50 Games and Counting
On May 17, 1987, Robin Ventura’s hitting streak reached 50 games.
He went 1-for-5 with a walk, a run scored and an RBI in Oklahoma State’s victory over the University of Oklahoma in the Big Eight Conference championship game at All-Sports Stadium in Oklahoma City.
The win secured the Cowboys’ seventh-straight Big Eight Conference tournament title, part of a run that had started in 1981 and would continue through 1996, the final season before Oklahoma State became a member of the Big 12 Conference and the Big Eight ceased to exist.
By then Ventura had already surpassed Arizona State’s Roger Schmuck, who hit safely in 45 straight games in 1971, and Wichita State’s Phil Stephenson, whose 47-game streak in 1981 had set the NCAA record.
What’s amazing is how quietly it all started.
On March 18, Ventura went 1-for-2 with a home run against Missouri Southern.
One game. Then another. Then another.
Somewhere along the way he also broke his own Oklahoma State record of 24 consecutive games, which he had set the previous season as a freshman.
Next came another NCAA Regional appearance, the seventh in a row for Oklahoma State, followed by what became an NCAA-record seventh-straight trip to the College World Series in Omaha.
Fifty-eight straight games.
An NCAA record.
And somehow, I was lucky enough to have a front-row seat for all of it.
I wrote more extensively about the streak back in September when my brain once again wandered into 1987.
If you missed it, you should read “Ventura Adds Another OSU Chapter” on You Know Jack!
