Here's who won the first half, who lost it, and one Kansas City utility infielder who did something nobody in baseball had done since Dwight Eisenhower was president. Tolbert entered the season a .247 career hitter, a glove-and-legs specialist who existed mostly to pinch run and play good defense for twenty minutes a night. Then, across four games against the Phillies and Mets, he reached base safely in twelve consecutive plate appearances, tying the all-time MLB record set by Johnny Kling in 1902 and matched by Walt Dropo in 1952, and did it with a five-hit night against New York that included the first home run of his career and not one, not two, but three consecutive infield hits.
