DiMaggio's legendary hitting streak ends at 56 games

In the summer of 1941, for almost two months straight, Joe DiMaggio - already a New York Yankees legend, only six seasons into his tenure in the Bronx - pulled on his uniform and got a base hit.

DiMaggio's legendary streak - which coincided with Ted Williams' equally incomprehensible assault on baseball's history books - provided a welcome distraction for a nation increasingly apprehensive about World War II, and as the American people opened their newspapers each morning, they sought the answer to one question above all else: "Did DiMaggio get a hit?"

For 56 straight games, he did. Then, one day, he didn't.

On July 17, in front the 67,468 fans that shoved their way into Cleveland Stadium for a matinee against the boys from New York, DiMaggio came up empty in his three at-bats. In the first inning, he grounded out to third base. When he came to the plate next, he drew a walk off Indians starter Al Smith. DiMaggio then grounded out to third again in the seventh, and, in the eighth, bounced into a double play, 6-to-4-to-3. That was it.

In the 75 years since DiMaggio's streak ended, no player has come within more than 12 games of matching his feat. In all likelihood, no player ever will.

Longest hitting streaks, 1942-2016

(Video courtesy: MLB.com)