Twenty-eight-year-old Royals infielder Tyler Tolbert has just 98 career Major League plate appearances across parts of two seasons. Now he holds a Major League Baseball record.

That’s why I love this game.

Baseball has a way of producing stories that no one sees coming. Every season, we spend countless hours talking about MVP candidates, top prospects, Hall of Famers, and nine-figure contracts. Then, out of nowhere, a player who wasn’t supposed to be part of the national conversation reminds us why this sport is unlike any other.

Over the past few days, Tyler Tolbert did exactly that. Tolbert reached base with a hit in 12 consecutive plate appearances, tying the Major League record. His remarkable stretch began by going 2-for-2 against the Phillies on Saturday, followed by a perfect 5-for-5 performance on Monday, before adding five more hits in his first five trips to the plate against the Mets on Tuesday, before finally flying out to Carson Benge in right field in the 9th to end his improbable run. Along the way, he collected two home runs, a double, and four RBIs.

In doing so, he joined one of the most unlikely clubs in baseball history. Only four other players have ever accomplished the feat: Johnny Kling in 1902, Pinky Higgins in 1938, Walt Dropo in 1952, and José Miranda in 2024. That’s some pretty remarkable company.

What makes Tolbert’s story even better, though, isn’t the record itself. It’s how he got there.

Tolbert wasn’t a first-round pick who raced through the minors. He wasn’t a top-100 prospect whose arrival had been anticipated for years. He was selected in the 13th round of the 2019 MLB Draft out of UAB, his hometown school in Birmingham, Alabama. Pick 379.

Let’s be honest. Thirteenth-round picks aren’t supposed to become Major Leaguers.

Sure, it happens from time to time, but the odds are stacked against them from the moment their name is called. The higher the draft number climbs, the longer the road usually becomes. For many players, that road never reaches a Major League stadium.

Tolbert kept walking it anyway. He spent years grinding through the minor leagues, and anyone who’s ever been around professional baseball knows that “the grind” isn’t just a cliché.

Minor league baseball isn’t glamorous. The travel is exhausting. The pay, while improving in recent years, still isn’t what most people would consider comfortable. Players spend years riding buses, living out of suitcases, chasing promotions that may never come. Every season brings another wave of younger prospects trying to take your roster spot, and every at-bat can feel like another audition.

It’s also a uniquely difficult environment because everyone is chasing the same dream.

Of course teammates support one another, but there’s an unavoidable reality that professional baseball at that level is also intensely individual. Promotions often come down to personal performance. Statistics matter. Development matters. Sometimes survival matters. It can create an environment where players naturally become focused on their own path more than the team’s success.

That’s simply the nature of the business. Which is exactly why stories like Tyler Tolbert’s resonate so deeply.

I’ve had several friends play professional baseball. I’ve watched guys climb through the minor leagues, get within arm’s reach of the Major Leagues, and then see the dream disappear. Sometimes it was injuries. Sometimes it was bad timing. Sometimes life simply caught up with them. A growing family, financial realities, or years of uncertainty eventually made it impossible to keep chasing the dream.

That’s why I never take stories like this for granted. Every Major Leaguer has overcome incredible odds just to get there. A player like Tolbert had to overcome even longer odds.

He went from playing college baseball in Birmingham to spending nearly a decade fighting for opportunities that many people assumed would never come. Now, his name sits in the Major League Baseball record book alongside players whose accomplishments have stood for more than a century.

That’s incredible.

The beauty of baseball is that we have no idea what comes next. Maybe now that his incredible streak has ended, Tolbert settles into the role of a reliable utility infielder. Maybe he gets sent back to Triple-A at some point. Maybe this ends up being the defining week of his career.

Or maybe it doesn’t.

Maybe this is his Kurt Warner moment. Maybe this is the beginning of a career that takes a completely unexpected turn. Maybe years from now we’re talking about Tyler Tolbert as an unlikely contributor on a Royals team making a deep postseason run. Baseball has produced stranger stories than that.

The truth is, none of us knows. What we do know is something no future transaction, slump, or roster move can ever erase. Tyler Tolbert is forever part of Major League Baseball history. Nobody can take that away from him.

Whether he plays another 10 years or another 10 games, he’ll always be one of just five players ever to collect hits in 12 consecutive plate appearances.

For a 13th-round pick who spent years grinding through the minor leagues, that’s more than just a record. It’s proof that perseverance sometimes gets rewarded in the most extraordinary ways.

And that’s exactly why I love this game.