Jayson Tatum closed his regular season with the Boston Celtics in record fashion and St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Jordan Walker opened his in the same landmark way.
While he did not play in the regular season finale against the Atlanta Hawks along with other Celtics starters on Sunday, Tatum accomplished something that Bill Russell, Larry Bird, Paul Pierce, and a bevy of other Boston icons could not do during their respective Hall of Fame careers.
Tatum finished the season with a scoring average of 30.1 points per game. He is the first Celtics player to top the 30-point make for a season in the franchise’s storied history.
Bird came close, averaging 29.9 points per game during the 1987-88 season.
In addition, after scoring 40 points in a turnover-free game against the Milwaukee Bucks on March 30, he turned in a 39-point turnover-less performance against the Utah Jazz the next night.
Tatum, a proud St. Louis native who starred at Chaminade before playing a year at Duke and then turning pro, became the first player in NBA history to score at least 39 points in consecutive games without committing a turnover.
Jordan Walker is a Decatur, Georgia native who grew up rooting for the Atlanta Braves. Now he wears the Cardinals hallowed “Birds on the Bat” jersey and after his first nine games he is on pace to win the National League Rookie of the Year Award.
Walker started the first 10 games of the Cardinals’ season and posted at least one hit in every game. That surpassed the rookie team record set by Magneuris Sierra in 2017. Even more impressive is that Walker topped the immortal Ted Williams and now holds sole possession of the second-longest hitting streak by a player 20 years old and younger to begin a career with hits in 10 successive games.
In 1912, Philadelphia Athletics outfielder Eddie Murphy set the all-time MLB hitting streak record for a player 20 years old and younger at 12 games.
While the Cardinals lost to Colorado on Monday night and are a disappointing 3-7, Walker’s .342 batting average leads the team. He has socked two home runs, added eight RBIs, and stolen a base.
