What was more amazing in 1941, DiMaggio's 56 game hitting streak or Ted Williams hitting .400?

Question

No one has ever really come close to duplicating both feats, so which one do you think is a greater achievement?

It was in the same d**n year!!! Unbelievable

Answer 1

.400 has gotta be because he kept it up for the whole season

That's pretty beast if you ask me

*sigh* what's up with the thumbs downs? Do you want me to explain more?

Teams were getting more pitcher-wise as opposed to the olden days in which pitchers almost always went the distance leading to more hits. Need I say more?

Answer 2

What's amazing is that Ted Williams hit .400 and also had two Triple Crown seasons and didn't win the MVP in any of them.

Answer 3

Actually, many players have duplicated Ted Williams' feat..just nobody since he did it.

Given that DiMaggio's streak had never been done before or since, I find that more amazing, but more because of it's statistical rarity.

If I'm building a team, I definitely want the guy with the .400 average over the guy with the 56 game hitting streak. The .400 hitter will contribute more over the entire season. Williams certainly deserved the MVP that year.

There's a good book about it called, obviously enough, "Baseball in '41" by Robert Creamer. A very enjoyable read if you can find a copy.

Answer 4

I think the hit streak, it is hard to hit the ball at all at that level, and to hit the ball in 56 straight games, that is just amazing, that is a feat that no one has done before and over 60 years later it still stands 22 feet tall today.

Don't get me wrong, batting 400 is just as rare as a long hit streak but his batting is not a record, if it was a record of some sort I may be a little more but since it has been done before and D hit for a record, I gotta say Joe.

Answer 5

Joe Dimaggio's 56 game hitting streak! Pete Rose was the only one who came fairly close to that when he had a 44 game hitting streak in 1978 and he was still 12 games off! To deal with the pressure in this day and age from the media and still break that record would be quite an accomplishment! Back then as far west as the teams had to play was St. Louis and today they play all the way to the west coast for extended periods of time playing day after night games which makes it rougher plus the 162 game schedule which is 8 games more than they play today!

Answer 6

the 56 game hitting streak, a .400 average has been done before, multiple times by a guy by the name of Tyrus Cobb

Answer 7

Even though batting .400 is totally amazing, it is definately more amazing to be perfect for 56 straight games!  What I mean by perfect is that Joe D coud not have one bad hitting night for 56 consecutive games!  For him do it that long is an incredible feat that will most likely never be broken!  Joe D's achievement is more amazing also for the fact that he won the MVP Award over Ted Williams in that same season!  Also, Joe D's feat has never been acomplished and Ted Williams feat has been acomplished (Bill Terry, NY Giants)!!!!!!  Terry batted .401 in 1930 and 6 other players besides Williams and Terry have hit .400 in one season!  Take that, Joe D is the man and will always be known as an amazing Legend!

Answer 8

Dimaggio cause the day after his streak ended, he started a 35 game hit streak

Answer 9

Tough but i'll say

Ted Williams .400 because doing that for a whole season is hard.

Answer 10

In my opinion the hit streak. If you think about it, it might be the record in sports that will never be broken. I can see albert pujols down the road flirting with .400 but 56 games in a row never, also DiMaggio hit successful in 72 of 73 games of that and the game he missed there were TWO diving stops. In one game you can go 0-2 or 0-3 with a few walks but hitting .400 you can go 0- for many times and still achieve that streak the point of it a season accomplish is false beacuse since its a season you have time to make up for a bad hitting day. When your that hot also people will avoid you so 2 or 3 walks in a game you only have 1 or 2 at-bats to get a hit that will never be done again.

Answer 11

After the 1941 season the Baseball Writers gave DiMaggio the MVP, not Ted Williams.  It may be because Ty Cobb, Bill Terry and Rogers Hornsby had all hit over .400 within the previous 20 years.  

Answer 12

Ted Williams hitting .400. He should have gotten the MVP.  

Answer 13

Joe D,it was 56 thats is pretty frieken good

Answer 14

The hit streak, not even close. That will never be broken. Chipper Jones is hitting .370.