Subscribe to Baseball History Comes Alive for automatic updates (sign-up block found in right side-bar)

As a Free Bonus for subscribing, you’ll get instant access to my two Special Reports: Memorable World Series Moments and Gary’s Handy Dandy World Series Reference Guide!

 Joe DiMaggio Photo Gallery
Click on any image below to see photos in full size and to start Photo Gallery:

Joe DiMaggio’s 56-Game Hitting Streak Begins!

“When I sat at a table with Joe and other people…all the men were always looking at Joe instead of me!!” – Marilyn Monroe, speaking of husband Joe DiMaggio.

Haha! If it was actually humanly possible for any man to divert lusting male eyes (at least momentarily) away from Marilyn Monroe, that man was surely Joe DiMaggio…

MAY 15, 1941, THE STREAK BEGINS

I doubt if anyone at the time had an inkling that a largely forgettable game played on May 15, 1941, 80 years ago yesterday, between the Yankees and the White Sox at Yankee Stadium would see the start of one of the most famous records in baseball history, one that still holds our attention all these years later.

The Yankees were coming off a disappointing third-place finish in 1940, and 1941 was starting out no better. The game that day was nothing to write home about. The Yanks got clobbered by the lowly Sox 13-1, dropping them to 14-15 for the season. To make matters worse, DiMaggio committed a throwing error and went 1-4 at the plate, a single in the first inning which was part of a .197 stretch over his last 21 games. The Yankees were already starting to “feel it” from the press and their impatient fans as this New York Times quote attests: “The Yanks never looked worse and derisive shouts greeted the final out of each inning.”

Of course, as we all know, that innocuous single blossomed into one of sports’ most hallowed numbers: “56,” as in 56 straight games with a hit. Harvard professor and baseball fan Stephen Jay Gould once called DiMaggio’s 56-game achievement “the most extraordinary thing that ever happened in American sport.”

Two months later, everything had changed. The Yankees were perched comfortably in first in the American League, six games ahead of Cleveland, en route to the American League pennant and a World Series championship. From May 15 to July 16, Joltin’ Joe put up a remarkable slash line: .408/.463/.717, with 91 hits (35 for extra bases), 15 home runs, and 55 RBIs. 

It’s an understatement to say the streak captured the attention of the nation. Virtually everyone got caught up in it. “What he’d do today?…Did he get a hit?” The baseball world was going crazy! Major newspapers began to write about DiMaggio’s streak early on, but as he approached Ty Cobb’s streak of 40 games

and then George Sisler‘s modern-era American League record of 41 games, it became a national phenomenon. Initially, DiMaggio showed little interest in breaking Sisler’s record, saying “I’m not thinking a whole lot about it… I’ll either break it or I won’t.” It turned into an all-out national frenzy as he surpassed Wee Willie Keeler’s all-time record of 44 straight games.

FUN FACTS ABOUT THE STREAK

• Pitcher Jim Bagby ended the streak on July 16 with the help of defensive gems by Ken Keltner and Lou Boudreau.
• Failing to extend the streak for one more game cost him the $10,000 promised to him by the Heinz Corporation to endorse their Heinz 57 products.
• Joe was voted the American League MVP that season over Ted Williams who hit .406 – the last time a major-leaguer hit over .400.
• During the streak, he faced four future Hall of Fame pitchers – Lefty Grove, Hal Newhouser (twice), Bob Feller, and Ted Lyons.
• Over the streak, the Yankees went 41-13 (.759) with 2 ties.
• After the streak ended, he started another streak of 16 games.
• After extending the streak to 56 on July 16, DiMaggio led the American League in runs (80), hits (124), and RBIs (76), was tied for the lead in home runs (20), and was second to Ted Williams in batting (.395 to .375).
• Although he failed to get a hit in Game 57, DiMaggio did walk to reach base in a streak that would extend to 74 consecutive games (second all-time to Ted Williams mark of 84 games in 1949).
• Eighty years later, the streak still seems untouchable. The closest anyone has come is Pete Rose, who put together a 44-game streak in 1978.

THE CAB DRIVER “JINX”

Then there’s the story of the poor Cleveland cab driver who put a “jinx” on DiMaggio enroute to the game against the Indians on July 16th, the day the streak ended. If it wasn’t for him who knows when the streak might have ended? The driver, a life-long Yankees fan, told Joe he had a bad feeling the streak would end that day. Joe just thanked him, shook his hand, and went into the clubhouse without further comment. Thirty years later, they met again. Even though ballplayers are notoriously superstitious, Joe says he never held it against the guy. If we can believe Joe, here’s his retelling of the story: 

“The guy said he was that cab driver. He apologized and he was serious. I felt awful. He might have spent his whole life thinking he’d jinxed me, but I told him he hadn’t. My number was up.”

So today we gladly turn our baseball spotlight on Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio and possibly the greatest record in all of sports, his incredible 56-game hitting streak.

Gary Livacari 

Information: Excerpts edited from Newday article, May 11, 2016 by Dave Whitehorn;  and from the Joe DiMaggio Wikipedia page.