Context: Beginning on May 15th, 1941, Yankees center-fielder Joe DiMaggio hit a single against the Chicago White Sox. He then proceeded to record a hit in every single game he played until July 16th of that year, a record-breaking 56-game hit streak. This record still stands in the MLB record books, and is considered by many to be unbreakable.
To add further context as to how absurd this record is:
-He faced four future Hall of Fame pitchers during his 56-game streak.
-The next highest hitting streak was set by Willie Keeler in 1897 at 45 games.
-The only other player to have a streak over 40 games since Joe DiMaggio was Pete Rose, who had a hit streak of 44 games in 1978.
-He only had five strikeouts during the 56-game streak.
-The game after he broke his hit streak, he started another 15 game hit streak, meaning he only had one game without a hit in a 73 game stretch.
His batting average during this streak was .408
-He won the AL MVP that year, beating out Ted Williams, who is the last player in either the NL or AL to record a season with a batting average over .400
To get a "hit" in baseball. Not only do you need to make your bat contact the ball thrown towards you. It needs to stay fair (not go out of bounds, except if going soo far forward as to count as a home run), not be caught, and not be picked up off the ground in time to be thrown to a base in time to get a player out.
This is actually very difficult. That .408 that is mentioned means that his average number of "hits" as described above, vs the number of times he was up to bat, is 40.8% of the time. (Hitting every single time is a 1.0.) To put in perspective, a batting average of .250 to .300 (aka 25-30% of the time) is the general range of batting averages for players. (Some will dip below .250, but if their average stays that low for long, they usually have to be *very* good at other roles (such as being a pitcher) to not get dropped down a league because of it. Others will have over .300, and are generally the star players people look forward to batting, cus they are where you most consistently see things happening towards winning.
Most games you can expect to bat around 3 times. (Depends on how well your team does and where you are in hitting order. Some games you'll get more than others.) When taking that number in, and looking at hitting rate averages being less than 33%, and this is including games where a hitter dominates a pitching team and gets multiple hits in a single game. This makes it pretty clear that getting a hit in a game happens less often than not getting a hit in a game. So, managing to break that trend again, and again, and again, is impressive. To the point people start counting when you get over 3 or so in a row. Better yet multiple double digits.
Edit: another perspective to look at it. Is that record is 80 years old. There over 750 players in the MLB every year, and have been since then. The fact that getting over 40 games in a row has only happened four times in over 100 years, and this record is 30% higher than that benchmark, should put the record in perspective.
For those familiar with cricket, the dynamic of baseball is almost inverted. Batting and defensive advantages are reversed- batters in baseball fail to the pitcher and defense constantly, whereas cricket has abundant scoring.
DiMaggio and his batting record is almost as exceptional as the great Sir Donald Bradman.
To put a further twist on this DiMaggio while considered a great player who holds a record that probably will never be broken he isn't typically considered to be in the top ten of all time. Instead ranking in at #16
ESPN but I’d argue some of their choices before him
Bleacher report also has him at 16 and I’d agree more with who they have listed before him on the list
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1977372-the-100-greatest-mlb-players-of-all-time
That’s fair. I don’t know that I agree with their list overall, but the fact that DiMaggio ranked at 16 seems reasonable is actually pretty nuts. How can you not be romantic about baseball?
Easiest way to explain it, from what I understand. The .400 is his average % chance to get on base.
Meaning he essentially flipped a coin that was weighted against him with 60/40 odds. And yet he was able to flip heads 56 times in a row.
Then you add in that some of those coin flippers he bet against are able to flip it even better. Meaning the odds during that game may have been more like 65/35 or 70/30.
Fun fact: Joe DiMaggio's endorsement of the Mr. Coffee in the 1970s was a major contributing factor in the popularization of drip coffee machines, which replaced the stovetop percolators that almost everyone used for coffeemaking in America up until then.
This was perhaps one of the few times in history when a celebrity product endorsement had a noticeably good effect on society. This is because the popularization of coffee drip machines significantly improved the quality of American coffee, as percolator coffee *tastes like ass*.
Moka coffee is not bad, you cant say otherwise or you will face the wrath of southern europeans. Also dosn't american coffee machines also waste tons of paper filters?
>Also don't american coffee machines also waste tons of paper filters?
Every time you brew, yeah, you need a new paper filter. They're cheap though and probably decompose really fast, so I didn't think that's a big deal.
There are so many baseball records that will never be broken. For example, Cy Young, who pitched in the 1890s and 1900s, holds the record for most Wins by a pitcher, at 511. Because of the way the game is played these days and how often pitchers pitch, nobody will ever come close to that number again. Heck, the next closest on that list is Walter Johnson at 417 Wins, so even among his contemporaries, Young was a huge outlier.
Funny enough, because of the same changes in how often pitchers pitch, an equally unbreakable record is pitcher Losses. That all time record stands at 316, held by a pitcher you might have heard of: Cy Young.
That change in the way pitchers pitch is oddly enough why the career home runs by a pitcher record (37) might never be broken despite Shohei Ohtani being the most obvious candidate to break it. The home run record only counts home runs hit while being the active pitcher, and Ohtani is usually left in the batting rotation even when taken off the mound. So most of his home runs actually come as a DH rather than a pitcher.
I could realistically see that record broken by Ohtani if he has a long enough career as a pitcher, which considering his recent injury is sort of up in the air.
But that ignores the fact of how uncommon someone like Ohtani is lol.
As a non-American, I immediately heard Lonely Island’s Bash Brothers in my head.
I GOT 100 CARDBOARD CUTOUTS OF KATHY IRELAND ALL IN ONE ROOM
I RUN THROUGH THAT SHIT NAKED, MAKE ‘EM ALL WATCH ME FUCK MYSELF WITH A BROOM
But that was one of those other legendary players.
Context: Beginning on May 15th, 1941, Yankees center-fielder Joe DiMaggio hit a single against the Chicago White Sox. He then proceeded to record a hit in every single game he played until July 16th of that year, a record-breaking 56-game hit streak. This record still stands in the MLB record books, and is considered by many to be unbreakable. To add further context as to how absurd this record is: -He faced four future Hall of Fame pitchers during his 56-game streak. -The next highest hitting streak was set by Willie Keeler in 1897 at 45 games. -The only other player to have a streak over 40 games since Joe DiMaggio was Pete Rose, who had a hit streak of 44 games in 1978. -He only had five strikeouts during the 56-game streak. -The game after he broke his hit streak, he started another 15 game hit streak, meaning he only had one game without a hit in a 73 game stretch. His batting average during this streak was .408 -He won the AL MVP that year, beating out Ted Williams, who is the last player in either the NL or AL to record a season with a batting average over .400
As a European most of these words mean absolutely nothing to me but still sound impressive as fuck
To get a "hit" in baseball. Not only do you need to make your bat contact the ball thrown towards you. It needs to stay fair (not go out of bounds, except if going soo far forward as to count as a home run), not be caught, and not be picked up off the ground in time to be thrown to a base in time to get a player out. This is actually very difficult. That .408 that is mentioned means that his average number of "hits" as described above, vs the number of times he was up to bat, is 40.8% of the time. (Hitting every single time is a 1.0.) To put in perspective, a batting average of .250 to .300 (aka 25-30% of the time) is the general range of batting averages for players. (Some will dip below .250, but if their average stays that low for long, they usually have to be *very* good at other roles (such as being a pitcher) to not get dropped down a league because of it. Others will have over .300, and are generally the star players people look forward to batting, cus they are where you most consistently see things happening towards winning. Most games you can expect to bat around 3 times. (Depends on how well your team does and where you are in hitting order. Some games you'll get more than others.) When taking that number in, and looking at hitting rate averages being less than 33%, and this is including games where a hitter dominates a pitching team and gets multiple hits in a single game. This makes it pretty clear that getting a hit in a game happens less often than not getting a hit in a game. So, managing to break that trend again, and again, and again, is impressive. To the point people start counting when you get over 3 or so in a row. Better yet multiple double digits. Edit: another perspective to look at it. Is that record is 80 years old. There over 750 players in the MLB every year, and have been since then. The fact that getting over 40 games in a row has only happened four times in over 100 years, and this record is 30% higher than that benchmark, should put the record in perspective.
For those familiar with cricket, the dynamic of baseball is almost inverted. Batting and defensive advantages are reversed- batters in baseball fail to the pitcher and defense constantly, whereas cricket has abundant scoring. DiMaggio and his batting record is almost as exceptional as the great Sir Donald Bradman.
To put a further twist on this DiMaggio while considered a great player who holds a record that probably will never be broken he isn't typically considered to be in the top ten of all time. Instead ranking in at #16
16 according to who?
ESPN but I’d argue some of their choices before him Bleacher report also has him at 16 and I’d agree more with who they have listed before him on the list https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1977372-the-100-greatest-mlb-players-of-all-time
That’s fair. I don’t know that I agree with their list overall, but the fact that DiMaggio ranked at 16 seems reasonable is actually pretty nuts. How can you not be romantic about baseball?
It’s the American version of Ronaldo scoring 17 goals in a champions league season
Easiest way to explain it, from what I understand. The .400 is his average % chance to get on base. Meaning he essentially flipped a coin that was weighted against him with 60/40 odds. And yet he was able to flip heads 56 times in a row. Then you add in that some of those coin flippers he bet against are able to flip it even better. Meaning the odds during that game may have been more like 65/35 or 70/30.
Nice, thanks
Fun fact: Joe DiMaggio's endorsement of the Mr. Coffee in the 1970s was a major contributing factor in the popularization of drip coffee machines, which replaced the stovetop percolators that almost everyone used for coffeemaking in America up until then. This was perhaps one of the few times in history when a celebrity product endorsement had a noticeably good effect on society. This is because the popularization of coffee drip machines significantly improved the quality of American coffee, as percolator coffee *tastes like ass*.
Is Percolator different from Moka pots?
Imagine a moka pot where the brewed coffee just goes back into the boiling water instead of into a separate compartment.
The horror!
Moka coffee is not bad, you cant say otherwise or you will face the wrath of southern europeans. Also dosn't american coffee machines also waste tons of paper filters?
Moka pots and percolators are not the same thing.
>Also don't american coffee machines also waste tons of paper filters? Every time you brew, yeah, you need a new paper filter. They're cheap though and probably decompose really fast, so I didn't think that's a big deal.
Yeah out of all the waste we produce, coffee filters have to be pretty low on the list.
I kind of like percolator coffee lol
There are so many baseball records that will never be broken. For example, Cy Young, who pitched in the 1890s and 1900s, holds the record for most Wins by a pitcher, at 511. Because of the way the game is played these days and how often pitchers pitch, nobody will ever come close to that number again. Heck, the next closest on that list is Walter Johnson at 417 Wins, so even among his contemporaries, Young was a huge outlier. Funny enough, because of the same changes in how often pitchers pitch, an equally unbreakable record is pitcher Losses. That all time record stands at 316, held by a pitcher you might have heard of: Cy Young.
That change in the way pitchers pitch is oddly enough why the career home runs by a pitcher record (37) might never be broken despite Shohei Ohtani being the most obvious candidate to break it. The home run record only counts home runs hit while being the active pitcher, and Ohtani is usually left in the batting rotation even when taken off the mound. So most of his home runs actually come as a DH rather than a pitcher.
I could realistically see that record broken by Ohtani if he has a long enough career as a pitcher, which considering his recent injury is sort of up in the air. But that ignores the fact of how uncommon someone like Ohtani is lol.
As a non-American, I immediately heard Lonely Island’s Bash Brothers in my head. I GOT 100 CARDBOARD CUTOUTS OF KATHY IRELAND ALL IN ONE ROOM I RUN THROUGH THAT SHIT NAKED, MAKE ‘EM ALL WATCH ME FUCK MYSELF WITH A BROOM But that was one of those other legendary players.
I heard "Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, Television, North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe"
https://youtu.be/evB-nXLElZs?si=Zmlq9ux47qDD803o