Even if there is very little contact in and around the diamond, baseball is a very tough game.
Major Leaguers are asked to turn out for more than 160 regular season starts, with the cream of the crop going to work again in the month of October.
For those in the batting box, their task is a simple one made hard by velocity, physics and sometimes a banned substance or two.
With balls hurled at them from just over 60 feet away moving at speeds of between 90 and more than 100 miles per hour, putting bat on ball is no mean feat.
Due to this, even while baseball remains a zero-sum game, it isn't one where failure is a death sentence, with even the greatest hitters in the game's history failing to connect on seven out of ten at-bats.
And with only three or four at-bats in every game on offer, the ability to get a hit each day, let alone string a significant streak of them together, is a task often too tough for most.
Nevertheless, the champions prevail, locking their legacies into the record books, putting their plaques on the walls at Cooperstown and keeping their deeds in the hearts and minds of fanatics every where.
From 'The Yankee Clipper' to a contemporary Phillies champion, here are the ten players who boast the longest hitting streaks in Major League Baseball history.
1. Joe DiMaggio (New York Yankees) - 56-game streak - 1941ย
2. 'Wee' Willie Keeler (Baltimore Orioles) - 45-game streak - 1896-1897ย
3. Pete Rose (Cincinnati Reds) - 44-game streak - 1978ย
4. Bill Dahlen (Chicago Colts) - 42-game streak - 1894ย
5. George Sisler (St. Louis Browns) - 41-game streak - 1922ย
6. Ty Cobb (Detroit Tigers) - 40-game streak - 1911
7. Paul Molitor (Milwaukee Brewers) - 39-game streak - 1987ย
8. Jimmy Rollins (Philadelphia Phillies) - 38-game streak - 2005-2006
9. Tommy Holmes (Boston Braves) - 37-game streak - 1945ย
10. Gene DeMontreville (Washington Senators) - 36-game streak - 1896-1897
