On a hot streak

During New York Yankee Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak in 1941, the longest in Major League Baseball history, he struck out only five times and had 91 base hits in 223 at-bats for a .408 batting average. Even if you know little about baseball, safe to say, he was on fire.

The man was on a hot streak.

Likewise, since Warren Buffet took over Berkshire Hathaway in 1965, the firm has beaten the market 39 out of 58 years. Even when Berkshire Hathaway has failed to beat the S&P 500 benchmark like in 2023, Berkshire Hathaway still finished the year with a 15.8% gain.

Can you imagine either of these two hot streaks? How about this one?

You write your first play, follow it up with several others, touching heavily on comedy and each earns more and more laughs and you start to build up a sizable audience. You keep at it, releasing a steady stream of well-loved works. The list is who’s who of literature: Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night, Hamlet, Macbeth and on and on.

Your list of credits continues for the next two decades and you’re widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist. People know your name and even refer to you simply by your last name for hundreds and hundreds of years after your death.

Back to the bench Dimaggio. Step aside Buffet. Now, that’s a hot streak. Of course, I’m talking about William Shakespeare.

Although Shakespeare’s exact birth date is unknown, it’s often celebrated around April 23, which happens to be the same day he passed away 52 years later in 1616. Tuesday marks the 408th anniversary since Shakespeare’s passing.

The chronology of Shakespeare’s plays remains a matter debate among scholars. Though each play can be assigned a narrow date range, it is impossible to know exactly in which year any one of Shakespeare’s plays was composed. Even when exact performance dates are known, nothing conclusive can be said about when each play was written.

No matter the date, Shakespeare’s run is to be celebrated as one of the best of all time. Oh, to have that kind of talent, skills, and good fortune.