With 56 days remaining until Opening Day of the 2015 Major League Baseball season, I thought it would be nice to take a look at another important 56… Joe DiMaggio‘s 56-game hitting streak in 1941. The streak began for Joltin’ Joe on May 15th in The Bronx with a single against the Chicago White Sox, lasting all the way until July 17th when it would come to an end against the Cleveland Indians at Municipal Stadium. In the history of the game, no one has come even close to breaking this record. The 2nd longest hitting streak was by ‘Wee’ Willie Keeler (45 games) from 1896-97, and the 3rd longest was by Pete Rose (44 games) in 1978.
DiMaggio’s stats during the streak were incredible…
- 91 hits in 223 at-bats
- 55 RBI’s in 56 games
- .408 BA
- .463 OBP
- The Yankees were 41-13-2 during the streak
- At the start of the streak, the Yankees were in 4th place, 5.5 games back
- At the end of the streak, the Yankees were in 1st place, 7 games up
- DiMaggio faced 4 future Hall of Fame pitchers during the streak…
– Lefty Grove
– Hal Newhouser (twice)
– Bob Feller
– Ted Lyons
