Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
July 23, 2004, Washington Post

Lance Armstrong Is on a Roll, But Is His the Greatest Streak?

Looks like Lance Armstrong will win his sixth straight Tour de France on Sunday. Armstrong's streak of winning the world's toughest bike race is impressive. But is it the greatest streak of all?

Streaks are one of the fun things about sports. Let's take a look at some of the great streaks set by individual athletes and see how Armstrong's stacks up.

When fans start talking streaks, they usually start with Joe DiMaggio's amazing streak in 1941 of 56 straight baseball games with at least one hit. That means that the Yankee Clipper did not have a bad game for about two months. But remember, Joltin' Joe did this during one season. Armstrong has had to be great year after year.

For year-after-year records, how about Cal Ripken? The Iron Man played every game for the Baltimore Orioles for more than 17 years: 2,632 games. That broke Lou Gehrig's consecutive game record -- a record many thought would never be broken -- by more than 500 games. Even so, Ripken could have bad games and still keep the streak going. Armstrong can't have any (or at least many) bad days or other Tour riders will whizz by him.

From 1982 to 1987, Martina Navratilova won Wimbledon, one of the world's most important tennis tournaments. Most players dream of winning just one Wimbledon. Navratilova did it every year for six years like she was going on summer vacation.

Another prominent women's tennis player, Chris Evert, won at least one Grand Slam tournament every year for 13 years (1974 to 1986). On the men's side of the net, Bjorn Borg won five straight Wimbledons and four straight French Opens.

Other celebrated streaks: Hockey legend Wayne Gretzky notched at least one goal or one assist in 51 straight games in the 1983-84 season. Baltimore Colts quarterback Johnny Unitas threw at least one touchdown pass for 47 straight games. Maybe that's why they put his statue outside the Ravens' stadium. Byron Nelson won 13 consecutive golf tournaments back in 1945, but most of the best golfers were off fighting World War II.

I think the greatest sports streak ever may be . . .

Edwin Moses' 107-race win streak. The 400-meter hurdles is one of track and field's most grueling events. The runners sprint around the track once, hopping hurdles as they go. For almost 10 years, Moses made it look easy. While winning 107 straight races, he also set a world record, won an Olympic gold medal and ran the 11 fastest times in the event during that period.

One thing Moses didn't do for almost 10 years: lose. I don't think even Armstrong can keep winning for that long.