Who holds the record for the most consecutive games played in MLB history?

MLB has the longest season of any major sport. Between the months of April and September, each team plays 162 games. The games are played nearly every day and take players across the North American continent on a non-stop basis.

Due to this, the MLB season can be extremely grueling for the players. Additionally, the potential for injuries or minor league relegation makes it increasingly difficult for players to play a high number of consecutive games.

That's why players who stack up a high number of games need to be commended. Let's take a look at the players who have played the most consecutive games in the history of the MLB.

When looking at the list of most consecutive games, one notices a high incidence of Japanese NPB players. In fact, 6 of the 10 players who have played the highest number of straight games played in the NPB, which is the Japanese baseball league.

"Here’s my painting of Lou Gehrig in 1923 during his first days with the Yankees. I often think about those June games with the club, what it must have been like going into that new ballpark and putting on those pinstripes for the first time, before they had real mystique. Crazy." - @ Craig Kreindler

However, this list is exclusive to the MLB. Lou Gehrig is often thought of as a player who played forever. Gehrig was a fixture on the New York Yankees throughout the 1920s and 1930s. He was famously part of the "Murderers Row" Yankees, who won a litany of World Series titles in the late 1920s.

Although Gehrig virtually never missed a game in his 17-year career, he finds himself second on our list with 2,130 games played throughout his storied career. Gehrig retired in 1939 after an ALS diagnosis, only to die two years later.

"1983 AL MVP. Cal Ripken Jr." - @ Old Time Hardball

The MLB player with the most consecutive games played in history is Cal Ripken Jr., who played for the Baltimore Orioles between 1981 and 2001. In that time, he played 3,001 games, 2,632 of which were consecutive, giving him the record in the category.

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It's harder for MLB players to set consecutive game records in the modern day

The game now has a new level of competitiveness. This means that players are more subject to injury or burnout, and thus have to take more games off. In fact, there are no players on this list who began their careers after the year 2000.