NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Will Bill Miller keep his streak alive?

The manager of the Legg Mason Value Trust fund is famous on Wall Street for having outperformed the S&P 500 index for the past 13 years. That's the mutual fund world's equivalent of Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak. Or the 74 consecutive victories for game show champ Ken Jennings.

But Jennings' loss, televised Tuesday night, shows that streaks were meant to be broken. And this year, Miller's record is in, uh, jeopardy.

Through the end of November, Miller's fund was up about 5.5 percent, putting him in a dead heat with the S&P 500's year-to-date price change. The benchmark index, however, is up more than 7 percent on a total return basis, which includes the effect of dividends.

The fund's performance has been held in check this year in part because of big bets on Amazon.com and IAC/Interactive, two Internet stocks that have each fallen about 25 percent this year. As of September 30, these two stocks accounted for nearly 11 percent of the fund's total assets.

Miller was not available for comment. But in his most recent letter to shareholders, published in November, he wrote that the decision to not cut back on some of the fund's biggest winners from 2003, including Amazon and IAC/Interactive, was a main reason why the fund has underperformed.

He also wrote that he regretted not buying energy stocks, which have soared this year due to near-record oil prices.

Still, if you take a look at Miller's other holdings, there seems to be a decent chance that he could wind up going on to beat the S&P 500 again.

And down the stretch they come! Bill Miller's Legg Mason Value Trust fund has beaten the S&P 500 13 years in a row but it's slightly trailing the index with a month to go.

Miller has momentum on his side. Tech stocks have taken off in the past few months and this has helped.

The fund may have the name value in the title, but it is actually far more growth oriented than other value funds. Miller invested in search engine Google, for example, which has been a huge winner since its IPO, up more than 110 percent.

"Miller has an expansive view of value, to say the least," said Sheldon Jacobs, editor of the No-Load Fund newsletter.

Wireless carrier Nextel, Miller's largest holding, and eBay, another large position, have been on a tear during the past few months, rising nearly 30 percent and 50 percent respectively since the market hit its low point for the year in mid-August.

But Miller has also done well lately with some more traditional value stocks. Insurer UnitedHealth, Eastman Kodak and electric utility AES -- all top ten holdings -- have outperformed the market during the past three and a half months as well.

The strong performance of several top holdings in Miller's fund in recent months has helped Legg Mason Value Trust gain ground against the S&P 500.

So it's not surprising that since the market bottomed, Miller's fund is up nearly 16 percent compared to just a 10 percent gain for the S&P 500.

Even so, Miller's bet on financial services -- a sector that has lagged during the market's recent rally -- has been a bit of a drag. The fund holds large stakes in banking powerhouses Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase, savings and loan Washington Mutual, and mortgage insurer MGIC, as of September 30.

But regardless of what happens with the streak, Jacobs thinks that too much is made of it.

Beating Bill A look at the returns of the top five performing large blend mutual funds. Fund  YTD return*  Everest America  18.2%  Neuberger Berman Partners  15.3%  Goldman Sachs CORE Tax-Managed  15.1%  Gartmore Nationwide Leaders  15.0%  Hartford Capital Appreciation HLS  14.9%   * through Nov. 30, 2004  Source:  Morningstar

Jacobs said that the fund is obviously a great one but he points out that Miller "beat" the market in the years 2000, 2001 and 2002 by merely posting a smaller loss than the S&P 500.

To that end, Jacobs thinks mutual fund investors need to focus less on relative returns and more on absolute returns.

It's also worth noting that Miller's fund is underperforming his peers.

"To me, it's more significant that he's in the lower rankings of performance for large blend funds," said Jacobs. "It's more fair to benchmark a fund to that fund's category, not an index."

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The average year-to-date gain for so-called large blend funds, according to Morningstar, is 6.4 percent. And large value funds are up more than 9 percent.

So even though Miller may very well wind up beating the S&P 500 again, there are scores of other large blend and value funds that will post better returns this year.