March 26, 1937 – Legendary New York Yankees slugger Joe DiMaggio, in just his second season as a pro, received some advice from former MLB superstar Ty Cobb, to help his batting average. The advice by Cobb was to switch from using a heavy 40-ounce bat to a lighter 36-ounce model.
Though we had trouble confirming this conversation in any periodical at the time we can share this. DiMaggio had a brilliant rookie season for the Yanks when he batted .323 with 29 HRs in 1936. After this alleged piece of advice from Cobb, Joe hit .346 with 46 bombs over the wall to greatly improve his already outstanding production.
Was it the change in the weight of the bat, another year of experience, a combination of both and maybe some other items? We may never know, but the story sure is fun to think about.
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