h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It might bear mentioning that the Yankee record for hitting streaks was 29 games before DiMaggio's.

Also the two longest streaks in professional baseball belong to Joe Wilhoit who had 69 games in 1919 playing for Wichita of the Western League and the other was DiMaggio's 61-game streak in 1933 when he played for the San Francisco Seals when he was 18.

Also rarely mentioned was that the day after The Streak ended, he began on another 16-game streak which means that he hit safely in 72 of 73 games.


- Jimi X

I think I mentioned the 16 game streak after, but I might have just done that in the entry on DiMaggio. If not, I'll add it

Joe Wilhoit and DiMaggio in 1933 were both on minor league teams, right? I'll clarify that this was the longest in the major leagues

Yep, both those were in the minors.

I had thought about George Brett's infamous Pine Tar Incident, but it wasn't 'great' so much as it was memorable.

No problems with it being great Memorable will do.

I'll add it in if I can find the time... busy proofreading my other baseball project .

...Unless you'd like to provide some details?

On July 24, 1983, the Yankees and Royals were playing in the Bronx with the Yanks leading 4-3 in the top of the ninth.

George Brett came up with two out and a runner on base and hit a homer to take the lead.

Then Yankees manager Billy Martin came out and asked the umpires to examine Brett's bat. He contended that the bat had an illegal amount of pine tar on it. The rules say that pine tar can not be higher than 18 inches up the handle of the bat and on Brett's bat it was almost up to the bat's barrel.

The umpires held a conference and decided that Brett was out because he was using an 'illegal bat' and thus hit an 'illegally batted ball' which calls for the batter to be 'out'.

So the runs are wiped off the board and the Yanks win.

But the image of Brett charging out of the dugout like a berserker with bulging eyes and wild hair is what makes this so classic. I mean he went totally nuts!

Anyway, the Royals file a protest and the American League President over-ruled the umpires saying that the rules call for an 'illegal bat' to be removed from the game and nothing more.

So Brett's homer counted and the teams completed the remaining four outs and the Royals won 5-4.

Classic!

Jimi. I'll add it now

It's in there now. Slightly edited

By the way, I've done a substantial bit of work on this

I didn't include as much info on Jackie Robinson as I wanted to because my entry on Robinson in the Uni project should be up soon, and I'd probably just be duplicating it