Which record will be broken first?

[VoxAngelikus]

Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak


or


Ted Williams .406 season batting average?

[NOTKyle]

That hitting streak will never be broken ever.

[Stax]

.400 AVG. The hitting streak is a freak of circumstance while .400 is a product of skill. Given how often you see .370+ seasons (not super commonplace, but more than you see say... 35+ game hitting streaks), someone going a bit further and getting .400 doesn't seem impossible.

[TheImpossibleMan]

At some point, a really talented player will get lucky and hit .400. But a 56 game hitting streak is more freak occurrence than pure skill, like flipping a coin and getting heads 56 times in a row.

[Mustard]

You know what, call me crazy all you wish, but I think Ichiro will break that 56 game hitting streak.

[Stax]

You know what, call me crazy all you wish, but I think Ichiro will break that 56 game hitting streak.

Ichiro is the kind of player who can do it, but look at him. Even in the year where he recorded 262 hits in 161 games (1.6 hits per game) he didn't come close. Heck, he just had his career-best (in MLB, I believe) hitting streak end last month at 27, only HALF of the way there.

[ADD]

I think I'll never see either broken in my life time, but because it is a freak thing and sort of comes out of nowhere, I went with the hit streak. It seems like ESPN makes a big deal out of it any time some hits 20 in a row, which isn't even half way (more like about a third). We've seen guys flirt with .400 as well, but no one's been able to keep it going. Both records are unbelievably impressive and hard to do, and that's why I think both are going to be safe for a very long time.

[Stax]

Past 11 years MLB leaders in AVG and the % they are of .400:

2008: .364 (91% there)
2007: .363 (91% there)
2006: .347 (87% there)
2005: .335 (84% there)
2004: .372, .362 (93%, 91% there)
2003: .359 (90% there)
2002: .370 (93% there)
2001: .350 (two) (88% there twice)
2000: .372 (two) (93% there twice)
1999: .379 (95% there)

That's a range of 84%-95% (.335-379). A similar range in terms of hitting streaks relative to DiMaggio would be 47 and 53, and only Rose has ever even gotten to 44.

People routinely get within 10% of the .400 mark, but as ADD notes people start chatting when you've even gotten FIFTY percent of DiMaggio's mark.

William's achievement is more impressive and meaningful, but DiMaggio's is harder to break.

[Stax]

Weird fact, know who has the 2nd longest MINOR league hitting streak?

Joe DiMaggio, 61 games

[marquis]

neither will ever be broken. It takes too much against such high competition everyday