July 16, 1941, New York Yankees outfielder Joe DiMaggio goes 3-for-4 to extend his hitting streak to a major league record 56 games. The future Hall of Famer, whose record still stands today, helps the Yankees defeat the Cleveland Indians, 10-3.

Chasing .400
As the 1939 season drew to a close, 24-year old Joe DiMaggio was on the brink of baseball history.

"I remember there were about three weeks to go in the season and I had a plus-.400 batting average," Joe recalled in 1963. "I figured I was odds-on to finish the year with a .400 mark. I remember Joe McCarthy calling me into his office and telling me he didn't think I wanted to be a cheese champion so he was going to play me every day, even though the pennant was about clinched."

"I agreed, but a few days later I got this terrible pain over my right eye. I didn't tell anyone, and I went to a doctor who gave me Novocain shots over the eye to kill the pain. I was taking a terrible chance, but I never thought of the consequences. All I wanted to do was stay in the lineup and hit .400. I didn't make it though."

DiMaggio finished the season at .381, winning his first batting title and Most Valuable Player Award.

Sometimes it is easy to forget how good DiMaggio was because his career totals are less then some of the greats because of WWII. Here is a quick reminder of his accomplishments:

• Consecutive games with a hit, 56, 1941

• Strikeout to home run ratio, career, 1.02

• Most home runs in first 2 seasons, 75, 1936-37

• Fastest player to reach 200 RBI in his career (201 games)

• Fastest player to reach 300 RBI in his career (297 games)

• Fastest player to reach 400 RBI in his career (396 games)

• Fastest player to reach 500 RBI in his career (505 games)

• Fastest player to reach 600 RBI in his career (604 games)

• Fastest player to reach 700 RBI in his career (693 games)

• Fastest player to reach 800 RBI in his career (803 games)

• Most RBI in first 2 seasons, 292, 1936-37

• Most RBI in first 3 seasons, 432, 1936-38

• Most RBI in first 4 seasons, 558, 1936-39

• Most RBI in first 5 seasons, 691, 1936-40

• Most RBI in first 6 seasons, 816, 1936-41

• Most RBI in first 7 seasons, 930, 1936-42

• Most RBI in first 10 seasons, 1,277, 1936-48

• Most RBI in first 12 seasons, 1,466, 1936-50

• Most RBI in four consecutive games: 18, August 28-September 1, 1939 (tied with Jim Bottomley, Lou Gehrig, Tony Lazzeri, Sammy Sosa and Alfonso Soriano)

Joltin Joe Had his own Song

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TRIVIA

Which five-hundred-home-run club member had Joe DiMaggio as a hitting coach?

Hint: #1 He appeared in the pilot of a television sitcom focusing on his baseball career.

Hint: #2 He played football at a D-1 college.

July 6 1897 - At the age of 45, Chicago's Cap Anson becomes the first major leaguer to amass 3,000 hits when he singled off Baltimore's George Blackburn. As a matter of fact, it took years for the figure filberts of baseball to come to Anson’s “official” stats. Anson played from 1876-97 and his hit total changed over time, soaring as high as 3,509 and as low as 2,995 as researchers dissected box scores and refigured statistics. Finally, Total Baseball, the official encyclopedia of the game, listed his total hits at 3,081.

July 16, 1952 At Griffith Stadium, in a Detroit Tiger 9-0 blowout over the Washington Senators, Tiger Firstbaseman Walt Dropo gets two more hits, giving him 15 in four games, which ties the American League record. Dropo goes Fifteen for Eighteen with Nine RBIs during the min streak. Raising his average from .277 to .298 in just four days.

Dropo will go on an 11 game hitting streak hitting .543, twenty-five for forty-eight. Bill Wright picks up the win for the Tigers, in an otherwise dismal season for the Bengals, this is just their twenty-seventh win vs fifty-six losses.

July 16, 1956 -- The Tigers and Briggs Stadium are sold to a syndicate of 11, led by radio executives John Fetzer and Fred Knorr, for a record $5.5 million from Walter Briggs, Jr., after he was ordered by family estate administrators to sell the ownership inherited from his father. The deal includes an agreement to retain Briggs, who will also become the team's general manager, as executive vice president, but the former owner, who wanted keep the team and ballpark, will resign from both posts at the start of next season.

July 16, 1969 Despite four homers by Montreal, the Pirates beat the Expos, 8 - 7, scoring three in the 8th and three in the 9th. The Pirates' only homer comes in the 8th inning with Matty Alou on second base and Dan McGinn pitching, when Willie Stargell splashes a pitch over the RF fence into the municipal swimming pool at Jarry Park.

When he retired in 1982, the Expos presented him with a life-preserver in tribute to the homers he hit into what came to be called “Willie’s pool” or, per the French broadcasters, la piscine de Willie. 

July 16, 1969, After White Sox lefty Jerry Nyman walks in a run with the bases loaded, Rod Carew steals home for the 7th time, as the American League West-leading Minnesota Twins sweep a twin bill, winning 9 - 8 and 6 - 3 from the White Sox. Carew ties Brooklyn Dodger Pete Reiser's major-league record for steals of home in a season, a record since given back to Ty Cobb (8 steals in 1912) in 1991 after further research.

July 16 , 1971 --  The Houston Astros turn the first triple play in their history during a 9-4 victory over Nolan Ryan and the New York Mets . Shortstop Roger Metzger takes a tap by Cleon Jones and steps on second, forcing Tommie Agee. His toss to first beats Jones to the bag. First baseman Denis Menke sees Ken Boswell make a belated dash to third so he fires across the diamond where Doug Rader completes the trifecta.

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July 16, 1971 Oakland A's starter Vida Blue boosts his record to 18-3 with a one-hit, 4 – 0, victory over Detroit. Tony Taylor’s single in the 4th is the only hit.

July 16, 1985 All Star Game , The National League won the game 6–1, LaMarr Hoyt of the San Diego Padres is the winning pitcher tossing 3 innings and allowing 1 unearned run and Jack Morris of the Detroit Tigers takes the loss. Hoyt also won the game's MVP award. The National League was managed by the Padres' Dick Williams, while the American League was managed by Sparky Anderson of the Tigers.

Williams was backed by coaches Jim Frey and Bob Lillis and Anderson was aided by coaches Bobby Cox and Dick Howser.

The teams' honorary captains each starred in the 1965 All-Star game, also held in Minnesota -- Harmon Killebrew for the AL, and Sandy Koufax for the NL. In the game two decades ago, Koufax earned the NL win, and Killebrew hit the AL's second home run.

Attendance was announced as 54,960. The telecast of the All-Star Game played in Minnesota’s Metrodome becomes the first-ever program to be transmitted in stereo. The Midsummer Classic is aired on NBC, the network which, in 1939, broadcast the first professional baseball game. (Listen to game on link above)

More games: 1962 Mets vs Giants, 72 Angels vs Brewers, 76 Red Sox vs Royals,78 - Tigers, Rangers, Orioles, Angels, Red Sox, Reds, and Mets, 80 Reds vs Expos , 83 Yankees vs Rangers

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