Ask Mike: Going streaking
Hey Guys,
Baseball is a game of superstitions. Players won’t talk to a pitcher while he’s throwing a no-hitter for fear of jinxing it. Some big leaguers will refuse to shave after winning a post-season game (a trend borrowed from the burley NHL). One of the most commonly believed superstitions is that teams go on streaks.
Of course, teams win or lose several games in a row all the time. The idea of a streak runs deeper than that. When a team is on a hot streak, it’s almost as if some other force is at work. And the opposite can be true as well. When a team is in a slump, players will try just about anything to get rid of the perceived bad luck.
I looked up some of baseball’s longest streaks, both good and bad. No reason, other than to see if the good streaks outweighed the bad or vice versa. The longest winning streak in baseball belongs to the 1916 New York Giants, who won (or tied) 26 games in a row. In 2002, the Oakland A’s won 20 games in a row, an American League record.
And what of the losers? They may be on going to their second World Series in a row, but back in 1961, the Philadelphia Phillies were woefully awful. According to the stat maniacs at Baseball Reference, the Phillies dropped 23 games in a row that season, finishing 47-107. Needless to say, they didn’t win any championships that year.
What are some other impressive streaks in pro sports? And what do you think of superstitions in baseball? Do you believe in ‘em or are they just a bunch of hooey? Throw some salt over your shoulder and leave me a comment below.
Thanks for reading,
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Dear Mike, your headline Going streaking is a bit unfortunate as the term streaking also has a slang meaning of running around naked including at a sporting event. Look it up on wikipedia. (Warning the article has photos of nudity.)
TobyF: Writers often use different literary techniques in order to engage their audience. One such is word play, or a play on words. Mike’s article was about baseball traditions, the fact that “Going streaking” could mean running naked (something that occurs sometimes at baseball games) was most likely noted by the author.
If you want you can look up Word Play on wikipedia
…Darnit. I was hoping for something a little more exciting. XDD This is cool, too, though.
You made the headline that on purpose. Lmao.
I don’t really believe it, but if is this all you do in life, I can understand it. I, however, cannot condone wearing the same shirt for a month to help your team win…
This article was awesome….the only thing better was the comments. “….look up word play on wikipedia” Hilarious!
how do you scream much louder
Win or lose it would be a more interesting game if they played in the nude.
It’s just a bunch of you know what, Teams win because of the abilities of the players nothing more.
Teams don’t win because they are better than other teams, they just suck less. Baseball is a sport of taking advantage of others’ mistakes. There is no luck involved.
I noticed Brad Lidge of the Phillies has not shaved his goatee. When I saw it, I thought he might be superstitious. Whatever dude…it worked ! But so does prayer…….
GO PHILLIES !!!!!!!
Love the article… love baseball.
Jack Rabit, the game would be disturbing if they played in the nude.
I know ballplayers don’t like to step on the foul line chalk before the game start cuz its apparently bad luck.
Oh and the fact that you can’t talk about a no hitter after the fifth inning. I believe that one.
It is very irritating to me when an author uses a racy title to get people to read their article. Is it because you don’t think your article is not worth reading? Because I certainly thought it did. If Mike had actually come up with a title “Winning Streaks in Sports” I would probably have clicked on it. But since even Mike didn’t think it was worth mentioning winning streaks in his title I won’t bother to discuss winning streaks either. Good job, you got your attention, and this time it wasn’t positive.
lol u did put that name on purpose. this was the only time i looked on ask mike and it wasnt even what i thought it would be. thnx alot.
By the way, what you did here is only a little different than what that idiot Heene did in setting that balloon off, only he had a national audience. Heene mislead the people to get attention and you did the same in putting a misleading title – to get attention.
Remember the losing streak that the Detroit Lions were in this season and most of last?
I too was hoping for this to be about streaking.
Mike, you grabbed my attention, and then you just stomped it on the floor.
High morale/low morale is at work when teams get into streaks. Having high confidence can improve performance. It is like a vicious circle or a pleasant circle.
Superstitions abound when people have a lot riding on an outcome they cannot control, such as farmers and the weather, bettors, etc. Athletic events can mean big money, so it’s not surprising that ball players are superstitious.
When I learned to fly I carried a ‘lucky Peso’ in my pocket, even though I know better.
Ok. that was really insteresting but what was the point?
To all you critics of the title:
Get over yourself. What Mike here did was tacticful, Maybe you should educate yourself on literary tactics.
I thought the article was very interesting, brings a very good point. Not only in baseball but also in other supersticous issues. I was entertained =)
Why would anyone look up anything on Wikipedia? It is a sourceless site that anyone can change. I would never suggest going to Wikipedia for anything worth knowing.
How about the 1979-80 Philadelphia Flyers of the NHL. A professional sports record of 35 games in a row without a loss. Or, the Los Angeles Lakers’ 33-game winning streak in the early 1970s?
Although i dont believe in superstitions myself. i do think that the mental preperation that goes into all professional sports is important. To some players being superstisious just allows them to get in the right frame of mind to perform.
did i spell the word wrong
Hahahahahahhaaaa! Going streaking means running around naked. Haha this is a mild fail (;
lools
nice blog i understand what you are trying to say 
Mike,
Although no one would compare a skill game like baseball to flipping a coin, when you look at all the games for all the teams over a century you are talking about a million games. The law of large numbers says the W/L stats are like looking at coin tosses (50/50).
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Most people don’t understand that it is highly unlikely that you can play a game for an extended period of time without a “streak”. This misperception is exploited by casinos to make a lot of money. Most people can tell you that the odds of flipping a coin six times in a row and getting either all heads or tails is 1/32. But most people don’t understand that if you flip a coin 45 times in a row, the odds are 50/50 that you will get at least one streak of length five. The mathematics to do this calculation is fairly sophisticated (Markov chain theory, etc.).
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As a result, “streaks” are seen as highly unusual, and are treated with a great deal of reverence. Gamblers are reluctant to break a winning streak and the adrenaline keeps them gambling. But the probability is that a losing streak will come along shortly.
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Once again, I know that sports statistics are not throws of dice or flips of coins, but if you look at enough of them they start to resemble random events. The same laws of probability apply.
Yeah, it is a play on words, you guys. Also known as a pun… Geez. And, yes his title is misleading, but also intriguing. I applaud your use of the English language, bub.
Is this mike huckabb
Contrary to the first comment, I thought the use of the word “streaking” was an intentional double entendre and the “look it up” crack was patronizing.
Anyway, the perception of good and bad “streaks” is also prevalent in poker games. I think streaks in sports can sometimes be perpetuated as a self-fulfilling prophesy. where losses, for example, can be incurred because the team members are totally bummed out.
In cards, on the other hand, my feeling is that it’s just blind statistics. However, I’ve witnessed players become furious because a new player joined the game and that changed the way “the cards were running”, thereby causing the player’s subsequent bad hands.
How about 101 years of not winning a world series.
Well, I’m a Cubs fan and I know all about curses and losing streaks, but I do believe that there is some kind of special force that works in sports. Whether it’s lucky charms or momentum in football games, something makes the players play harder and lead their team to a win.
Steven, did you really just compare someone wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment use and manpower to someone wasting a few minutes of time?
Geez, calm down. Maybe you should go streaking once in a while.
I play competitive softball and i am VERY supersticouse. I have 2 wear a hat in the outfield or i spaz out and cant catch the ball; i have 2 wear batting gloves when hitting nd go through a special routine
i guess you could call me crazy but im just really really supersticiouse
you guys realize that you can read the first couple lines of the article directly below the title prior to clicking on it….it clearly is not about running around naked….i’ve never seen so many people complain about NOTHING in all my life….ok I take that back
why does nobody understand the title of this article? lol
fail streaks = chi cubs
GO YANKEES!!
ha ha good luck because i do no
I’ve lost what little respect I still had for the game. After the Angels’ catcher tagging out two players off base but only one was called out, I could see pretty clearly that the Yankees had 15 players working for them against the Angels’ 9. So let’s throw out superstition. All you really need is a “good” umpire that makes sure your team is not going to lose the big game. Sure enough that’s exactly what happened.
Wait – so I wasn’t the only one to have instinctively thought that this article was going to be about people running naked across a baseball field?
As a baseball player I feel that superstitions are important to have. Keeping one’s habits regular helps you get in a streak. WHen things go well, players must try to replicate everything that contributed to that success. For instance, Hall of Famer Wade Boggs ate chicken on every day that he played baseball. He recognized that he was having success early in his career and since he loved chicken, he knew that if he did the little things similarly, his great play would seem like another habit.
What is your stance on streaking, as a verb, Mike?
QWERTY. I’m not sure, but I take your word for it as to keyboard layout. The reality is, however, that it doesn’t matter how or where you place the letters on a keyboard. When on learns to type, (I mean type – not one finger of each hand), they learn because the keyboard is memorized, I can type hundreds and hundreds of words/paragraphs without once looking at the keyboard. And if we rearranged the letters on the keyboard, after about a week my typing would be just as accurate and fast as ever. No criticism of your research, just a point being made from a person who has been typing for 40 years. Good luck.
In baseball it is all about the “Show me the MONEY”. The team with the most moolah is always the winning team because they can afford the better players, hands down. No arguement!
We know who that team is, obliviously.