Professional Baseball Player. Dennis Patrick Aloysius Lyons played Major League Baseball for 13 seasons. He is best remembered for his controversial 52-game hitting streak, second only to Joe DiMaggio's 56. Many baseball purists contest the actual number of games and do not include him on the list of record holders because when Lyons did it in 1887, it was the only season ever in which walks were recorded as hits. Only two of the 52 games were affected by this issue, but those games were in the middle of the streak. He made his Major League debut in 1885 with the Providence Grays when he was 19 years old and was considered as one of the finest defensive infielders of the gloveless era. A spectacular hitter, he was among league leaders in several offensive categories during the years that he played. He had a .318 lifetime batting average and hit over .300 seven times, all in seasons where he appeared in at least 100 games except for 1890, when he played in 88 games. 1887 was his finest season, when he had the 52 game hitting streak and hit .367 overall. He finished first in the National League in on-base percentage and slugging percentage in 1890. He placed second in doubles in 1887 and 1890, and was second in homeruns in 1891. In 1893, he fielded an assisted triple play, a baseball rarity. Throughout his career, he played for several teams, including the Providence Grays, Philadelphia Athletics, St. Louis Browns, New York Giants, and the Pittsburgh Pirates. His career was cut short on July 23, 1897 when a fastball thrown by Amos Rusie broke two of his fingers, never healing enough to allow him to play anymore baseball. He appeared in a total of 1,121 games, scored 932 runs, and collected 1,380 hits. He hit 62 homeruns and drove in 755. A rare 1887 baseball card with his depiction sold at an auction in 2005 for $65,000.