2008/07/31 by Samuel Arbesman, S. Arbesman, Arbesman, S. +3
Arts and Humanities · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Physics and Astronomy · Psychology · #American Sports and Literature #Data Analysis #FOS: Physical sciences #Gambling Behavior and Treatments #Popular Physics (physics.pop-ph) #Sports Analytics and Performance #Statistics and Probability (physics.data-an) #physics.data-an #physics.pop-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0807.5082
14 pages, 10 figures; typos corrected, acknowledgments added
openalex publication_date 2008/07/31 · arxiv created 2008/08/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We examine Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak and look at its likelihood, using a number of simple models. And it turns out that, contrary to many people's expectations, an extreme streak, while unlikely in any given year, is not unlikely to have occurred about once within the history of baseball. Surprisingly, however, such a record should have occurred far earlier in baseball history: back in the late 1800's or early 1900's. But not in 1941, when it actually happened.