The End of Joe DiMaggio's 56-Game Hitting Streak

By Sal Maiorana

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Sal Maiorana, a friend of the site, shares some of his thoughts on the Yankees.

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As Ted Williams once said, DiMaggio put a line in the record book that will never be broken

CLEVELAND (July 17, 1941) - The great writer and author Robert Creamer, in his book Baseball in ‘41, recalls a story told to him by his one-time colleague at Sports Illustrated, Andy Crichton, that characterizes what Joe DiMaggio’s historic 56-game hitting streak meant not only to baseball, but to America.

By the end of 1941, the United States would be drawn into World War II when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, but the summer of 1941 was a time of innocence and Crichton, his brother and two high school pals embodied that carefree spirit. They piled into an old jalopy and set out on an adventurous cross-country trip.

There were many stops along the way, but one in particular – at a cafe in a sleepy farming town in Montana – provided an eye-opening experience. There, the boys learned that people in Montana weren’t much different than their neighbors back in New York City. They knew what baseball was, they knew who DiMaggio was, and they knew he was in the midst of compiling one of the great records in the history of sport.

Remember, there was no ESPN back then. In fact, there wasn’t even television. Radio reports were, at best, sketchy, and the closest Major League Baseball team was in St. Louis, about 1,000 miles to the east.

But Montana had newspapers, and the proprietor of the cafe had one on his counter. Every man who came in asked him, “Did he get one yesterday?’’ and on this day – and every day for more than two months – the reply was “Yep.’’

As Creamer wrote, The Streak transcended the Yankees and their fans, transcended New York, and transcended baseball.

It has been 83 years since DiMaggio commanded the attention of the nation’s sports fans like no athlete had before or has since. His record remains unbroken and baseball experts and purists still contend that DiMaggio’s mark will never fall.

“You can talk all you want about (Rogers) Hornsby’s .424 average and Hack Wilson’s 190 RBIs, but when DiMaggio hit in those 56 straight games, he put a line in the record book and it’s the one that will never be changed,’’ said none other than Ted Williams, DiMaggio’s chief rival and the man widely considered to be the greatest hitter of all time.

How impressed was Williams by DiMaggio’s feat? In 1941, Williams batted .406 for the Boston Red Sox. No one has topped the .400 mark since. DiMaggio batted .408 during his streak, but over the same 56-game period, Williams batted .412. Yet Williams did not win the American League’s most valuable player award. DiMaggio, with a .357 average, did, and Williams had no complaints.

“I didn’t feel robbed or cheated because he had that 56-game hitting streak and he was a great player on a great team that won the pennant,’’ Williams said.

“Ted really rooted for Joe,’’ said Dom DiMaggio, the Yankee Clipper’s brother and Williams’ teammate on the Red Sox. “They were rivals, but they had great admiration for each other. As a great hitter himself, Ted could really appreciate what Joe was accomplishing.’’

It began on May 15, 1941 when a crowd of 9,040 at Yankee Stadium watched their Yankees get pummeled 13-1 by the Chicago White Sox. It was New York’s fifth straight loss and dropped the Bombers 6 1/2 games behind Cleveland in the AL. When the day ended, no one particularly cared about DiMaggio’s RBI single in the first inning.

On May 24, DiMaggio ripped a shot to center field against the Red Sox that his brother, Dom, misplayed. Official scorer Dan Daniel, a writer for the World-Telegram, ruled it a three-base error instead of a hit. But DiMaggio came up in the seventh inning and hit a two-out, two-run single off Earl Johnson that lifted the Yankees to a 7-6 victory. The streak was alive at 10.

Bob Feller opposed the Yankees on June 2 – the day Lou Gehrig died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis – and DiMaggio touched him for a single and a double. “When I was a kid, I had two separate fastballs I threw to Joe,’’ Feller recalled. “One had this big hop and rose up and in on him. The other jumped away from him. He hit them both.’’

DiMaggio broke the Yankee record of 29 games in a row – shared by Roger Peckinpaugh and Earl Coombs – on June 17 when Daniel gave him a single on a ball that bounced off Chicago shortstop Luke Appling’s shoulder and looked like an error.

One week later the Yanks beat the Browns 9-1 and DiMaggio was hitless until the eighth when he singled against Bob Muncrief. Browns manager Luke Sewell asked Muncrief why he didn’t walk DiMaggio in the eighth to end the streak. Said Muncrief: “That wouldn’t have been fair, to him or to me. Hell, he’s the greatest ballplayer I’ve ever seen.’’

There was more drama in Washington on June 29 as DiMaggio tied George Sisler’s modern-day major-league record 41-game streak in the first game of a doubleheader, then broke it in the second game. In between games, his bat – a 36-ounce, 36-inch Louisville Slugger with an ink mark on the bottom of the knob – was stolen.

He went hitless in three trips in the second game, then remembered he had loaned Tommy Henrich one of his bats earlier in the year. Henrich gave it to him, and Joltin’ Joe singled off Red Anderson in the seventh.

“I’m glad a real hitter broke it,’’ said Sisler of his record.

The all-time mark of 44 in a row, set by Wee Willie Keeler of Baltimore in 1897, was tied on July 1 when DiMaggio hit safely in both ends of a doubleheader. A crowd of 52,832, including New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, was on hand at Yankee Stadium for the occasion.

The next day, DiMaggio’s brother Dom tried his hardest to stop Joe from setting the new record. Joe had asked Dom to join him for dinner after the game, and Dom accepted, but despite his brother’s hospitality, Dom went out and made a sensational catch of Joe’s drive to center, robbing him of an extra base hit.

“It was a great catch,’’ Joe admitted. “It was one of the best Dom ever made, but at that moment the only thing on my mind was the temptation to withdraw the dinner invitation.’’

There was nothing Dom could do to stop Joe a little later, though. In his third at-bat he ripped a 2-1 Dick Newsome fastball into the left-field seats for a three-run homer, thus erasing Keeler’s name from the record book.

Day after day DiMaggio added to the record, and on July 17, a crowd of 67,468 jammed into Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium – the largest night crowd to date in baseball history – to watch DiMaggio try to extend his streak to 57.

Left-hander Al Smith started for the Indians and he got off to a rough start in the first inning when Red Rolfe singled and scored on Henrich’s double. DiMaggio stepped into the batters’ box and the huge crowd shuffled in excitement. Cleveland third baseman Ken Keltner was playing way back, standing on the edge of the left-field grass, daring DiMaggio to try to bunt for a base-hit, something he hadn’t done once during the streak.

Smith delivered a 1-0 fastball and DiMaggio turned quickly and hit a vicious grounder down the line. Keltner made a wondrous backhanded stop, his momentum carrying him into foul territory. He regained his balance and fired a strike across the diamond to first baseman Oscar Grimes to barely nip DiMaggio.

In the top of the fourth DiMaggio drew a walk but the Yanks failed to score, and in the bottom of the inning Gerald Walker legged out an inside-the-park home run off New York pitcher Lefty Gomez to tie the game at 1-1.

DiMaggio’s next at-bat came in the seventh and once again, Keltner robbed him of a hit. Smith threw a curve and DiMaggio sent a screamer down to third where Keltner made another backhanded stab and threw him out by half a step. The next batter, Joe Gordon, homered to left to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead.

In the eighth, New York added two insurance runs. Cleveland center fielder Roy Weatherly misjudged Charlie Keller’s drive into a lead-off triple. After Phil Rizzuto grounded out, Gomez singled Keller home. He went to second on Johnny Sturm’s single and Rolfe’s double chased home Gomez for a 4-1 lead. Smith then walked Henrich to load the bases and with DiMaggio due up, Smith departed in favor of right-hander Jim Bagby.

With the crowd rooting for DiMaggio to keep his streak alive, Bagby fell behind 2-1, then threw a fastball on the inside portion of the plate. DiMaggio took a mighty cut and the ball exploded up the middle “as hard as I ever hit a ground ball in my life,’’ Joe said. However, shortstop Lou Boudreau moved to his left, speared the ball despite a bad hop, tossed to second baseman Ray Mack for one out, and Mack relayed to Grimes at first to complete a double play.

The fans groaned, but their spirits were lifted in the bottom of the ninth as Larry Rosenthal’s two-run triple brought the Indians within 4-3 with no one out. If only the Tribe could tie it, that might mean DiMaggio – due to bat fourth in the 10th – would have another at-bat.

Johnny Murphy, on in relief of Gomez, had allowed Rosenthal’s triple. But with the tying run at third Murphy induced pinch-hitter Hal Trosky to ground out to Sturm, and when Rosenthal mistakenly broke for the plate, he was caught in a rundown and was ultimately tagged out. Weatherly then grounded out to end the game, and the streak.

“I can’t say that I’m glad it’s over,’’ DiMaggio said in the clubhouse. “Of course I wanted to go on as long as I could. I do feel relieved, however, now that it’s all over. I admit I’ve been under a strain after the records were broken. But that's gone now. I'll be out there now still trying to get my base hits to win games. That’s all that has counted anyway. That seven-game lead we took over the Indians means more. But that Keltner certainly robbed me of at least one hit. That boy can field them.”

During the streak, DiMaggio went 91-for-223 (.408), scored 56 runs, had 16 doubles, 4 triples, 15 home runs and 55 RBI. He struck out only seven times. The Yankees posted a record of 41-13 (there were two ties that didn’t count in the standings, but the statistics counted) and they went from fourth place, 5 1/2 games out, to first place, six games in front of Cleveland.

The day after the streak ended, DiMaggio had a single and a double off Feller in a 2-1 loss. He would hit in 16 games in a row before being stopped, giving him hits in 72 of 73 games. When the season ended, DiMaggio had a .357 average, a .643 slugging average, 193 hits, 43 doubles, 11 triples, 30 home runs and a league-leading 125 RBI. He struck out just 13 times in 541 at-bats.

Said Yankees catcher Bill Dickey: “He gave the most consistent performance under pressure I have ever seen.’’