Wow! Where does the time go... 70 years.
It was July 17, 1941 and the scene was the old Cleveland Stadium on the lakefront.
A wide-eyed 12-year-old was sitting in a two-dollar centerfield bleacher seat.
He had hitchhiked, with a buddy, 69 miles to Cleveland from his hometown of Conneaut to see “his Indians” play. He rarely missed a game on the radio.
He knew Route 20 like the back of his hand, literally the right hand thumb. Interstate 90 didn’t exist.
That excited youngster was yours truly — but the really big attraction this day wasn’t his Indians. It was the immortal Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio.
Although a confirmed member of Cleveland’s “Hate-The-Yankees” fan club, an exception was always made when it came to DiMaggio... and later, Mickey Mantle.
The big deal that day many moons ago was DiMag’s 56-game hitting streak. Every pitcher he faced along the way figured they had a golden opportunity to stop the Yankee Clipper and get their name in the record books.
And the line of hopeful hurlers had grown longer and longer.
I remember two things: having enough change in my pocket to buy a couple 50-cent hot dogs and a Coke and standing up — along with 70,000 other fans — every time the Yankee superstar came to bat.
DiMag became the nation’s headliner when he tied and then surpassed the long-standing 45-game streak established by George Sisler in the 20’s. And the biggest and most excited news-watchers were in San Francisco, where his father, Giuseppi, nervously kept tabs.
Joe was 0-3 — thanks or no thanks to a pair of diving stops by seven-time All-Star third basesman Kenny Keltner and a popup to left.
He stepped to the plate in the top of the ninth, his team trailing, 4-3, and with a man on and two outs, drilled a bad-hop grounder to short, where Lou Boudreau, the Tribe’s popular boy-manager of that era, snared it bare-handed and tossed to second to start a double play. Game and streak was over.
The standing crowd hushed. The enemy was conquered, but long live the enemy. The game — and the nortorious streak was dead. For the record and a true tribute to his greatness, he launched a 16-game hitting streak the next day.
The Tribe pitchers that day were lefty Al Smith and Jim Bagby.
It was learned later that a cab driver, taking DiMaggio and his roommate, Lefty Gomez, to the stadium, recognized Joe and told him his streak was about to end. An angry Gomez told the driver off and the players jumped out of the cab at the next light and walked.
DiMaggio ran into the apologizing cab driver many years later, put an around around his shoulder and assured him “you didn’t jinx me — it was only that my number was up.”
Once referred to as “the greatest all-around baseball player that ever lived” by none other than Ted Williams, I also remembered how Joe D. patroled centerfield with the grace and fluidity of a fleeing deer.
Hitch-hiking back home later that afternoon, I doubt if I fully realized I had watched an historic moment in baseball.
I know I had mixed emotions. My Indians won — but the super streak of one of my favorite players had been halted.
It looked like rain out on old Route 20, but I got home before the cloudburst. The spirit of DiMag could take you a long way.
Zezzo began his career as a sports writer/photographer/general reports and later sports editor of the old Conneaut News-Herald. Reach him at mickeyz@zoomtown.com.
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A Mickey Zezzo column: 7 decades later, memories of witnessing Joltin’ Joe’s streak end still crystal clear
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Grand Valley 12, Ursuline 11 -
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Scholastic Statistics:
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DIVISION III
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Grand Valley 7, Orrville 4
at Carl “Ducky” Schroeder Field, Massillon Washington High School -
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