Baseball

DiMaggio’s streak bound to fall someday

Even though Phillies' Utley fell short, 56-game mark won't last forever

Kyle Ericson / AP

Chase Utley's hitting streak may have ended at 35 games, but MSNBC.com's Mike Celizic says that someday Joe DiMaggio's 56-game record will fall.

That shows you just how far above the crowd DiMaggio’s feat towers. It also shows you how freakish it is.

But as monumental as the mark is, it isn’t untouchable. It can’t be, and, given enough time, it won’t be.

Last year, Jimmy Rollins hit in 36 straight to end the 2005 season, then added two more to begin this season to get to 38. This year, it’s Rollins’ teammate on the Phillies, Utley, taking his swing at the record books.

Long streaks are incredibly rare, but we’ve already had two in two seasons. In 2002, Luis Castillo hit in 35 straight for the Marlins. The last time two long streaks came that close together was in 1987, when Paul Molitor made it to 39 and Benito Santiago went 34.

It’s probably harder to do today than it was for DiMaggio. DiMaggio didn’t have any media pressure to speak of. Once he passed Keeler with 44 straight games, he was in uncharted territory, with no pressure to beat anyone. There also wasn’t the national media that there is today, and television wasn’t a presence.

And being asked about doing something 100 times a day makes you think about it, which makes it harder to do. Utley so far is handling it well by refusing to talk about it. But he knows he’s in rarified air; he knows where he stands and where he needs to get to.

DiMaggio also played almost exclusively during the day and didn’t have to deal with jet lag. Those are two more big advantages.

But Utley probably got to hit against weaker pitching, although he also had to face better relievers than DiMaggio did. Utley also faced faster defenses with bigger gloves than DiMaggio faces. A ball that a fielder in DiMaggio’s day would miss by an inch would be an easy play today.

And there are always players capable of it. Utley has shown he is one. Ichiro Suzuki has to be considered as a threat. Maybe Joe Mauer can do it, or Derek Jeter or Freddy Sanchez.

Or it may be somebody who hasn’t even been born yet. But it will be someone, some day. The law of very large numbers told me so.

Mike Celizic writes regularly for MSNBC.com and is a freelance writer based in New York.

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