This Date In Sports History and Joltin' Joe

Via RealClearSports:

Joe DiMaggio breaks the major-league hitting-streak, July 2, 1941: Joe DiMaggio's fifth-inning home run off Dick Newsome of the Boston Red Sox extends his hitting streak to 45 games, breaking the all-time major-league record of 44, set by Willie Keeler in 1897. A crowd of 8,682 at Yankee Stadium saw the record-smashing hit. After the game, DiMaggio posed for photographs atop the shoulders of teammates Tiny Bonham and Tommy Henrich.

The most amazing part of this, for me is the crowd: 8,682. The Yankees would lead the American League that year with 964,722 seats sold that year, an average attendance of 12,368 (via B-R). The Yankees were in the midst of a huge divisional comeback (they were down 7.5 games on May 17th and would be up 20.5 on September 9th), Joe DiMaggio was breaking hit streak records, they were in the middle of a 14 game winning streak, and the Yankees were playing the Red Sox.

And DiMaggio was in the middle of this amazing hit streak which started on May 15th, right before the Yankees started taking off. Over that 56-game hitting streak, DiMaggio would bat .409 (91 out of 223) with 56 runs scored, 16 2B, 4 3B, 15 HR, and 55 RBI. But on the day that DiMaggio set the Major League Record, 8,682 people were there.

Amazingly, 134,788 would see the first two games of the World Series in Yankee Stadium that year.  

My favorite part of DiMaggio's batting line from that season: 76 walks to 13 strikeouts. That factors out to one K every 42 ABs. This year's leader is Alberto Callaspo at a 14.5 ABs per K. And DiMaggio came in 2nd in that category in 1941.

With a .357 average, 30 HRs and a league-leading 125 RBIs, DiMaggio captured his second MVP trophy, narrowly edging out Ted Williams and his .406 average (and .553 OBP).