July 8, 1941: Major League Baseball holds its All-Star Game at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. (The ballpark was renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961.) New York Yankees Joe DiMaggio (center field) and Bill Dickey (catcher) start the game for the American League, and Red Ruffing, Marius Russo, Joe Gordon and Charlie Keller are reserves.
DiMaggio gets a hit, but, since it's in an exhibition game, it doesn't count toward his hitting streak, which now stands at 48 straight games. Bob Feller of the Cleveland Indians is the AL's starting pitcher.
Among New York's National League teams, the New York Giants have no starters, but have reserves Harry Danning (catcher), Mel Ott (right field) and Carl Hubbell (pitcher); while the Brooklyn Dodgers have starters Whitlow Wyatt (pitcher), Mickey Owen (catcher) and Pete Reiser (center field), and reserves Dolph Camilli (1st base), Billy Herman (2nd base), Harry "Cookie" Lavagetto (3rd base) and Joe Medwick (left field).
The NL leads 5-3 in the bottom of the 9th, but a groundout by DiMaggio had gotten a run home, cut it to 5-4. Claude Passeau of the Chicago Cubs faced Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox, then batting .405 in regular season play. Williams crashed a drive into the upper deck in right field, giving the AL a 7-5 win.
It was the 1st time the All-Star Game ended on a home run, what would now be called a "walkoff home run." This feat has since been matched by Stan Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals in 1955, and Johnny Callison of the Philadelphia Phillies in 1964, both for the NL.
Williams finished April batting .389. Big deal, lots of players have had .400 in their sights at that point in the season, and most of those don't even make .300 at the end. By May 2, his average dropped to .308. He got up to .383 by May 12, but dropped to .333 on May 16.
Then he went on a hot streak, and on May 25, was above .400, at .404. In a doubleheader against Detroit on June 1, he went 4-for-9 with a homer and 4 RBIs, and was at .431. He got to .436 on June 6. In a doubleheader against the Senators on July 6, he fell to .399 after the 1st game, but was back up to .405 after the 2nd game, at which point the All-Star Break was reached.
From July 11 to 24, his batting average hovered in the .390s, before poking back above .400 on July 25. It stayed over .400 throughout August, peaking at .414 on August 21. At the end of the month, it was .407. On September 7, it was .413. In a September 14 home doubleheader against the Chicago White Sox, it got to .411 in the opener, then dropped below .410 in the nightcap, never to cross that level again.
By Ted's standards, what followed was a slump. Despite an 8-game winning streak that secured 2nd place behind the Yankees for the Red Sox, Ted had some trouble. He went hitless on September 12, 13 and 18, and in the 1st game of a doubleheader on September 24. When the dust settled after the Sox' 5-1 win over Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics at Shibe Park on September 27, Ted's batting average was .39955.
The rise of Babe Ruth and the start of the Lively Ball Era in 1920 hadn't stopped .400 averages, but by 1930, pretty much everybody was swinging for the fences. Less contact hitting meant lower averages. In 1930, Bill Terry of the New York Giants batted .401. No one had batted .400 in a season since. No National Leaguer has done it again to this day.
On the season's last day, September 28, he went 6-for-8 in a doubleheader against the Philadelphia Athletics, and finished at .406. It remains the last time a player has batted over .400 -- or even over .390 for a full season.
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July 8, 1941 was a Tuesday. There were no other scores on this historic day.
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