56, the Last Magic Number

The story of 56 games. dwm photo

  Joe DiMaggio wasn't hitting in May, 1941. "For nearly four weeks he'd been hitting under .200. Only 14 hits in his last 73 at bats, one of the numbers guys in the clubhouse had informed him." (page 23)

 Then, on Sunday, May 18, 1941, on "I am an American" Day, Yankee Stadium and other baseball parks held patriotic festivals before the game. DiMaggio and the Yankees were playing the St. Louis Browns, one of the worst teams in the American League.

 Joe had three base hits in the opener, although they didn't make him feel better as all three could have easily been outs.

 So began what became an odyssey for the nation's pastime that continues to hold our interest now.

 Writer Kostya Kennedy provides an in-depth look at DiMaggio as a player and a man. 

 We get a look at his first marriage to an actress, no, not that actress, this one was Dorothy Olson. She was an extra on the set of a movie in 1937 in which DiMaggio played himself and fell in love.

DiMaggio had two brothers who also played baseball, although neither were as good. Joe was quiet and kept his guard up much of the time unless in the company of his closest friends. For a premier player, this inside look reveals a player with a lot of insecurities.

The book covers the time in history, with the United States on the brink of entering the fight in World War II. Anyone following baseball in 1941, lived through the Great Depression and with much of the world already fighting, there was a sense of the coming as more men, including ballplayers, were getting drafted.

The book concentrates on the day to day nature of the streak for DiMaggio, and leaves the statistical improbabilities of it to an epilogue that concludes the one-of-its-kind happenstance with a short sentence, "Through the end of the 2010 season 17,290 players were known to have played in the major leagues. Only one of them ever hit in 56 straight games."

 You don't have to be a baseball fan or follow American history to enjoy the book, published in 2011, but I will say that would make it more likely that you get a several day streak of your own reading it cover to cover.

56 - Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports by Kostya Kennedy, published by Sports Illustrated Books in 2011.