1941 BOSTON RED SOX ... 
THE SUMMER OF .406 AND "THE STREAK" ...

During the 1941 baseball season, the New York Yankees won the pennant and the Red Sox finished a distant second. But the pennant race was overshadowed by the personal heroics of two superstars. Joe DiMaggio put together his record 56-game hitting streak, and the Red Sox Ted Williams batted .406.

DiMaggio, who had shown a predilection for hitting streaks since his minor league days, started his 1941 streak with a hit against the White Sox on May 15th. Twice he prolonged the streak with bad-hop singles off Sox shortstop Luke Appling, and once with an infield dribbler in front of Sox third baseman Bob Kennedy.

DiMaggio hit half of his 30 homers and drove in 55 runs during the streak, to lift the Yankees out of a team slump and into the driver's seat in the 1941 race. And on July 17th, his streak was ended at 56 by two terrific back-handed stops by Indians third baseman Ken Keltner. Joe then started a new 16 game hitting streak, thus having hit safely in 72 of 73 straight games.

DiMaggio finished the season third in the American League in batting at .357, first in RBI with 125, second in doubles with 43, and fourth in home runs. But his season was dwarfed by that of Williams, who batted .406, the highest batting average in either league since Rogers Hornsby’s .424 in 1924.

To put Williams' feat in perspective, consider that DiMaggio hit .409 during his hitting streak, just three points higher than Williams' season mark. Except for a stretch from July 11–24, when his batting average dipped as low as .393, he’d been hitting above .400 since May 25th. At one point in June, Williams was hitting .436 but then began to fade. He was hitting .405 just before the All-Star Break.

After making numerous trades in the off-season, including selling All Star outfielder, Doc Cramer, whose 200 hits led the American League in 1940, the Red Sox picked up the young pitcher, Joe Dobson.

But the Sox still needed help. In addition to weak pitching and questionable defense, Joe Cronin and Jimmie Foxx were showing their age. But the Sox had little more to offer and stood pat as the 1941 season began.

Ted Williams came to spring training oozing with confidence, but in a spring training game against Newark on March 19^th, he fell down and x-rays uncovered a hairline fracture and it bothered him enough that there was a slight hesitation in his swing. That gave him a fraction of a second longer to size up the ball. He himself said the ball looked like a watermelon coming in that year. But the time the season opened, he couldn’t run and Pete Fox started the year in left field.

Opening day on April 15th, showed that it would be a tough season. Jack Wilson was the Sox starter against Washington.  He didn’t last long, but Ted’s pinch hit single, in the ninth inning, sparked the Sox to a 7-6 come-from-behind win.

The Red Sox settled down to business on the second day of the season, April 16th, by winning an extra inning marathon, 8 to 7, in 12 innings on a walk-off base hit by Pete Fox.

In Philadelphia, on April 18th, Bobby Doerr knocked out two home runs to allow the Sox to blast out their third straight ninth inning attack in a 3-2 win.

On April 20th, Dom DiMaggio knocked out four hits for the second day in a row against the Senators in Washington, keeping the Sox (5-0) undefeated.  But the Sox lost the next two games and moved on to Yankee Stadium.

Ted Williams continued doing pinch-hitting duties until he returned to the starting lineup for good on April 29^th.  He was already hitting an even .400 and the Sox were 7-4, and only one game out of first place.

The Red Sox stayed in the pennant race over the next few weeks as Ted went absolutely crazy at the plate. On May 7th in Chicago, he broke up a 3-3 tie in the 11th inning with a monstrous home run into the second deck in right field.  It was his second home run of the afternoon.

Lefty Grove was also in pursuit of 300 wins and on May 12th, he faced the Yankees at Fenway Park, and thanks to a three run homer by Jimmie Foxx, registered his 295th career victory.

JOE DIMAGGIO

On May 15th, the American League pennant race became a historical footnote to the larger drama. On that day both Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams embarked on the longest hitting streaks of their major-league careers, which carried each man into baseball legend. On that day it was no longer the Red Sox versus the Yankees, it became DiMaggio versus Williams and it lasted that way throughout the 1940s.

Both streaks started with a defeat. Williams singled off the glove of Cleveland second-baseman Ray Mack in the eighth-inning of a 6 to 4 loss to the Indians. It was the third loss in a row for the Red Sox and dropped the team into third place. The same day, DiMaggio singled and knocked in the Yankees only run in their 13 to 1 drubbing, at the hands of the White Sox.

The Red Sox slump continued, but the Williams batting streak got hotter. The Yankees followed in the wake of DiMaggio, playing better as the streak grew longer. The Red Sox lost six games in a row before they finally won, as Ted's batting streak reached five games.

On May 21st, Ted (.369 BA) banged out four hits, leading the Sox in a comeback against the Browns, but it was a pinch hit home run by Stan Spence that tied up the game in the late innings. Then the Yankees then passed the Red Sox in the standings and began their climb toward first place.

Lefty Grove won #296 in Yankee Stadium on May 25th, as the Sox knocked off the Yanks, 10-3.  Ted had four hits, going 13 for 20 in his last five games, extending his streak 11 games, and raising his batting average back over the .400 mark for the first time since the second week of the season, to .404.

On May 27th, Ted extended his streak to 13 games while Joe DiMaggio hit a home run and three singles to extend his hitting streak to 12 games at Washington.

Against the A's at Fenway on May 29th, Ted (.421 BA) hit his seventh round tripper, which was a mighty clout that cleared the Red Sox bullpen and landed in the runway of the right-field bleachers. It was a game breaker coming as it did, with the score knotted at three all in the seventh inning, leading to a 6-4 victory.

Meanwhile, Ted was crushing the ball and banging out two or more hits in almost every game, as well as hitting with more power than he ever had before. He helped the Red Sox stem the tide for a while, as Joe Cronin tried to keep pace with Ted, and Dom DiMaggio was hitting even better than his streaking brother.

As May turned into June, Joe DiMaggio had hit in 18 straight games and was batting .328, while Ted went 4-for-9 in a doubleheader sweep of Detroit to continue his hitting streak at 20 games, and batting .430.

Ted's streak lasted another three games, ending at 23 games on June 8th, when he went hitless in a doubleheader at Chicago. He had hit .488 with 6 homers during his streak, batting .416 on the day the streak ended. Joe DiMaggio went 4 for 8 in a doubleheader at St. Louis, extending his streak to 24 games on that day.  Both the Sox and the Yankees were in second place, 4 games behind the Indians.

Now DiMaggio. and his streak began to capture the attention of the press. As June turned into July, the Sox, although playing well, fell well behind the Yankees. DiMaggio broke George Sisler's hitting streak record of 41 games on June 29th, and then broke the Willie Keeler all-time mark of 44 games on July 1st, as the Sox lost a doubleheader in Yankee Stadium.  The Sox lost again to the Yanks the next day and dropped eight games behind the league leaders.

The Sox had plenty of offense but the pitching was still spotty. Lefty Grove was throwing well in pursuit of his 300th win and at the age of 31, rookie Dick Newsome was winning more than his share. But the other pitchers on the Red Sox staff were not up to the task. On July 3rd in Philly, Ted (16 HR, .403BA) slammed a two run homer over the right field wall helped Lefty to his 299th career victory.

In a doubleheader at Fenway on July 6th, Ted's batting average dropped below the .400 mark for the first time since May 24th after the first game, but a 3 for 4 second game, which included two doubles, boosted him back up to .405 at the All Star break.

Ted then traveled to Detroit with Bobby Doerr, Dom DiMaggio, Joe Cronin and Jimmie Foxx to play in the All Star Game. Coming up to bat with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, with Joe DiMaggio and Joe Gordon on base, and the National League leading, 5-4, Ted slammed a gargantuan homer into the upper deck of Briggs Stadium to win the game. Most baseball fans have seen the film of the lanky 22-year-old “Splendid Splinter” as he galloped around the bases, almost bouncing on air at time. Hardened veterans like Gordon and DiMaggio, Bob Feller, Bill Dickey and Jimmie Foxx, suddenly were transformed into boyish hero worshippers as the curly haired All Star crossed the plate.  Ted always said that this was the greatest thrill of his career.

After the All-Star break, as the Yankees continued to pull away, the Red Sox fans focused on Ted's chase of .400 and Lefty's chase of his 300th win.

For a while it seemed as both players would fall short. In the first game back, Grove pitched well but lost 2 to 0 and remained stuck on 299. Ted sprained his ankle in the game and went hitless to drop to a .397 BA on July 12th.

Grove gave it another try in Chicago on July 18th. He should have gotten the win, but the Red Sox defense, as usual, let him down. Errors by Jimmie Foxx and Joe Cronin led to two Chicago runs. Then in the seventh inning, with the Red Sox up 3 to 2, Grove himself made an error on a bunt by the White Sox, Jimmy Webb. He got to the ball late and slipped as Webb beat out the hit. Webb scored when Johnny Rigney bounced the ball past Cronin to tie up the game. Lou Finney then dropped a fly ball in the 10th inning and the game was lost. Number 300 would have to wait.

Ted returned to the lineup on July 22nd, and was put in the cleanup spot, with Cronin batting third and Foxx batting fifth. The change had an impact because pitchers now pitched around Ted to get to Foxx. The move led to an enormous number of walks in the second half for Ted and more balls to hit for Cronin.

On July 23rd, White Sox manager Jimmy Dykes unveiled was later would be called the "Boudreau Shift" against Ted, placing three fielders on the right side of the infield. But it didn't work because Ted simply drove the ball into left-field. Dykes never used the shift again.

On July 25th, on a hot and humid afternoon at Fenway Park, Lefty Grove trudged back onto the mound in search of number 300. Little remained in his arm and the Indians raked him for nine hits and four runs in the first four innings. But after that he settled down and saw his teammates score 10 runs, including a homer by Williams. He hung on, outlasting three Indians pitchers, going the distance for a 10 to 6 win and the 300th of his career. Lefty Grove would never win another game in baseball.

Now it was Ted Williams and his pursuit of .400, as Joe DiMaggio's hitting streak had ended at 56 games on July 17th, and the Yankees were running away with the pennant. Ted refused to swing at bad pitches and walked more often than getting a base hit, but he rarely missed when the ball came over the plate.

Ted climbed back over the .400 mark on July 26th and by the end of the homestand on August 10th, his average climbed to .410, having gone 31 for 67 for a .462 clip.

The Sox then took to the road and Ted only picked up nine hits in 27 at bats to see his average drop to .404  But at Sportsman's Park on August 19th, he banged out three home runs as the Sox split a doubleheader with the Browns.  The next day it was another Ted Williams home run, giving him five in the four game series with the Browns, getting 8 hits in 14 at bats, and raising his average to .411

The Sox finished their August road trip winning 10 of 21 games, falling 19 games behind the Yankees.  Ted Williams was 9 for 26, returning with a .407 average. Had the Red Sox been in the pennant race, Ted's individual quest would have received far less attention than it did. His pursuit of .400 gave Sox fans something to cheer about in the face of the success of DiMaggio and the Yankees. Fans also knew that Tris Speaker had posted the highest Red Sox seasonal batting average of .385 in 1912, so Ted was also in pursuit of that team record.

But the Red Sox, as a team were on the decline. Grove was finished, Foxx had seen his hard living take its toll, and Cronin's skills were in sharp decline. Even with the addition of Dom DiMaggio, Bobby Doerr, Jim Tabor and other young players, Tom Yawkey had spent money and not gotten a return. Without consulting his general manager Jimmy Collins or Cronin, Yawkey hired Bill Evans to run the minor league system in Louisville. A few days later Cronin heard about the plan and met with Yawkey in New York. Then, on September 4th, as the Yankees clinched the pennant, Yawkey changed his mind and fired Evans in favor Cronin. As Williams chased history, the front office was in turmoil. The administration change had gone unnoticed for the most part because all eyes in Boston were on Ted Williams.

On September 7th, Williams got his 400th at bat, which qualified him for the batting title. The opposition all but stop pitching to him and Ted felt no pressure to do anything but take the walks and focus on getting base hits. On September 12th and 13th in St. Louis, he came to bat nine times and failed to get a hit, but walked five times. The next day playing in front of the Red Sox largest crowd of the season against Chicago, Ted struck out for the first time in three weeks but smacked his 35th home run of the season.

As the end of the season approached, he began to press.  Entering the last homestand of the season, Ted's batting average was .413 on September 9th. When they left town for Washington, on September 22nd, it had dropped to .406

On September 24th, in a doubleheader, he was 0-for-3 and 1-for-4. He’d seen his average plunge to a perilous .401 and the weather was turning colder, which was not good for him either. There was a lot on the line, and the team had two days off, on the 25th and 26th. The Sox then finally traveled to Philadelphia to play the Athletics for the final three games of the season.

Ted took personal batting practice at Shibe Park on Friday, the 26th with coach Fred Schellenbach, catcher Frankie Pytlak and few others to shag balls. He slammed the ball against the right field wall time after time.  He lamented that at that time of year, the shadows would be tricky, but was determined that a batting record was no good unless it was made under all conditions.

On Saturday, the 27^th he went 1-for-4, and when he struck out in his last at bat, his batting average dropped below .400 for the first time since July 25th at .39955. It could have been rounded up to .400 if he had sat out the two Sunday games. But .39955 was not .400.

Naturally, Ted wanted to hit because a .400 batting average was still a major mark of distinction. Ty Cobb and Rogers Hornsby had each hit .400 three times. Hornsby could have done it a fourth time, if one applied rounding. Entering the last game of the 1921 season, he was hitting .39966. Hornsby played that game, failed to get a hit in four at-bats, and saw his final average fall to .397.  The last American Leaguer to hit above the .400 mark was Harry Heilmann of the Detroit Tigers, in 1923.  He had to play. Everyone knew what was on the line.

On Sunday, the 28th, the last day of the season, manager Connie Mack had given his team the order to pitch to Williams and make him earn .400 mark. Ted was batting cleanup, and the A’s, Dick Fowler, retired the side in the first, so Ted led off the top of the second. On the 2–0 count, he was ready and he swung at Fowler’s next pitch. He singled sharply to right. After that first hit, his average stood at .40089. If he’d made an out his second time up, he’d be hitting exactly .400. He had nothing to lose by taking that second at-bat. But the question became moot when he led off the fifth inning, still facing Fowler, and homered on a 1–0 pitch, driving the ball over the high right-center field wall, a shot of perhaps 440 feet. It was his 37th homer of the year and he was batting .40222 and could make outs each of the next two times up and still be hitting a little over .400 at .40044.

But he didn’t. Next time up, in the top of the seventh, Ted hit a bullet right up the middle for a base hit. He was 4-for-5 in the first game with two RBIs and two runs scored. By the end of the first game, he was batting .40397.

But he wasn’t done. In the second game, he hit a line drive right into a megaphone on the right field wall, and it fell back into the park for a ground-rule double. That was Ted’s second hit of the second game as he’d singled between first and second his first time up.

Finally, in his eighth time to the plate that day, with darkness encroaching, the Athletics got Ted out, when he flied out to right field. He was officially 6-for-8, hitting .40570, or, rounded up to .406.

More than half the times he came to bat in 1941, Ted Williams got on base, and he struck out only 27 times all season. He drove in 120 runs and hit 37 homers. When Williams hit .406, the sacrifice fly rule was not in effect. He is estimated to have had 12 fly balls that drove in runs that year. Subtract those 12 at-bats and he would have hit .4166, or .417.

The Red Sox finished in second place, 17 games behind the Yankees, with a record of 84-70, but closer to seventh place then to first, as New York won 101 games. But Williams' run at .400 had boosted the Red Sox attendance to more than 700,000, the fourth best in baseball. Regardless of where they finished, the Red Sox had made money and kept their fans entertained, if not completely satisfied. Williams was entering his prime and seem to be improving each season. Red Sox fans anticipated his next at bat over the winter and thought that the Sox with Ted Williams could finally topple the Yankees.

Then on December 7th, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and everything changed.