Joe DiMaggio’s hit streak will be broken this year – according to Star Trek

In the summer of 1941, Joe DiMaggio, vaunted Yankee god, set a new Major League record by logging 56 consecutive games with a base hit. Since untouched, that grail is frequently cited among the most unbreakable in sports, lending it a near-mythic hue.

Eighty-five years later, in fact, the closest anyone has come to toppling Joe D was Pete Rose, with a 44-game effort in 1978. Since 2001, meanwhile, MLB has offered a free competition where fans can win $5.6 million by building a 57-game hit streak selecting one guy daily from the entire MLB player pool – and nobody has ever progressed beyond 51 contests. (1)

In short, DiMaggio’s opus is generally considered insurmountable – a hallowed relic of a bygone baseball age. The current launch angle zeitgeist exacerbates that impregnability, and anyone reading this is unlikely to ever witness a longer streak.

Except, well, maybe we will. 

This year, perhaps. 

According to Star Trek, at least.

Hear me out.

Way back in January 1988, you see, an episode of the cult sci-fi drama introduced Harmon ‘Buck’ Bokai, the favourite 21^st century baseball player of Benjamin Sisko, the 24^th century commander of the Deep Space Nine space station. More of Bokai’s biography was revealed in subsequent episodes, including his breaking of DiMaggio’s hit streak in – yes – 2026. (2)

According to Star Trek lore, Bokai was born on 31 October 1998 in Marina del Rey, California. (3) A short, stocky shortstop of Japanese American descent, Buck debuted with the London Kings – a fictional MLB franchise that played out of the English capital’s Battersea Power Station – in 2015. (2) (3) (4) (5) A switch-hitter, Bokai topped 20 home runs in each of his first three big league seasons before being traded to the Crenshaw Monarchs of a fledging Planetary Baseball League. (3) (6)

Between 2019 and 2024, Bokai lodged startling statistics in the PBL for the Monarchs, Gotham City Bats, Tanis and Seibu: (7)

Evidently, Star Trek did not foresee Covid-19 and its truncation of the 2020 season, but Bokai’s ledger is fascinating, regardless. In 2020, indeed, Bokai launched his first assault on DiMaggio’s record by hitting safely in 50 consecutive games. (8) Then, returning to the Kings in 2025, Bokai fell two games shy of Joe’s mark, all while hitting .390 with 24 homers, 118 RBI, 15 stolen bases and 175 hits in 117 games. (3) (7)

The following season, 2026, Bokai conquered the mountain, supposedly surpassing DiMaggio with a ‘squeaker’ that snuck under the glove of infielder Eddie Newsom. (3) The shortstop eventually hit safely in 61 straight games, per Trekkie folklore, leaving the record in a new stratosphere. (8) 

If the premonition is correct, then, who is the most likely real-life simulacrum of Buck Bokai? If you are pondering an outside bet on someone actually breaking DiMaggio’s record this year, who are the most intriguing doppelgängers for the London Kings’ storied shortstop? Well, let us recalibrate our understanding of the intergalactic slugger so we can perhaps approximate his aura.

In addition to the aforementioned nuggets – paunchy switch-hitting shortstop of Japanese American heritage born in California – we know that Buck Bokai threw right-handed; wore uniform number 49; hit second in the Kings’ lineup; and played for the Plata Del Rey Vikings in high school. (8) (9) (10) Bokai was 5-foot-7; weighed 81kg; and was in his age-28 season when he broke the hit streak record. (7) He also switched to third base later in his career and hit a home run to win the 2042 World Series. (6)

In searching for a fitting Bokai archetype, I could delve into a forensic analysis of those datapoints, but the clear-eyed improbability of anyone really surpassing DiMaggio this year discourages such an exhaustive investigation. A light-touch brainstorm is more apt, although I have probably still expended far too much time and energy contemplating this in recent weeks.

Firstly, no active MLB players have a similar name to Buck Bokai, nor were any current big leaguers born on the same exact date as the fictional phenom. However, switch-hitting shortstops include Tommy Edman, Elly De La Cruz, Brayan Rocchio, Willi Castro and Geraldo Perdomo, while body type comparisons encompass Jose Altuve, José Ramírez, Caleb Durbin and Alejandro Kirk.

Considering shortstops writ large, Bobby Witt Jr. springs to mind as an interesting possibility, and several other contact hitters – Trea Turner, Jacob Wilson, Zach Neto, Gunnar Henderson, Mookie Betts – also warrant mention.

In terms of pure hitting ability alone, the best bat-to-ball candidates for producing such a streak include Shohei Ohtani (notable for the Japanese connection), Aaron Judge (anathema to Bokai in stature), Juan Soto (currently injured) and Luis Arráez (a true slap-hitting throwback).

Steve Kwan interests me as a 5-foot-8, 77kg slash-and-burn savant. He is also 28 years old and was born in California to parents of Japanese and Chinese heritage. However, there is an even more compelling candidate to imitate Buck Bokai, and that is Bo Bichette. In fact, some of the parallels are uncanny.

The shared BB initials are a strong starting point, of course. Furthermore, Bichette is also 28, four inches taller than Bokai and five kilograms heavier. Although he was born in Florida, not California, Bo, like Buck, is of Asian American descent – his maternal grandfather hailing from China. (11) Bichette does not switch-hit, but he is primarily a shortstop who recently switched to third base, à la Bokai, with the New York Mets. Oh, and Bo authored a career-best hit streak last season. Sure, it was only 14 games long, but work with me here, people.

And so, you heard it here first: this season, Bo Bichette will hit safely in at least 57 consecutive games. I promise. Kinda. If Star Trek can be believed, anyway. Let chaos commence. Let social media implode. And let Buck Bokai resurface in Queens.

Sources

1. Thornburg, Chad. MLB.com. [Online] May 16, 2017. https://www.mlb.com/news/beat-the-streak-leader-s-run-ends-at-51-games-c230461130.

2. Okuda, Michael, Okuda, Denise and Mirek, Debbie. The Star Trek Encyclopedia. 2011.

3. Alpha, Memory. Buck Bokai. Fandom. [Online] https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Buck_Bokai#:~:text=October%2031%20%2C%20%20150,del%20Rey%20%2C%20%20152.

4. All The Asians on Star Trek podcast. [Online] October 7, 2020. https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/07-keone-young/id1529010237?i=1000493910859.

5. London Kings; Memory Alpha. Fandom. [Online] https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/London_Kings#:~:text=Bokai%27s%202025%20London%20stats%20,390.

6. Star Trek Fact Files. [Online] https://archive.org/details/star-trek-fact-files-no-86-90/Star%20Trek%20Fact%20Files%20No%2089/page/n5/mode/2up?q=%22buck+bokai%22.

7. The Planetary Baseball League Inc. Facebook. [Online] https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=401018215521905&set=a.401018195521907.

8. Truly the GOATS podcast. [Online] October 5, 2020. https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/ttg-8-buck-bokai-baseballs-last-goat/id1502682791?i=1000493713099.

9. Landry, David. Buck Bokai on the death of baseball. YouTube. [Online] May 6, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSwZ1cfGE-M.

10. Hise, James Van. Deep Space Nine: A Celebration. 1994.

11. Neumann, Thomas. ESPN. [Online] September 23, 2016. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/17617500/hall-famer-barry-larkin-ambitious-plans-grow-baseball-brazil.