Saturday, May 9, 2009

Hitting Streaks: Ryan Zimmerman & Dom DiMaggio

At the time of this writing, Washington Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman is riding a 26 game hitting streak. Everyone knows the record for the longest hitting streak in baseball history is Joe DiMaggio's 56 game streak during the 1941 season. But few people remember Joe's younger brother Dom had a 34 game hitting streak while playing for the Boston Red Sox in 1949. The streak, was in effect, ended when Joe DiMaggio caught a sinking liner off Dom's bat in the eigth inning of a game against Joe's New York Yankees. Dom's 34 game streak is still a Boston Red Sox team record.

Dom DiMaggio, who played for the Red Sox for 11 seasons and who was a seven time all star, passed away last week. An MLB.com story on DiMaggio can be read here.

Back to the present and Ryan Zimmerman. Zimmerman's hitting streak is just one piece of what should be an All-Star season for the third baseman. As of today, he is batting .339 with 5 HR's and 20 RBI in 121 AB. The Nationals finally put their money where their mouth is earlier this month when they inked Zimmerman to a 5 year/$45 million contract. The Nationals had been calling Zimmerman "the face of the franchise" since shortly after drafting him in 2005.

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