Joe DiMaggio did not appear on 56 consecutive ballots cast, but did enjoy overwhelming support, becoming the 71st inductee into the High Heat Stats Circle of Greats. More on the Yankee Clipper, and the voting, after the jump.

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For his career, DiMaggio’s OPS in home games was .931, which is excellent. It puts him in the top 60 all-time for career OPS in home games, among hitters with at least 2,000 PAs at home since 1914. But his OPS in road games — wow!:

Highest Career On Base Percentage Plus Slugging Percentage (OPS), In Road Games, Since 1914 (min. 2,000 road PAs)
1. Babe Ruth 1.148
2. Lou Gehrig 1.102
3. Ted Williams 1.082
4. Barry Bonds 1.037
5. Joe DiMaggio 1.015

How does Joe’s road/home OPS difference rank all-time? I created a spreadsheet of of home and road OPS numbers for the 505 hitters since 1914 who had both 3,000 or more careers PAs on the road and 3,000 or more career PAs at home. Here are the largest differences where the player’s road OPS was higher than home OPS, among those 505 hitters:

1. Brady Anderson (.830 road OPS) – (.743 home OPS) = .087
2. Mike Piazza (.960 road OPS) – (.860 home OPS) = .080
3. Adrian Gonzalez (.901 road OPS) – (.822 home OPS) = .079
4. Joe DiMaggio (1.015 road OPS) – (.938 home OPS) = .077
5. Willie Davis (.758 road OPS) – (.685 home OPS) = .073

In case you’re curious, the largest home OPS over road OPS gaps among this group of 505 guys are held by 1. Chuck Klein, 2. Bobby Doerr, 3. Hank Greenberg, 4. Dante Bichette and 5. Larry Walker.

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Joe D. totaled 78.2 Wins Above Replacement for his career, according to Baseball-Reference, but did so having played in only 13 major league seasons from debut through retirement. To illustrate the uniqueness of that combination, let’s look at the fewest career seasons in the majors played, among the 89 retired non-pitchers who have accumulated at least 64 career WAR:
13 seasons, Joe DiMaggio
14 seasons, Arky Vaughan
15 seasons, Johnny Mize, Ron Santo and Jeff Bagwell
16 seasons, Ed Delahanty, Pee Wee Reese and Ryne Sandberg

Among pitchers who have accumulated at least 64 pitching WAR (baseball-reference version) since 1900, the shortest careers in terms of seasons have been the 14-season career of Stan Coveleski and the 16-season careers of Christy Mathewson, Roy Halladay and Carl Hubbell.

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DiMaggio’s popular image for many years has been tied to some interesting memes. Proceeding backward in time, there was the rather patrician silver-haired gentleman selling what were at the time innovative coffee-makers; the seemingly prudish half of an odd couple with the world’s most famous sex symbol; the remote veteran warily eyeing the young Mickey Mantle as a rival; and the consummate professional batter with the enormously famous hitting streak. But one needs to remember that going way back to the early years of his career, Joe was simply a spectacular young ballplayer, the Mike Trout of his time, if you will.

Most Total Bases in A Season By a Hitter Age 23 or Younger, MLB History
1. Joe DiMaggio (1937, Age 22) 418
2. Hal Trotsky (1936, Age 23) 405
3. Albert Pujols (2003, Age 23) 394
4. Al Simmons (1925, Age 23) 392
5. Alex Rodriguez (1998, Age 22) 384

Most Runs Created, Age 21 Through 26, MLB History
1. Jimmie Foxx 950
2. Albert Pujols 907
3. Mickey Mantle 869
4. Joe DiMaggio 857
5. Alex Rodriguez 806

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Over the 56 games of The Streak in 1941, DiMaggio scored 56 runs, had 55 RBI and his OPS was 1.181. After going hitless on July 17 to end the record-breaking streak, he ran off another 16-game hit streak running from July 18 through August 2, during which his OPS was 1.345.

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Notes on this round’s voting:

–Roy Campanella has been sitting “on the bubble”, vulnerable to falling off the ballot at any time, since his initial birth year ballot in Round 62.  He nearly reached the 25% support level needed to get off the bubble in the last round. This round he broke through that level.  So Campy will be safe from falling off the ballot for at least one round.

–After sitting more or less with the rest of the pack of holdovers for most of this round, Joe Gordon appeared on both of the final two ballots cast, sneaking up to a showing of exactly 25% of the vote, just enough to move him from two to three assured rounds of eligibility.

–Otherwise, this was stable ballot from a holdover status point of view. Despite DiMaggio vacuuming up many votes, all the holdovers managed to stay above the 10% threshold, meaning all the guys on the bubble survive and the holdovers with accumulated ballot survival rights continue to hang on to them.

–It’s been a while since we’ve had any bubble guy drop off the eligible list. In the Round 66 voting, Ralph Kiner fell below the 10% threshold and teetered off the eligible list, after Hoyt Wilhelm had been hit with a similar outcome in the Round 65 voting. Since then, the bubble guys have been hanging on. However, with three redemption round beneficiaries about to re-join the eligible list the fight for eligibility survival may now get tougher.

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The full spreadsheet showing this round’s vote tally is here: COG 1914 Vote Tally.

The vote summary for recent Circle of Greats voting rounds is here: COG Vote Summary 2 .  An archive with details of the 1968 through 1939 rounds is here: COG 1968-1939 Vote Summary .  In both cases, raw vote totals for each past round appear on Sheet 1 and the percentage totals for each past round appear on Sheet 2.

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A spreadsheet listing the full membership to date of the Circle of Greats, along with some of their stats, is here: Circle of Greats Membership . You can also find that same link any time by clicking on “Circle of Greats” at the top of the High Heats Stats home page.