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MORGANTI HAS ANOTHER HISTORIC HIT STREAK
QUAKER ST. STAR BECOMES FIRST PLAYER EVER WITH TWO 40-GAME HITTING STREAKS

PHILADELPHIA (May 12, 1876) - Cross-city rivals Tiger Social Club and Quaker State are opening the N.B.B.O. season against each other, and Quaker St. won 11-7 at the Philadelphia Cricket Grounds on Friday to take a 2-1 series lead.

However, the outcome of the game wasn’t the big news of the afternoon, and neither was new 1B James Fisher’s Player of the Game performance (3/5, 1 R, 4 RBI). That honor went to 7x All-Star Ned Morganti.

Morganti, Quaker St.’s longest-tenured player at thirteen years with the club and ten seasons in the Senior Roster, entered Friday’s contest with a 39-game Hitting Streak. After grounding out and reaching via Error, in the bottom of the 5th Morganti hit a one-run Single off Tiger S.C. P Thomas Paddock that brought his streak to an even forty games in length.

Not only was Morganti’s hit significant in that it gave him the ninth forty-game Hitting Streak in N.B.B.O. history, but Morganti also became the first player in baseball history with two separate forty-game Hitting Streaks during his career.

Here is the new and updated list of forty-game Hitting Streaks in N.B.B.O. history:

• #1: 67 games by Peter Huff (Union) during 1871 (ended 8/5)
• #2: 49 games by Remi Scrovegni (Frontier) during 1874 (ended 8/5)
• #3: 42 games by William Gentilucci (Nassau Co.) during 1870 (ended 7/20)
• #4: 42 games by Cormack Alexander (K.C. & Q.S.) during 1867-68 (ended 5/22/68)
• #5: 41 games by Franklin Petty (Lake Erie) during 1869 (ended 7/7)
• #6: 41 games by William McQuaid (Flour City) during 1862-63 (ended 6/28/63)
• #7: 40 games by Henry Nabors (Victory during 1868-69 (ended 5/22/69)
• #8: 40 games by Ned Morganti (Quaker St.) during 1873-74 (ended 6/17/74)
• #9: 40 games by Ned Morganti (Quaker St.) during 1875-76 (ongoing)

Morganti’s other historic Hitting Streak ended at exactly forty games, so he’ll be hoping that he can get some hits tomorrow to make his current one a new career high.

Ned Morganti is undoubtedly the greatest player in Quaker St. history, and given his already lengthy list of accomplishments:

• 1x Tucker-Wheaton Cup champion (1871)
• 1x N.E.L. Batsman of the Year (1874)
• 1x N.E.L. Most Valuable Player (1872)
• 7x N.E.L. All-Star (1868, 70-75)
• 5x N.E.L. Team of the Year (1871-75)

• 3x N.E.L. leader in RBI (1872, 74-75)
• 3x N.E.L. leader in Hits (1871-73)
• 2x N.E.L. leader in Slugging & OPS (1874-75)
• 2x N.E.L. leader in Batsman WAR (1872, 74)

…adding, not one, but two forty-game Hitting Streaks to that résumé makes Morganti one of the most accomplished players in the history of the National Base Ball Association, and its greatest player since the league split in 1871.

Morganti has two more games against Tiger pitching this week, and given the rate at which both of their main pitchers allowed Hits last year (Thomas Paddock: 11.9 HA/9; Ivory Norman: 12.2 HA/9) the odds are good that Morganti will run his streak to a new career high.