Ever since MLB.com debuted the fantasy baseball style game ‘Beat the Streak’ back in 2001, fans all around the country have been doing their very best to pick up some cash, while at the same time “beating” Joe DiMaggio’s hit streak of 56 games. With a 57-game hit streak of sorts needed to beat the streak and claim the money ($10,000 being the top prize back in 2001), fans have developed all kinds of strategies that they felt certain would help them win the game.
But no one has done it yet — in fourteen years. 
Truly incredible when you think about it, that not one person has even come close to winning ‘Beat the Streak’, with a fan back in 2007 coming the closest of anyone, amassing a hit streak of 49 games. And therefore, since 2001, MLB.com has upped the prize money. For the past several years, the top prize for breaking the hit streak has been 5.6 million dollars (yes, MILLION). That’s a pretty good prize for a free online baseball game.
The rules of the game are fairly straight forward: Pick up to two players a day that you think are the most likely to get a hit. If the player(s) you selected get a hit, your streak climbs. If, however, your player — or either player, if you pick two in a day — doesn’t get a hit, your streak falls all the way back down to zero. That can be discouraging, especially if you were in a groove and had a good streak going; making this a fun, but somewhat stressful, and seemingly impossible, game to play.
Nonetheless, MLB.com is doing its very best to help someone win the game. Debuting last season was a Dunkin Donuts mulligan, which you could use only once throughout the entire season, but that saved any streak lower than 10, should your chosen player not get a hit. This season, they increased it to a 15-game hit streak, and that could possibly make the mulligan an even bigger help.
But you don’t necessarily have to come close to beating the streak to win some sort of prize. For the first time, the game is offering scratch off cards (electronic ones) that give you the chance of winning MLB game tickets, Dunkin’ Donuts gift cards, MLB.TV subscriptions, merchandise and much more. With all the possible prizes and neat stuff you can get, this year’s ‘Beat the Streak’ could turn out to be the best one yet.
While the odds may seem slim, they’re actually your best odds to win this amount of money. It’s not easy to win ‘Beat the Streak’ by any means, but with your odds of winning 5.6 million dollars being less than one in a million, by many accounts, you stand a better chance of winning this game than you do your local lottery. (Unlike the lottery, where you get one shot, you get multiple chances in a game for your player to get a hit. )
So give it a shot. It doesn’t cost anything, so you have nothing to lose. And who knows, maybe, with a little luck, you’ll be the first person ever to beat the streak and take home the money. That’s definitely worth playing for.
The Unbiased MLB Fan 