DiMaggio’s Streak is Baseball’s Unbreakable Record
From SABR member Jayson Stark at ESPN.com on May 15:
It started innocently enough. Hitting streaks always do.
You think the great Joe DiMaggio ever imagined that seven decades later, we’d still be talking about a first-inning single in a 13-1 loss on a Thursday afternoon in May of 1941? He’d figure we’d have better things to do, more important stuff to talk about.
But it was that nondescript hit, exactly 70 years ago, that started it all — the legendary 56-game hitting streak that would one day become the coolest, most romantic record in sports.
Babe Ruth’s 60 home runs once held that title. That record stood for just 34 years. Then came Roger Maris’ 61. That one lasted 37 years, only to be toppled by The Asterisk Era.
But this record, DiMaggio’s record, just keeps on shining — more brightly, more unapproachable than ever — nearly three-quarters of a century later.
Read the full article here: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=6539812
Originally published: May 15, 2011. Last Updated: May 15, 2011.