Posted by: Tim () on Sat Sep 6 16:57:38 2008

How many times in Joe DiMaggio's career did he put together hit streaks of 30+ games? The way you talk about it one would think that he did it all the time.

Yeah DiMaggio was a good hitter with a .325 career average, but to go 56 straight games with at least one hit... luck is definately involved. Remeber that .325 indicates that one's chances of getting a hit in any given at bat is unlikely.

Ty Cobb was a .366 career hitter and he never hit in 56 straight games. Ted Williams never hit in 56 straight games even during the season when he batted over .400. Tony Gywnn, Ichiro, and Albert Pujols all have career batting averages higher than DiMaggio and they've never hit in 56 straight games.

It obviously takes skill to hit a baseball but hitting isn't an exact science. You can still do everything right and just miss the ball. You could even hit a line drive and get out because it went right into someones glove or an athletic fielder took away a hit. So many things could have (and usually do) happened in those 56 games that would have broken his streak. The fact that none of these things happened is why I say the streak was luck. DiMaggio didn't pull off the streak because he concentrated harder or took extra batting practice. He simply happened to go on a stretch of 56 games where he reached base on a hit.

And if it wasn't luck how come he didn't do it multiple times? If something is really an act of skill someone would be able to do it multiple times not just once.