42 Insane Baseball Facts & Stats That Will Never Ever Be Broken

Part of the beauty of baseball lies in its timeless dance with numbers, a rhythm that pulses through every inning, which can echo through generations and etch itself into history.

Actually, let’s simplify: some baseball stats are insane.

Numbers and stats are ingrained so naturally into the game. They can be layered in so many different ways, spark conversations, offering insights, and even stand out as, “there’s no way that’s true.”

These 42 insane baseball stats aren’t just figures; they’re the heartbeat of a sport that thrives on the improbable, the unforgettable, and the beautifully absurd. Now, they’re yours to marvel at, and live rent-free in your head, too.

Next time you’re talkin’ baseball stats, records, and milestones that will never be broken, try out any (and all) of these crazy baseball stats that will live on forever, and hopefully trigger more baseball stories for years to come.

Take note, these stats vary in terms of oddities, impressive feats, and stats that will probably never be broken. For that reason, this isn’t a ranking. Just an enjoyable bulk of knowledge. With that said, let us know in the comments which you think is the craziest “wait…what?!” stat of them all.

We’ll kick off the list with a couple of obvious but legendary records that need to be mentioned. But dig through these wild stats and facts to stand out at the next baseball viewing party. Because, let’s be honest: who doesn’t love a “hey, did you know…” moment during commercial breaks.

42. Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak

Joe DiMaggio made baseball history for the Yankees in 1941 by putting together a record 56-game hitting streak.

Forget baseball, it remains one of the most famous streaks in sports. Honestly, nobody’s seriously challenged the mark since. (The closest anyone’s come in the modern era is Pete Rose — 44 games for the Reds in 1978…)

41. Cal Ripken Jr.s “Iron Man” streak: 2,632 consecutive games played

2,632 games played in a row, ’nuff said.

40. Cy Young threw 92% Complete Games

39. Stan Musial retired with the exact same amount of hits at home and on the road

Musial retired with 3,630 hits: 1,815 at home and 1,815 on the road.

38. Barry Bonds has more intentional walks than the entire Tampa Bay Rays franchise

• Bonds (1986 – 2007): 688
• Tampa Bay Rays (1998-): 685

37. Steve Carleton won 27 games in a season when his team only won 59

In 1972, the Philadelphia Phillies went 59-72 and Steve Carleton won 27 of them. The Hall of Famer went 27-10 with a 1.97 ERA, winning his 1st of four Cy Young awards.

36. Fernando Tatis hit two Grand Slams in a single inning

In April 1999, Tatis hit two Grand Slams (2 HR, 8 RBI) in the same inning, both off Dodgers pitcher Chan Ho Park.

According to Baseball-Reference, there have been more than 4 million innings pitched in Major League history. And this was the only one, in which the same player hit two Grand Salamis.

(Editor’s Note: We highly recommend reading more. MLB.com has great insights of a deeper dive of this one-in-a-million feat.)

35. Johnny Vander Meer threw 2 no-hitters in a row

Come on, this is unbreakable.

What’s next, three consecutive no-hit starts?

34. Tony Gwynn only struck out 434 times in 20 years

By the way, that’s 10,232 plate appearances — which means Gwynn struck out a mere 0.04% of the time over the course of 2,440 games.

33. Tony Gwynn would have hit above .300 for his career, even if he went 0 for his last 1,183 at-bats

Tony Gwynn’s career batting average was so high that he could have gone 0 for the last 1,183 at-bats and still finished with a career average above .300.

32. Ichiro got his 3rd MLB hit in his 10th at-bat. His career batting average never dipped under .300 afterwards

In his 10th career plate appearance, Ichiro Suzuki singled to bring his career average to .300. In his final 10,724 @MLB plate appearances, Ichiro’s career batting average never dropped below .300. #IchiroHOF pic.twitter.com/6l2WHmWFZz

— Mariners PR (@MarinersPR) November 27, 2024

Unmatched consistency from Ichiro Suzuki throughout his 19 MLB seasons.

31. Khris Davis hit .247 for 4 straight seasons

This is a good example of the absolute oddities that make baseball so beautiful. In over 120 games for four consecutive seasons, Davis hit exactly .247.

Think about every bloop single, caught line drive, or infield single that made this possible over the course of four seasons.

30. Only 0.01% of batters Greg Maddux faced saw a 3-0 count

Maddux faced 20,421 batters in his career. Of those, only 310 batters saw a 3-0 count. Of those 310, 177 were from intentional walks.

29. The Houston Astros once threw two Immaculate Innings in the same game

In 2022, Astros starter Luis Garcia and reliever Phil Maton each threw an immaculate inning: nine pitches, three strikeouts, against the Texas Rangers

28. Randy Johnson + fastball = deceased bird

Not a record, at all. But come on, this can’t not be mentioned. The sheer odds of hitting a bird with a pitch mid-flight are microscopic. This won’t ever happen again, if you tried a million times.

27. In 2004, Barry Bonds had 373 at-bats & he reached base safely 376 times

No, that isn’t a typo.

In 2004, Bonds was walked 232 times, 120 of which were of the intentional variety (both are single-season records).

He reached base 376 times in 617 plate appearances but only had 373 official at-bats.

He was feared so much as a hitter, he was intentionally walked… with the bases loaded.

26. Don Mattingly holds the record for most grand slams in a season with 6 (except for that one year, he never hit a grand slam before or after)

How fun.

25. CC Sabathia led both leagues in shutouts (in the same year)

In 2008, Sabathia had two shutouts while pitching for Cleveland, and three after getting traded to Milwaukee, both of which led each league.

24. Cecil & Prince Fielder ended their careers with 319 home runs, each

How cute, like father, like son.

But there’s more.

MLB’s Sarah Langs dug deeper and found the father and son also matched each other with:

• 97 2-out home runs
• 49 4th-inning home runs
• 29 5th-inning home runs
• 18 9th-inning home runs

23. You wouldn’t fill two-thirds of a baseball stadium’s seating capacity with past and current MLB players

Stick with us here.

If you sat every player to ever played at least one game in the Major Leagues inside Progressive Field (the MLB stadium with the smallest seating capacity), you wouldn’t fill two thirds of the seats.

Of those players, under 3% have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

How’s that for perspective?

22. Orel Hershiser threw 59 consecutive scoreless innings

In 1988, Orel Hershiser set the record for the longest scoreless streak in AL/NL history at 59 innings, over the course of seven games.

21. More people have walked on the moon than scored on Mariano Rivera in the postseason

More people have walked on the moon (12) than men who have scored against Mariano Rivera in the postseason (11).

20. Sammy Sosa is the only player to hit 60+ home runs in a season three times, but didn’t lead the league in any of those three seasons

• 1998: Sosa (66), McGwire (70)
• 1999: Sosa (63), McGwire (65)
• 2001: Sosa (64), Bonds (72)

Ouch.

19. Nolan Ryan never won a Cy Young award

Nolan Ryan threw 7 no-hitters, 12 one-hitters, is the all-time strikeout leader (5,714), pitched across four different decades, and never won a Cy Young award.

18. Tom Glavine was 2-4 with a 5.54 ERA in his both first season in 1987 and his last season in 2008

Another statistical marvel.

17. Jamie Moyer faced 8.9% of all MLB players ever

Think about it this way: he gave up home runs to both Mike Schmidt and Giancarlo Stanton, over the course of 25 MLB seasons (4,074 IP)

16. Hack Wilson’s 191 RBIs in 1930

The closest any player has come in the post-WWII era is Manny Ramirez in 1999 (with 165).

15. Chief Wilson’s 36 triples in 1912

A couple of Wilsons (no relation) with unbreakable records.

14. Joe Sewell’s three-strikeout season in 1932

Arguably the toughest hitter to strike out in the history of the game, Sewell’s career punchout percentage (.014%) is lunacy. Over the course of 576 plate appearances in 1932, Sewell struck out three times. THREE.

13. Steve Carlton’s 146 career pick-offs

Carlton might have had the nastiest move in MLB history. He had double-digit pick-offs in four seasons, topping out at 19 in 1977.

12. Nolan Ryan’s 5,714 career strikeouts

Nobody will ever catch Ryan.

His career highlights include six 300-strikeout seasons, fifteen 200-K seasons, and he led the Bigs in strikeouts eleven times.

The next closest player is Randy Johnson, who has 839 fewer strikeouts at 4,875.

11. Ichiro’s 10 consecutive seasons with 200 hits

From 2001 to 2010, Ichiro Suzuki‘s hit totals ranged from 206 to 262 — and he led the league seven times.

10. Maury Wills played 165 regular-season games in one season

Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Maury Wills played in all of the team’s 165 regular-season games in 1962.

The Dodgers and Giants played in a best-of-three tie-breaker playoff, back when there was no such things as multi-round playoffs or wild cards.

9. Don Larsen’s perfect game in Game 5 of the World Series

In Game 5 of the 1965 World Series, Don Larsen threw a perfect game for the New York Yankees against the Brooklyn Dodgers, in a remarkable feat.

The Yankees went on to win the World Series 4-3, and Larsen was named MVP.

8. Rickey Henderson’s 130 Stolen Bases in a season

Rickey Henderson swiped 130 bags in 1982. For contrast, that’s more than every team in 2021.

7. Ernie Banks played the most games without a postseason appearance (2,528)

Ernie Banks played his entire 19-year career with the Chicago Cubs and never played a single postseason game.

6. The Alous formed the first-ever all-brother outfield

On September 15, 1963, Felipe, Mateo, and Jesús Alou of the San Francisco Giants appeared in the first — and still the only — “all-brother” outfield in MLB history.

So cool. How can you beat this?

5. Hits in 12 straight at-bats

Jose Miranda got a hit in 12 consecutive at-bats for the Twins over a four-game stint in 2024.

He joined three others in the history books: Johnny Kling (1902), Pinky Higgins (1938), and Walt Dropo (1952).

4. Paul Konerko and Jermaine Dye each hit their 300th career home run back-to-back

White Sox sluggers Konerko and Dye each reached the 300-home run plateau, by way of back-to-back bombs in 2009.

The Elias Sports Bureau says it was the first (and only) time teammates hit century milestone homers in the same game, let alone back-to-back.

3. In 1979 Phil Niekro went 21-20 and led the league in both wins AND losses

In 1979 for Atlanta, Phil Niekro had a very up-and-down season. He led the National League in wins with 21 while leading the Majors in losses with 20.

2. Kirby Puckett is the only player in MLB history with a zero-homer season and a 30-home run season

In Puckett’s rookie season in 1984, he hit zero home runs. He hit 31 in 1986.

More context:

• 583 plate appearances with 0 home runs (1984)
• 723 plate appearances with 31 home runs (1986)

1. Ken Johnson pitches a 9-inning no-hitter for Houston … and loses

On April 23, 1964, Johnson was pitching for the Houston Colt .45s, when Pete Rose reached on an error in the 9th — during a no-no.

Rose advanced to 2nd on another error (by Johnson himself), and then to 3rd on a groundout. The next batter (Vada Pinson) hit a grounder to second that was misplayed, and Rose scored.

The Colt 45s didn’t score in the bottom of the 9th, and lost to the Reds… on a no-hitter.

Johnson’s final line: 9 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 9 K.