PITCHING COACH BARR SEES MAJOR LEAGUE RECORD BROKEN BY BUEHRLE 7/29/2009 SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Sacramento State pitching coach Jim Barr saw a Major League Baseball record he has held for 37 years fall on Tuesday night, as Chicago White Sox lefty Mark Buehrle retired his 45th consecutive batter. In 1972,  Barr retired an then-MLB record 41 consecutive batters. That mark held for 35 years — two years longer than Hank Aaron’s career home run record — before the White Sox’s Bobby Jenks tied the record in August of 2007. Fast forward to Tuesday night, where Buehrle, who retired the last batter of his outing on July 18 and threw a perfect game on July 23 against Tampa Bay, retired the first 17 Minnesota Twins he faced to set a new all-time mark with 45 consecutive batters retired. Barr’s streak spanned just two games while Buehrle needed three games and Jenks needed nine relief appearances. In his first full season with the Giants, Barr sat down the final 21 Pittsburgh Pirates he faced on Aug. 23. Six days later, he took the mound in St. Louis and retired the first 20 Cardinals to come to the plate. Following the second game, Barr was informed by Cardinals announcer Jack Buck that he had broken Harvey Haddix’s record of 38 consecutive batters in 1958. When Buck first told Barr he had broken a Major League record, he was not quite sure how to react. "My first thought was: What did I do? Winning two games in a row, or two complete games in a row, that's a record?…I knew I got a fair number of guys out in this game. But I never put the two games together." Despite losing his major league record, Barr still holds the National League record with 41. During his time on top, only two pitchers have made a serious push to knock him off of the national league record. The Cincinnati Reds’ Tom Browning sat down 40 in a row in 1988 and Randy Johnson retired 39 consecutive batters while pitching for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2004.