At the time DiMaggio’s hit did not mean much The Yankees would lose 13 1 Only 9,040 fans were there to see it Yet the single was the start of something big Through the rest of May all of June and well into July Joltin Joe got a hit in every game he played His hitting streak lasted 56 games a major league record The United States was on the brink of World War II DiMaggio’s streak was a nice distraction for many people As his streak grew news of his feats made its way onto the front pages of daily newspapers from New York to California DiMaggio paid little attention to it at first He was just happy he was hitting again and the Yankees were winning He said the key to getting hot was remembering to point his left foot toward the pitcher It was something he’d learned in the minor leagues but had moved away from during his slump Everybody asked what was wrong DiMaggio said They told me I was striding too far They told me I was upper-cutting the ball They told me just about everything And then on May 15 I took a gander at my left foot It wasn’t pointed toward the pitcher at all It was pointed toward first base Back in his familiar stance DiMaggio started hitting the ball hard to all fields On May 16 he had two hits a home run and a triple Two games later he had three hits On May 27 he had four hits to run his streak to 12 games 6
Joe DiMaggio rips a single to left field on June 29 1941 to run his hitting streak to a record 42 straight games On June 7 DiMaggio had three hits in St Louis against the Browns The next day he had four hits including three home runs in a doubleheader That extended his streak to 24 games I knew I was hitting the ball well but I wasn’t conscious of the streak until after that series in St Louis when the 7
Ted Williams left and Joe DiMaggio both made history with remarkable hitting feats in 1941 writers started digging out the records I could break said DiMaggio On June 29 DiMaggio broke George Sisler’s AL record of 41 straight games On July 2 a home run against the Boston Red Sox pushed DiMaggio’s streak to 45 games That beat the previous major league record of 44 set by Wee Willie Keeler in 1897 That was before the AL even existed I don’t know how far I can go he said at the time But I’m not going to worry about it now 8
Between July 6 and July 16 he had two four-hit games and two three-hit games As he prepared to play the Indians in Cleveland on July 17 DiMaggio had hit safely in 56 straight games Twice in his first three plate appearances that day Indians third baseman Ken Keltner robbed him of hits Then in his final at-bat DiMaggio grounded into a double play The streak was over I can’t say that I’m glad it’s over DiMaggio said Of course I wanted it to go on as long as it could DiMaggio hit 408 during the streak raising his average to 375 The next day he began a 16-game hitting streak Pete Rose’s 44-game streak in 1978 is the longest in the big leagues since 1941 THE LAST 400 HITTER ALSO IN 1941 TED WILLIAMS OF THE BOSTON RED SOX HIT 406 THOUGH SEVERAL PLAYERS HIT 400 OR BETTER BEFORE WILLIAMS NO ONE HAS DONE IT SINCE WILLIAMS ENTERED THE FINAL DAY OF THE SEASON BATTING (cid:13)(cid:18)(cid:24)(cid:24)(cid:20)(cid:20)(cid:3)(cid:32)(cid:45)(cid:35)(cid:3)(cid:51)(cid:39)(cid:36)(cid:45)(cid:3)(cid:54)(cid:36)(cid:45)(cid:51)(cid:3)(cid:21)(cid:515)(cid:37)(cid:46)(cid:49)(cid:515)(cid:23)(cid:3) IN A DOUBLEHEADER TO REACH 406 HE HAD 185 HITS AND 147 WALKS IN 143 GAMES GIVING (cid:39)(cid:40)(cid:44)(cid:3)(cid:32)(cid:3)(cid:50)(cid:36)(cid:32)(cid:50)(cid:46)(cid:45)(cid:515)(cid:49)(cid:36)(cid:34)(cid:46)(cid:49)(cid:35)(cid:3)(cid:46)(cid:45)(cid:515)(cid:33)(cid:32)(cid:50)(cid:36)(cid:3) PERCENTAGE OF 553 THAT LASTED UNTIL 2002 9
