rule to bar players on baseball's ineligible list from being eligible for election to the Hall. That move is debated to this day.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
