As Joe DiMaggio was on his way to hitting in 56 consecutive games, he actually set the 20th century major league record at Griffith Stadium on June 29, 1941, before a capacity crowd of 31,000.
The fans were there to follow DiMaggio’s quest during a Senators’ double-header with the Yankees. The American League and post-1900 record going into that game was set by George Sisler of the St. Louis Browns in 1922. Sisler had broken Ty Cobb’s 1911 record of hits in 40 straight games. DiMaggio matched Cobb’s 40 the previous day in Philadelphia.
The June 29 double-header sweep of the Senators put the Yanks in first place by themselves as New York went on the win the pennant.
Against the Senators’ starter, knuckle-baller Dutch Leonard, in game one, DiMaggio flied out in his first at-bat and popped out to third base in his second. Up again in the sixth, Joltin’ Joe swung and missed and took a pitch for a ball before drilling a double to the gap in left center, extending his streak to a record-tying 41 games.
New York won the first game of the Griffith Stadium twin bill, 9-5. The double was DiMaggio’s only hit but he had an RBI on a fly ball and was hit by a pitch.
In the second game, DiMaggio hit another run-scoring fly ball in the first inning and lined to short in the third off starter Sid Hudson. His two-out single to left off reliever Red Anderson in the seventh extended his hit streak to a record 42 games. He scored when the next batter, Charlie Keller, tripled. DiMaggio was 1-for-5 with that RBI fly in the first as the Yanks won, 7-5.
Run-scoring fly balls counted as times at bat in 1941, as the sacrifice-fly rule was not in effect that season. Had it been, DiMaggio’s 12 RBIs on fly-ball outs would been sacrifice flies, reducing his season’s at-bats from 541 to 529 and raising his average from .357 to .365.
From 1931 to 1953, with the exception of 1939, batters got an RBI and a time at-bat for what previously had been sacrifice flies with no time at-bat and as they have been again since 1954. DiMaggio played from 1936 to 1951, so the six sacrifice flies he had in 1939 were the only ones of his career. That one-year reinstatement of the sac fly rule in 1939 raised Joe D’s league leading batting average from .376 to his career high .381.
The recognized National League mark of 44 straight games with a hit was set by Wee Willie Keeler of the Baltimore Orioles in 1897. This is the one Pete Rose of the Reds matched in 1978. Keeler had a hit in the last game in 1896, so his total over two seasons was 45 for those interested in such carry-overs.
DiMaggio tied Keeler’s 44-game record in the second game of a July 1 double-header in New York. Luckily, he singled in the first inning because the game was called because of rain after five innings. During the rain delay, DiMaggio’s favorite bat was stolen from the dugout. The next day, DiMaggio hit a long home run off rookie Dick Newsome of the Red Sox to set a new consecutive game hit record – 45 — with a bat borrowed from Tommy Henrich that was the same weight and length as his own model.
As a war was raging in Europe, “the pursuit of the hitting streak became a national phenomenon and was a common conversation starter on the streets” Jeff Allen Howard wrote for SABR’s Games Project about the day DiMaggio broke Keeler’s record. “People avidly tuned on their radios, looking for updates.”
A digression: Most batting records set after 1893 — when the pitching distance was set at 60-feet-6-inches – are as legitimate as those achieved after 1900. So Keeler’s 44-game streak deserves to stand, along with Rose’s, as the National League record – with one caveat.
Keeler was an expert at fouling off pitches. Throughout the 1890s, a batter’s first two foul balls that were not bunt attempts did not count as strikes, but starting in 1894, any foul bunt counted as a strike. So the umpire had to determine the batter’s intent, hard to do with Keller, who always choked up a foot on his 30-ounce bat and pounded pitches into the dirt. Individual game records for 1897 are not complete enough to determine if Keller’s streak was kept alive with help of this rule difference.
The Senators were an infrequent opponent of the Yankees during DiMaggio’s streak. On May 27, 28 and 29 in Washington, he had hits in his 12th, 13th and 14th consecutive games. Those last two drew the first mention of the hit streak by New York writers who covered the Yankees. Joe had four hits on the 27th. On May 28, the first night game ever at Griffith Stadium, DiMaggio didn’t get a hit until an eighth inning triple. On May 29, in a game that was called after five innings because of rain. DiMaggio singled leading off the fourth inning.
The Yankee Clipper went on to hit in 11 more consecutive games after breaking Keeler’s mark on July 2. The streak ended at 56 when he was stopped in Cleveland on July 17. Two fine fielding plays by third baseman Ken Keltner robbed DiMaggio on hard-hit balls down the line. Two Cleveland pitchers – Al Smith and Jim Bagby Jr. – were credited with stopping the streak, but the Yankees won the game, 4-3.
The June 29 double-header sweep of the Senators put the Yanks in first place by themselves as New York went on the win the pennant with 101-53-2 record and beat the Brooklyn Dodgers in the World Series, four games to one, the first time the two teams met.
DiMaggio won the A.L. MVP award, despite Ted Williams hitting .406. Neither the 56-game streak nor the .400 average has been equaled since.
This also appeared in the Nov. 9, 2024, edition of Here’s the Pitch, the online newsletter of the Internet Baseball Writers Association.
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