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The Great Baseball Tune, “Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio” Debuts 84 Years Ago!
“…It’s over thirty years later and this guy comes up to me and says he was that cab driver who drove me to the park on July 17, 1941. He apologized for telling me in the cab ride that he thought the streak would end that day if I didn’t get a hit the first time up. He was serious. I felt awful. He might have been spending his whole life thinking he had jinxed me. But I told him he hadn’t. My number was up.” – Joe DiMaggio
Eighty-four years ago this week, August 8, 1941, Les Brown and his orchestra recorded, Joltin’ Joe, for Columbia records. The song about Yankee outfielder Joe DiMaggio’s hitting streak played incessantly on radio stations across the country and eventually reached number 12 on the charts. This is truly one of the catchiest baseball tunes ever recorded and is still one of my all-time favorites. If you haven’t heard it for a while, here’s a link where you can listen or even sign along.
Baseball in 1941: Joe and Ted
Of course, this gives me the chance to say a few words about baseball in 1941. Thius was the year of the two memorable seasons by two of baseball’s greatest players. It also featured Joe’s incredible streak that set the country on fire 84 years ago:
Nineteen forty-one was one of the most notable years in baseball history: It was the last, and possibly the greatest, year of baseball’s Golden Age before World War II depleted the major league rosters. Ted Williams hit .406 that year, the last player to hit over .400. The great Lou Gehrig passed away on June 2. And the Dodgers won their first pennant since 1920. But without doubt, the crowning event that will always mark 1941 as a special year in baseball history was “Joltin’ Joe” DiMaggio’s amazing 56-game hitting streak.
The Streak Begins…
It began innocently enough on May 15, 1941., a couple weeks before the death of Lou Gehrig. On that day, Joe went 1-4 with an RBI against Eddie Smith and the Chicago White Sox. From that day until July 16, an amazing 56 games later, DiMaggio hit safely in every game, setting a record that stands as one of the greatest achievements in baseball history. Major newspapers began to write about DiMaggio’s streak early on, but as he approached George Sisler‘s modern-era record of 41 games, it became a national phenomenon. It’s hard for us, from our perspective of 84 years later, to comprehend the euphoria into which this streak threw the country. It captured the imagination of the entire country. Virtually everyone – even those who had never followed baseball before – was now paying attention to the exploits of Joe DiMaggio and “the streak.”
Then on July 17, 1941, 84 years ago last month, third baseman Ken Keltner made two terrific backhanded stops to rob DiMaggio of two hits, ending the streak. But what a streak it was! DiMaggio hit .409 in 223 at-bats with 91 hits including 56 runs scored, 55 RBIs, 16 doubles, 15 home runs, and four triples. He had 160 total bases. Even more remarkable, he struck out only seven times. DiMaggio had propelled the Yankees to a 41-13 record, a stunning .759 winning percentage.
The day after it ended, he started another one against Bob Feller that lasted 16 games, with the Yankees winning 14. Over the two streaks, DiMaggio batted safely in 72 of 73 games. From May 2, he had been on base in 83 consecutive games. DiMaggio had pulled his team out of an early-season slump and led them to the pennant 17 games ahead of the second-place Red Sox and to a World Series championship. Harvard’s Stephen Jay Gould, has called DiMaggio’s 56-game achievement “the most extraordinary thing that ever happened in American sports” It’s hard to argue with that assessment!
Joe’s Remarkable Season
And how about the season that Joe D put together! He hit .357 that year and led the league with 125 RBIs and 348 total bases. He banged out 193 hits, with 30 home runs, 122 runs, 43 doubles, 11 triples, and only 13 strikeouts the entire year. He also compiled a remarkable .440 on-base percentage and .643 slugging average. Joe won the Most Valuable Player Award, beating out Ted Williams by a vote of 291-254.
We may never see his likes again! Plus it led to one of my all-time favorite baseball ditties: Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio!
Gary Livacari
Photo Credits: All from Google search
Information: Excerpts edited from Joe DiMaggio Wikipedia page
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Gary Livacari
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Information: Excerpts edited from
