New book...."56" by K. Kennedy....70 years since DiMaggio's hitting streak
 

Book of the month....excellently documents Joe D's famous hitting streak. You don't have to be a Yankees fan to appreciate this story of a BB record
that may never be broken.
Joe's streak started May 15, 1941, it did not receive much fanfare for quite a while, as Joe was typically getting only one hit for every four AB's. The
fans (and the sports media) started paying attention to it when Joe broke Earl Combs 29 game record. In the 32nd game, Joe batted 3 for 3, and the
fans started getting very excited. From that game on to the 56th game, Joe hit for an unbelievable .460 BA.
Furthermore, after Joe broke Willie Keeler's 44 game record, Joe batted at an amazing .510 clip during the final 12 games.

On July 17th, the streak ended at Cleveland's Muncipal Stadium by two great fielding plays (by Keltner & Boudreau). The next day DiMaggio faced Bob
Feller and started a 16 game hitting streak.

Check it all out for yourself ...... 56 (Last Magic Number in Sports) .... by Kostya Kennedy


TED Z

It is next on my reading list after I finish the Mantle book. Looking forward to it, esp since I am trying to finish out the double plays.

The Sports Illustrated article from a few weeks back was great. I plan on getting the book

I agree, this may be an unbreakable record.

ted,
 

this book is a must for my reading list.
many thanks for sharing.
i saw dimaggio hit a homer in an oldtimers game when i was in grade school
and it will always remain one of my baseball highlights.

best,
barry

Barry A......
 

A definite must for you. It is well researched and written.

I've been to many Old Timers games at Yankee Stadium over the years and I'm trying to remember which one Joe D hit a HR in ?

I clearly remember Mickey Mantle hitting a HR in the 1973 Old Timers game. I think it was Mickey's last HR in Yankee Stadium.


Thanks ole buddy,

TED Z

ted
 

i think that homer was probably 'round 50 years ago as it would've been my little league days. It's funny i went browsing through my old baseball stuff
from boyhood after trying to remember those days and found an autographed
photo of duke snider from '62, a letter from gil hodges(i'd written to him after
he had been quite sick)---same time period, and some sort of mimeographed
note on stationery from Stengel.
great fun.
all the best, ole friend
barry

Interesting that Williams out-hit him, something like .415 to .408, as memory serves, over the same time span.

Larry

New book...."56" by K. Kennedy....70 years since DiMaggio's hitting streak
 

Although, I was an avid Yankees fan in my youth (1947-1958), I loved Ted Williams. He would hit some long and high HR's into the RF upper deck
of Yankee Stadium and I was just amazed.


<img src="http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt113/zanted86/1941pbjoedtedwill.jpg" alt="[linked image]">


A major difference in the batting styles of Joe and Ted was that Joe didn't WALK as much as Ted. Joe's career average was about 60 Walks/year.

While Ted's average was approx. 120 Walks/year. This difference is a key factor as to why Ted's career BA is approx. 20 points higher than Joe's
career .325 BA.


TED Z

Ted I was there for the Mick's as well. I was just 13 years old at the time. The way I remember it was that he hit the HR right handed, right down the left field line into the first couple of rows in left.
The place erupted like nothing I had ever heard at that time.
Is that the way you remember it Ted??
RayB

Ted
 

Ted, I don't know if you've read any of Bill James' stuff, but he was able to work out a formula, taking into account events like singles, doubles, triples, homeruns, walks, stolen bases, etc. produced for any given team over the course of an entire season to calculate the number of runs that team would be expected to score for the season. As I recall, it would generate a runs scored figure that would correlate with well over 95% accurracy with the number of runs any given team actually did score in the course of that season. James then applied the same formula to individual players to calculate the number of runs they had personally created versus the number the league average player created over the same time period. Anyway, I did some research in James' writings several years ago, and it turned out that Ted Williams had created approximately 250% of the runs an average player would have been expected to create over the course of Ted's entire career.

Where did this place Williams? Precisely in the number one slot of all time. The Babe was second, with something like 229% of the average league player over his career. Although Ruth actually produced more runs, the league average was also higher, indicating conditions favored the hitter more so than in Williams' era. Old Teddy Ballgame may just actually have achieved his dream of being remembered as the greatest hitter who ever lived!

Incidently, he and the Mick are probably two of my three or four all-time favorites. As I remember, Mantle was either 3rd or 4th of all time by that same measure, with about 215%. It is indeed no coincidence that both of them drew a tremendous number of walks. As much as a negative it is when the pitcher for the team we're rooting for walks a hitter, the converse is that its a big plus for the offense. As James also showed, the number of runs a team scores is directly proportional to the number of base runners it generates.

Thanks for giving me an avenue to talk about my all-time favorites.

By the way, what do you guys think is Williams' toughest card? 1939 R303-A premium? 1952 Star-Cal cards (2)? I'm sure some might think the '54 Wilson's Franks would be up there, but PSA has graded 113 of them--not so far ahead of the 1952 Red Man Tobacco with tabs (125). And I'm sure Leon will come up with one or more to top them all!

Best to everybody,

Larry

Larry

I always thought that the 1954 Bowman Ted Williams card was the toughest. Since Topps forced Bowman to stop issuing it.

POP reports can be misleading on rare cards such as Ted's 1954 Bowman or 1954 Wilson's Franks.



<img src="http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt113/zanted86/bowmangumcotedwilliams.jpg" alt="[linked image]">


TED Z

Ray B
 

The theme of the 1973 Old Timer's game was honoring the 50th Anniversary of Yankee Stadium. There was not an empty seat in Yankee Stadium that day
on August 2, 1973.
I do recall Mantle was batting righthanded. Whitey Ford was on the mound and it looked like Whitey was grooving the pitches to Mickey. My recollection is
that the HR traveled further than you said. Your recollection is better than mine. As, I better remember my 7-year old daughter's excitement when Mickey
hit the HR.

Here you go....check-out this link. It shows Mickey's at bat when he hit that HR in the Summer of '73. Probably, I recall his foul ball into the LF upper deck
seats (just prior to his HR.).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9fNcMLaW_A


Best regards,

TED Z

Thanks for the heads up on the book
 

This sounds like a great book and I plan to read it.

I used to be an avid reader and collector of sports books in the 1990's and after a long hiatus, I plan on devoting most, if not all of my hobby time (and money) to buying more books and reading them and expanding my sports library.

The card collecting thing for me has been a total headache and it just isn't fun anymore as a hobby. Several of my friends and I had our own "sports book of the month club" from the early 1990's to the late 1990's and those books and discussions about what we read were by far and away more engaging, educational and entertaining than all the thousands of cards I ever owned. In fact, some of the best books I've ever read I found in bargain bins for $3-$5 at various local book stores like a late, autographed edition of "Ball Four" or an early '70s hardback in superb conditon of "Clemente" by Phil Muzik.

When Ebay came into fruition in the late 1990's the "book club" and my devotion to books faded away and now I realize what a mistake that was. Keep those book reviews coming!