† – Biggio has announced his retirement, effective at the end of the 2007 season.
‡ – Palmeiro has not officially declared retirement, but has not played since 2005.
† After leading the American League in 1942, Pesky missed the next three full seasons serving in World War Two. As 1942 was his rookie season, he is the only player to lead his league in hits for his first three seasons.
Where possible, hitting streaks that extend between seasons are broken down to show when the hits occurred. For example, Keeler's 1+44 indicates 1 hit in 1896, and 44 in 1897.
Major League Baseball recognizes two hitting streak records: Longest hitting streak in one season, and longest hitting streak over multiple seasons (e.g. Rollins 2005-2006).[3] Keeler's, Sisler's, and Rollins' streaks are listed as 44, 34, and 36 games when discussing single-season streaks, and 45, 35, and 38 games when discussing multiple-season streaks.
This list omits Denny Lyons of the 1887 American AssociationPhiladelphia Athletics, who had a 52-game hitting streak.[4] In 1887, the major leagues adopted a new rule which counted walks as hits, a rule which was dropped after that season. Lyons hit in 52 consecutive games that season, but his streak included two games (#22 and #44) in which his only "hits" were walks. In 1968, MLB ruled that walks in 1887 would not be counted as hits, so Lyons' streak was no longer recognized, though it still appears on some lists. In 2000 Major League Baseball reversed its 1968 decision, ruling that the statistics which were recognized in each year's official records should stand, even in cases where they were later proven incorrect. Paradoxically, the ruling affects only hit totals for the year; the batting champion for the year is not recognized as the all-time leader despite having the highest single-season average under the ruling, and Lyons' hitting streak is not recognized.
