The subtitle is "The Last Magic Number in Sports." Of course, the book is about Joe DiMaggio's 56 game hitting streak in 1941.
It's a good book, better than I thought it would be, but I enjoyed it more for reading about the country's atmosphere in 1941 than the details of the hitting streak. For the year 1941 was a year of pending danger and stress as war raged in Europe and the US started to mobilize and everyone knew it was just a matter of time before we entered the war. That issue was settled on December 7, but before then the apprehension in the country must have been unbearable. Young men didn't know what was going to happen and the future was murky.
DiMaggio ended up making his contribution playing baseball in the Pacific. He never came close to actual war, unlike his brother Dom or his nemesis Ted Wiliiams, who flew fighter planes in the war. No, The Clipper never came close to firing a gun in defense of his country.
It's hard for me to appreciate that 56 game hitting streak. This book presents a lot of statistics on the subject. It certainly was a great sporting accomplishment, but I guess because I don't like DiMaggio I will never fully appreeciate or give credit to the man.
Yet the number 56 is there, immortalized for all time. This is a record that truly will likely never be broken.
No comments:
Post a Comment