Perhaps no other number in baseball is as revered as 56, which marks Joe DiMaggio's consecutive-games hitting streak. This baseball season marks the 70th anniversary of the Yankee Clipper's assault on the record books. Fans who wish to return to 1941 and relive "the streak" may wish to grab a copy of a new book authored by Kostya Kennedy (a senior editor at Sports Illustrated), entitled 56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports. From the author's website:
In 56, Kostya Kennedy tells the remarkable story of how [DiMaggio's] streak found its way into countless lives, from the Italian kitchens of Newark to the playgrounds of Queens to the San Francisco streets; from the Oval Office of FDR to the Upper West Side apartment where Joe’s first wife, Dorothy, the movie starlet, was expecting a child. DiMaggio emerges in a new light, a 26-year-old on the cusp of becoming an icon. He comes alive—a driven ballplayer, a mercurial star and a conflicted husband—as the tension and the scrutiny upon him build with each passing day. DiMaggio’s feat lives as the greatest sports record. Alongside the story of the dramatic quest, Kennedy examines the nature of hitting streaks and with an incisive, modern-day perspective gets inside the number itself, as its sheer improbability heightens the magic of 56 games in a row.
Related links of interest include:
Interviews with author: New York Magazine and USA Today.
Reviews by Kirkus Reviews and San Francisco Chronicle.
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