Top 25 MLB batting seasons of all time

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circa 1945: Full-length image of New York Yankees outfielder and slugger Joe DiMaggio (1914 – 1999) still holding a baseball bat after following through with a swing during a game. (Photo by Photo File/Getty Images) /

23. Joe DiMaggio, 1941

The Numbers, 56-game hitting streak, .357/.440/.643, 30 homers, 125 RBI

From May 15 to July 16 of the 1941 season, Joe DiMaggio went on one of the greatest runs in MLB history. For 56 straight games, DiMaggio got at least one hit, obliterating the old record streak of 44 games. Over the course of the streak, he batted .408 with 15 home runs and 55 RBI. The day after the streak ended, DiMaggio went on another 16-game hitting streak.

The closest anyone has gotten to DiMaggio’s 56-gamer is Pete Rose, who reached 44 in 1978. Paul Molitor hit safely in 39 straight games in 1987, while Jimmy Rollins hit in 38 spanning the end of the 2005 season and beginning of 2006. MLB can usually count on at least one player getting close to 30 every year, but no one has made it much further.

By their own nature, hitting streaks are fluky. Dan Uggla, who no one would mistake for a contact hitter, had a 33-game streak in 2011. That tied him with the longest streak of Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby. Uggla is obviously no Hall of Famer.

Nobel winners and Harvard mathematicians have tried to estimate the likelihood that another hitter will pop off a 56-game streak. Let’s just say the smart guys aren’t too bullish on the chances of DiMaggio’s record falling. One study estimated that baseball would have to have 52 lifetime .350 hitters (there are only three) for there to be a 50 percent chance DiMaggio’s record is broken.

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