So the Indians have won 21 consecutive games. Can you beat that?
Is it better than Jennie Finch鈥檚 60 straight pitching victories, 2001-02, at 蜜聊直播? Was it more difficult than Tucson High winning 52 straight baseball games from 1942-46?
Does it stir your emotions?
When UCLA blew its 88-game basketball winning streak on a winter afternoon in 1974, my mother walked downstairs and asked what all the screaming and yelling meant.
鈥淯CLA is actually losing,鈥 I said. 鈥淒on鈥檛 you just love it?鈥
Bill Walton still moans about that loss to Notre Dame on virtually every Pac-12 TV broadcast. It was 43 years ago.
I am more attracted by the Phillies鈥 23-game losing streak of 1961, an MLB record. I think it鈥檚 more newsworthy to be really bad than really good. The 鈥61 Phils were so bad that Hall of Fame pitcher Robin Roberts went 1-10.
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Here鈥檚 a streak for posterity: From 1973-79, Jerry Kindall鈥檚 蜜聊直播 baseball team went 39-0 against New Mexico. The 蜜聊直播 outscored the Lobos 349-133 and it wasn鈥檛 home cookin鈥. The 蜜聊直播 went 18-0 in Albuquerque during that long shower of W鈥檚.
In the 39th straight victory, 蜜聊直播鈥檚 lineup included future major-leaguers Terry Francona and Brad Mills, who are now, the manager and bench coach, respectively, of the incomparable Indians.
The Lobos declined to schedule 蜜聊直播 for the next 12 years. Finally, in 1991, when Tucson High grad and former Pima College baseball coach Rich Alday became the Lobos鈥 coach, the series resumed.
New Mexico won 5-3 in Tucson.
鈥淎s soon as the kids heard about the streak,鈥 said Alday, 鈥渢hey wanted to be the ones to stop it.鈥
The most romanticized winning streaks in Southern 蜜聊直播 history are 蜜聊直播鈥檚 81-game basketball blitz at Bear Down Gym, followed four decades later by a 71-game string of success at McKale Center.
But from 1969-73, a few miles up the highway from Thatcher, a Hoosiers-like 75-game winning streak 鈥 home, road and neutral courts 鈥 became one likely never to be bettered in 蜜聊直播.
The Pima High School Rough Riders, a Class C school in the middle of nowhere, went 75-0, which included 19 victories against Class B and Class A schools. The degree of difficulty will probably never be understood by anyone other than PHS coach Stan Smith.
About half of those 75 games were played in inhospitable Southern 蜜聊直播 venues against Patagonia, St. David, Sahuarita, Thatcher, Valley Union, Fort Thomas and in Lordsburg, New Mexico. Can you imagine what type of home cookin鈥 鈥 small-school officiating 鈥 brewed when the Rough Riders hit the road?
Nearby Thatcher, a larger school with an imposing basketball heritage, played Smith鈥檚 Rough Riders 10 times in the 75-game streak. Lost 鈥檈m all. A testament to Pima鈥檚 75-0 streak is that it survived Thatcher鈥檚 best shot, winning games 54-52, 62-59, 57-51 and 63-58.
Talk about earning it.
In 2002, 蜜聊直播鈥檚 Lorena Ochoa won seven consecutive college golf tournaments. During those seven events, the UA played against 83 teams, which means about 400 other golfers teed it up. Ochoa beat 鈥檈m all, from September until late May, at which time she finished No. 2 in the NCAA finals.
Is Cleveland鈥檚 21-game (and counting) streak any better?
From 1942-46, Tucson High won a state-record 32 consecutive football games.
It outscored opponents 807-81 and it didn鈥檛 beat up on struggling neighborhood chums like today鈥檚 Rincons and Catalinas, which weren鈥檛 yet established.
The Badgers of 鈥42-46 didn鈥檛 beat another Tucson school in its 32-0 streak. Amphitheater was Tucson鈥檚 only other high school, and the Panthers weren鈥檛 yet of the size to schedule Tucson. So the Badgers鈥 yearly schedule included Phoenix Union, which was the state鈥檚 athletic titan of the day, Phoenix St. Mary鈥檚, Mesa, North Phoenix, Douglas, Yuma, Bisbee and Glendale.
Only 15 of those 32 games were won in Tucson, which further created a legacy of excellence. The Badgers played such a difficult schedule that the 32 victories were sandwiched by a 1942 loss to Santa Barbara High School and 鈥46 setback to El Paso Austin High School.
When the Badgers won No. 32, a state championship showdown against the Mesa Jackrabbits, a crowd of 7,500 filled a Mesa stadium to watch sainted running back Wilford 鈥淲hizzer鈥 White take on THS鈥檚 31-game streak.
Tucson won 9-0, but not before a goal-line stand for the ages, stopping the Whizzer four times from inside the 6-yard line to preserve a late 6-0 lead.
Some streaks can鈥檛 be diminished, which is certainly the case for the 鈥45 Badgers and the 鈥73 Rough Riders.
And some streaks are best forgotten, as the Futile Phillies of 鈥61 would attest.
From 2000 to 2003, 蜜聊直播 lost 13 consecutive Pac-10 home football games, a league record for home-field futility. It cost both Dick Tomey and John Mackovic their jobs.
You never know when a streak is ready to bust or bust out.
As 蜜聊直播鈥檚 home football losses mounted in 2003, Francona was employed as a bench coach by the A鈥檚.
A few months later, he was hired as manager of the Red Sox.
A year later, the Red Sox won their first World Series in 86 years. That was a streak-breaker like few others in sports history.
