From July 1, 1949, and until September 27, Ted Williams reached base safely by a hit or a walk in 84 consecutive games, which stands as the all-time record. On September 14 in Detroit, Williams passed Joe DiMaggio’s 1941 mark of 74 games, a streak that overlapped Joe D’s 56 consecutive games with a hit. Those two consecutive on-base streaks remain the longest in major league history.* A 69-game streak by Williams, also in 1941, ranks third.
These streaks of reaching base in consecutive games drew no attention in newspapers and magazines or on radio at the time they happened — nor did the concept of on-base average or percentage. The Sporting News Baseball Guide and Street & Smith’s Baseball Yearbook, for example, didn’t begin including on-base percentages until 1984. An article in a 2002 edition of SABR’s Baseball Research Journal by Herm Krabbenhoft helped draw attention to the on-base streaks of Williams, DiMaggio and others.
Krabbenhoft noted that Allan Roth, hired as a statistician for the Brooklyn Dodgers by Branch Rickey, produced an analysis that revealed a strong correlation between on-base percentage and runs scored. So in an August 1954, article in Life magazine, Rickey, by then the general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, stated: “The ability to get on base, or on-base average, is vital.”
Recognized or not, the pitcher who snapped Ted’s 84-game streak on September 28 at Griffith Stadium was right-hander Ray Scarborough of the Washington Senators. The game was played on a Wednesday night before an estimated 17,000 fans, a decent crowd for the last place Senators. The stadium’s seating capacity in late 1940s was just over 25,000.
Scarborough, who had a winning record for a team that would lose 104 games, struck out Williams twice and got him to fly out to short center in his three plate appearances. Williams was on deck when Johnny Pesky was retired for the third out in the top of the ninth.
Scarborough pitched a four-hitter to beat the Red Sox. Two of the four hits were by the opposing pitcher, Chuck Stobbs — one was a Texas-leaguer and the other an infield hit off Scarborough glove. The rookie Stobbs scored the lone Red Sox run after his bloop double in the sixth on a single by Dom DiMaggio. But the Nats rallied for two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning for a win that critically damaged Boston’s pennant drive. The loss became part of Red Sox lore as “the Scarborough Game.”
Stobbs, a future Senator, had Washington shut out on four hits until a leadoff single by Robert Ortiz in bottom of the ninth. Gil Coan, running for Ortiz, was bunted to second. An infield single by Eddie Robinson moved Coan to third base. Al Kozar’s single scored Coan and tied the game, 1-1. Red Sox manager Joe McCarthy lifted Stobbs for Ellis Kinder, who gave up a single, loading the bases with one out.
Mel Parnell replaced Kinder. Red Sox infielders expected a suicide squeeze. Indeed, on Parnell’s third pitch to light-hitting Al Evans, Robinson broke a bit too soon from third. Parnell pitch, a called strike, allowed catcher Birdie Tebbetts to move over quickly to make a tag. Robinson was caught trying to steal home for the second out.
Former all-star Buddy Lewis pinch-hit for Evans with the count still a ball and two strikes and runners now on second and third. Parnell’s next pitch was a curve ball that bounced wide and short of home plate. It deflected off Tebbett’s left shin-guard. Kozar scored from third on the wild pitch to give the Nats a 2-1 victory.
“What do you do against a guy like Scarborough, who is giving you the business all night?” Williams said to reporters after game. “Nobody ever had more stuff or pitched a better ball game since I’ve been in American League,” Williams was quoted by Shirley Povich of the Washington Post in his Sept. 30 column. The iconic Post sports writer made no mention of the on-base streak by Williams having been stopped.
“Scarborough threw a game that was 99 percent perfect,” Washington owner Clark Griffith told Povich.
The Red Sox had defeated Washington 16 of 19 times prior to the September 28 game. Both the Yankees in New York and the Red Sox in Washington were rained out on Sept. 29, adding to the drama of the pennant race.
Although the Sox beat Washington on Sept. 30, they lost the pennant by losing their last two games to the Yankees in New York. Williams reached base in each of the last three games. His on-base percentage for the season was .490, down from .497 in 1948 and .499 in 1947. Hard to believe? His OBP was .553 in 1941 and .526 in 1957, when he hit .388 at age 38.
Was he, overall, the greatest hitter of all-time? Just take a look at his main Baseball Reference page for all the bold type.
Here’s what esteemed author David Halberstam, wrote about the September 28 game in his famous baseball book Summer of ’49:
“Scarborough could decoy Williams better than any other pitcher in the league. It was not just a matter of his selection of pitches, it was his motion as well. He would show fastball, and then at the last minute, go to his curve. Forty years later, Williams paid Scarborough the ultimate accolade: He said that that he probably chased more balls out of the strike zone with Ray Scarborough than with any other pitcher.”
Based partly at the urging of Williams, the Red Sox eventually traded for Scarborough, but at 34 his arm was giving out.
Exactly a year before this game, Scarborough had helped cost the Sox the 1948 A.L. pennant by beating them, 4-2, dropping them two games behind Cleveland with four games to play.
So at least it wasn’t some bum who stopped the longest streak of all-time.
*Negro league records in qualified seasons are still incomplete, but as this is written no longer on-base streak has been documented.
The back of my Topps 1969 Ted Williams card
This also appeared in the Feb. 15, 2025, edition of Here’s the Pitch, the online newsletter of the Internet Baseball Writers Association.
Washington baseball history 