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Morley’s Historic Base Hits Streak Broken at Fifty Three.

Manchester United fell short of victory yesterday against Preston North End by a single run, but even so, the story was that of William Morley, who had struck a base hits streak of 53 consecutive games coming into the afternoon’s match.

The streak began on May 20 when Morley scratched out a base hit against Burton United, and he did not fail to hit safely in a game from that date until yesterday, when he made no hits in five chances at the bat. Morley did get on base twice, once in the first innings on a base on balls, and more controversially, also in the ninth innings when Preston third base man Street muffed a ground ball to his left that some thought Morley might have beaten for a base hit had Street handled the chance perfectly. But the official scorer, a Manchester man to boot, decided on an error, and that was that for the hits streak. Morley, who would have been the runner to draw Red Devils level for the match had he scored, was instead stranded on the second base, which led to the United loss.

Nevertheless, there are many impressive aspects to the hits streak worth noting. Morley batted .486 during the streak, amassing 108 base hits in 222 at bats, and including 13 twobees, nine threebees, and three home runs. He scored 55 runs during the streak. He had two smaller streaks within the larger streak consisting of games with multiple base hits, one of thirteen games and the other of nine. Most importantly, Manchester United won 33 of the 53 matches during the streak, proving that Morley’s base hits streak was decidedly good for the business of winning.