Many of the greatest players in baseball history are unsurprisingly a significant part of the all-time MLB records.
From Nolan Ryan’s strikeouts to Cy Young’s pitching victories to Ty Cobb’s hits, the record books are littered with legends.
But the all-time lists also feature lesser-known players and teams, such as Ed Walsh’s career ERA record, Eddie Collins’ stolen bases, and the 1916 New York Giants. With well over a century of pivotal matchups, game-changing players and brilliant managers, the depth of baseball history is vast.
The all-time MLB records encompass a wide range of achievements, including those for the most hits, home runs, RBIs, stolen bases, strikeouts, pitching wins, and many more. Beyond individual records, there are also notable team achievements, comebacks, winning streaks and championship victories.
Below is an index of various all-time season records, streaks and interesting tidbits to bring some of these remarkable stories to life and showcase the rich history of America’s pastime. Commissioner Rob Manfred first announced MLB would recognize statistics from the Negro Leagues in 2020. And before the 2024 season, the league made it official.
Our all-time records have since been updated to include those statistics from players like legendary slugging catcher Josh Gibson:
MLB All-Time Records
Player Records
Most Career Home Runs/Most Home Runs in a Single Season/Most Home Runs in a Game by a Player/Most Consecutive Games with a Home Run/Most Career RBIs/Most RBIs in a Game/Most RBIs in a Game/Highest Batting Average in a Season/Most Career Hits/Most Career Stolen Bases/Most Stolen Bases in a Game/Most MVP Awards/Most Five-Hit Games in a Season/Most Five-Hit Games in a Career/Most Strikeouts in a Game/Most Strikeouts in a Season/Most Cy Young Awards/Most Gold Glove Awards at Each Position/Lowest ERA in a Career/Lowest ERA in a Single Season/Highest Paid Player
Team Records
Most Home Runs in a Game by a Team/Most Stolen Bases in a Game by a Team/Best Record in a Season/Worst Record in a Season/Most Total Runs Scored in a Game/Most Wins in a Row/Most Losses in a Row/Biggest Comeback in a Game/Fastest Game
Playoff Records
Most Home Runs in a Playoff Game by a Team/Most Total Runs Scored in a Playoff Game/Most Strikeouts in a Playoff Game/Lowest ERA in a Postseason/Longest Active World Series Win Drought/Longest Active Playoff Appearance Drought/Most Consecutive Playoff Appearances/Fastest Postseason Game/Biggest Comeback in a Series/Biggest Comeback in a Playoff Game/Most World Series MVPs
Player Records
Most Career Home Runs
Considered the best hitter in history by some, Barry Bonds leads the list of career home run leaders with 762. Bonds just edged out Hank Aaron, who finished his illustrious career with 755, and the legendary Babe Ruth with 714.
Most Home Runs in a Single Season
The six best home run seasons from individual players all took place between 1998-2001, an era of baseball heavily tainted by the use of performance enhancing drugs. Of these exceptional power hitting seasons, Barry Bonds tops the list with his 73 homers for the San Francisco Giants in 2001.
Most Home Runs in a Game by a Player
Sixteen players have reached the mark of four home runs in one game in Major League Baseball history. Most recently, J.D. Martinez of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Scooter Gennett of the Cincinnati Reds did so during the 2017 season. Shawn Green had six hits in as many at-bats with four home runs and seven RBIs on May 23, 2002, making him another notable member of this exclusive club.
Most Consecutive Games with a Home Run
A performance of eight consecutive games with a home run has historically shown to be the maximum amount, as multiple players have reached this number yet none have exceeded it. The emphasis on power hitting in the modern game means there is a high likelihood the consecutive games with a homer leaderboard will be shaken up in the next few seasons.
Most Career RBIs
The legendary Hank Aaron is the MLB’s career leader in RBIs (runs batted in) with 2,297. Aaron had a remarkable nine seasons with at least 115 RBIs in his career with the Milwaukee Brewers and Atlanta Braves, propelling him to the top of the career RBI leaderboard.
Most RBIs in a Game
St. Louis Cardinals hitters Jim Bottomley and Mark Whiten are the only two players to have 12 RBIs, the most RBIs of all time in a single game, doing so in 1924 and 1993, respectively.
Highest Batting Average in a Season
The MLB’s official recognition of Negro League statistics drastically altered the single season batting average leaderboard, putting many stars many modern fans have never heard of towards the top of the list. It’s time for this to change, as the talent of players like Josh Gibson and Charlie “Chino” Smith, who both had seasons with a batting average above .450, cannot be understated.
Most Strikeouts in a Game
“I started the damn game and I’m going to finish it,” said Tom Cheney when Washington Senators manager Mickey Vernon asked if he wanted to come out after the ninth inning. As Cheney insisted, he stayed in the game for the full 16 inning affair, throwing 228 pitches and breaking the single-game strikeout record with his 21 Ks against the Baltimore Orioles in September of 1962.
Most Strikeouts in a Season
Matt Kilroy holds the record for most strikeouts in a season when he recorded 513 for the 1886 Baltimore Orioles at just 19 years old. Since 1901, the record is held by the far better-known Nolan Ryan who barely broke Sandy Koufax’s record with 383 Ks in 1973.
Most Career Hits
Former Cincinnati Reds All-Star Pete Rose leads the all-time hit list with 4,256, a baseball record that many argue will never be broken. He was propelled to the top of this list with 10 seasons at least 200 hits, a total only eclipsed by Ichiro Suzuki. Ty Cobb finished his career with 4,191 hits, making him the only other player to reach 4,000 career hits.
Most Career Stolen Bases
Rickey Henderson unequivocally mastered the art of the stolen base – agility, speed, sliding, and timing. His total of 1,406 stolen bases is nearly 500 more than Lou Brock, who is in second on the all-time stolen bases leaderboard.
Most Stolen Bases in a Game
The feat of stealing six bases in one game has only been accomplished by four players in history, yet Eddie Collins did it twice just 11 days apart with the Philadelphia Athletics in September of 1912. Carl Crawford was the most recent player to reach the mark when he stole six bases for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2009.
Most MVP Awards
Ten players on the all-time MVP leaderboard each have three career MVPs, which places them collectively tied for second place of all time. This group of Hall of Famers won less than half the MVP awards Barry Bonds won, who won the National League MVP seven times including in four straight seasons.
Most Cy Young Awards
With seven awards, Roger Clemens sits atop the all-time Cy Young Award list. That includes two Cy Youngs that he won 20 years apart. Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux both won four straight Cy Youngs, filling out the rest of this legendary group.
Most Gold Glove Awards at Each Position
Eight of the nine players on the all-time Gold Glove list have won the award at least 10 times, led by pitcher Greg Maddux with 18. The four infield players on this list combined for a total of 50 awards, demonstrating the defensive dominance of this group.
Most Five-Hit Games in a Season
Just four players have recorded five hits in a single game four times in one season, and all are recognizable Hall of Famers known for incredible contact hitting. The most recent was Ichiro Suzuki during his legendary 2004 season when he finished with a .372 batting average.
Most Five-Hit Games in a Career
Unsurprisingly to fans of baseball history, Ty Cobb recorded the most five-hit games in a career by a wide margin, accomplishing the feat 14 times in his 24-year career. The rest of this leaderboard is filled with other legends, such as Tony Gwynn of the San Diego Padres and Stan Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals.
Lowest ERA in a Career
The three lowest career ERAs of all time came from pitchers who dominated early 20th-century baseball, led by Ed Walsh with his career 1.82 ERA. Since 1969, Los Angeles Dodgers legend Clayton Kershaw has the lowest career ERA at 2.48.
Lowest ERA in a Single Season
Like the pitchers with the lowest career ERAs, most of the best single-season ERAs also came from the dead-ball era. Satchel Paige and Bob Gibson are the only members of the top 10 to pitch after 1914. Since 1969, Dwight Gooden recorded the best single-season mark at 1.53 with the New York Mets in 1985.
Highest Paid Player
When two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani signed his 10-year, $700 million extension, he not only became the highest paid player in baseball, but the highest player in all of sports by total contract value. Many predicted his contract would exceed the immense fortunes given to some of the best players in the game, like Mike Trout and Mookie Betts, but few imagined it would reach an average annual value as high as $70 million.
Team Records
Most Home Runs in a Game by a Team
The Toronto Blue Jays set the single-game home run record with an astonishing 10 homers in an 18-3 victory over the Baltimore Orioles in 1987. Ernie Whitt led the charge with three home runs, while a few of his teammates also hit multiple long balls in the contest.
Most Stolen Bases in a Game by a Team
In an era when baserunners racked up stolen base totals, the games with the most stolen bases unsurprisingly took place before 1915. The New York Highlanders totaled 15 stolen bases – the most of all time – against the St. Louis Browns in an 18-12 win in September of 1911.
Best Record in a Season
The four top single-season winning percentages all came before the establishment of the 162-game MLB season. The decade of 1900-09 included the top-three teams on this leaderboard, while the 2001 Seattle Mariners top the all-time 162-game season standings.
Worst Record in a Season
The teams with the five worst records of the modern era all played in 1935 or earlier, except for the 1962 Mets in their 120-loss inaugural season. The Philadelphia Athletics are the owners of both the worst- and fifth-worst records of all time.
Most Total Runs Scored in a Game
Matchups between the Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies have produced the two highest-scoring games in history, with totals of 49 and 45 runs in 1922 and 1979.
Most Wins in a Row
The New York Giants have held the MLB record for the longest win streak since 1916 with a remarkable 26 consecutive victories, topping the leaderboard by four wins. Outside of these 26 games, they had a 60-66 record in a relatively unimpressive season.
Most Losses in a Row
In one of the worst seasons of all time, the Phillies lost 23 straight games during the summer of 1961. The Baltimore Orioles are the only other team since 1901 to lose more than 20 straight when they started the 1988 season 0-21, giving them the second worst losing streak of all time.
Biggest Comeback in a Game
The three largest comebacks in MLB history all included late-game offensive explosions of at least eight runs in the eighth and ninth innings. The 1911 Detroit Tigers, 1925 Philadelphia Athletics, as well as Cleveland in 2001 all trailed by 12 runs and came back to win the game.
Fastest Game
Both Mark Buehrle and Ryan Franklin threw complete games in dominant pitching performances when the Chicago White Sox defeated the Seattle Mariners 2-1 in April of 2005. The game took just one hour and 39 minutes, making it the fastest game of all time. However, it barely broke the record as there have been three others within five minutes of this rapid matchup.
Playoff Records
Most Home Runs in a Playoff Game by a Team
The 2015 Chicago Cubs broke the record total for home runs in a playoff game with six in Game 3 of the 2015 National League Divisional Series against their rival St. Louis Cardinals.
Most Total Runs Scored in a Playoff Game
With their 23 run offensive explosion against Cleveland in the 1999 American League Divisional Series, the Boston Red Sox put up the most runs by a team in postseason history. Cleveland’s seven runs in the game brought the total to 30, the most runs of all time in a playoff matchup.
Most Strikeouts in a Playoff Game
Hall of Famer Bob Gibson set the playoff single-game strikeout record when he fanned 17 in Game 1 of the 1968 World Series en route to a 4-0 victory over the Detroit Tigers. Outings like this were common for Gibson, who led the National League in both ERA and strikeouts that season.
Lowest ERA in a Postseason
Five pitchers are tied atop the all-time postseason ERA list after making it through an entire postseason without giving up a run and pitching at least 20 innings. Each one made it to the World Series, with Matt Cain accomplishing the feat most recently in 2010.
Longest Active World Series Win Drought
With a 3-1 lead in the 2016 World Series, most Cleveland fans thought their World Series drought would end after 67 years. The Chicago Cubs ended an even longer title dry spell when they stormed back in this series, denying Cleveland its first championship since 1949 and putting it atop the list for the longest active title drought.
Longest Active Playoff Appearance Drought
The longest current playoff droughts come from two franchises headlined by future Hall of Fame talents like Mike Trout, Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander. Despite their star power, the Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Angels are in the midst of nine-year droughts, with their last playoff appearances coming in 2014.
Most Consecutive Playoff Appearances
The storied Atlanta Braves of the 1990s are the record holders for most consecutive playoff appearances with 14 straight trips between 1991-2005 – all from NL East division titles. The New York Yankees come in second with 13 appearances on a list filled with legendary teams.
Fastest Postseason Game
The aforementioned Atlanta Braves of the ’90s were involved in all three of the fastest playoff games of all time. Greg Maddux worked seven innings and didn’t give up a run in the fastest game, a 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1996 National League Division Series.
Biggest Comeback in a Series
While 14 teams have come back from a 3-1 deficit in a postseason series, the 2004 Boston Red Sox pulled off the biggest series comeback in history when they came back from down 3-0 to beat the rival New York Yankees. David Ortiz’s walk-off home run in the 12th inning of Game 4 drastically shifted the momentum of the series.
Biggest Comeback in a Playoff Game
With the help of the bright sun in Chicago Cubs center fielder Hack Wilson’s eyes, the Philadelphia Athletics scored all 10 of their runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to overcome an 8-0 deficit in a 10-8 win in Game 4 of the 1929 World Series. No other team on the all-time biggest playoff comebacks leaderboard has won after facing a deficit this great.
Most World Series MVPs
There are four players tied atop the World Series MVPs list with two awards. Pitchers Sandy Koufax and Bob Gibson pitched multiple strikeout-filled complete games to capture theirs in the 1960s. Hitters Reggie Jackson and Corey Seager are the only two players to win the award with different teams.
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