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Joseph Paul DiMaggio, born Giuseppe Paolo DiMaggio
(November 25, 1914 – March 8, 1999), was an
American baseball player.

A "picture player" at bat and in center field,
many rate his 56-game hitting streak (from May 15
- July 16, 1941) as the top baseball feat of all
time. His older brother Vince and younger brother
Dom were major leaguers. (Vince was a National
League All-Star. Dom played for 11 years with the
Boston Red Sox. All three were noted for their
defense.)

Early life

The 8th of 9 children, Joe DiMaggio was born in a
two-room house in Martinez, California, a town 35
miles east of San Francisco. He was delivered by a
midwife. His mother named him "Giuseppe" for his
father; "Paolo" was in honor of St. Paul, his
father's favorite saint. The family moved to San
Francisco when Joe was a year old.

Giuseppe Sr. was a fisherman, as were generations
of DiMaggios before him. He hoped all five of his
sons would follow his footsteps, but Joe had no
desire to. Joe recalled that he would do anything
to get out of cleaning his father's boat, as the
smell of dead fish made him sick to his stomach.
This earned him Giuseppe's ire, who called him
"lazy" and "good for nothing." It was only
after Joe became the sensation of the Pacific
Coast League that the old man was finally won
over.

Joe was playing semi-pro ball when his brother
Vince, playing with the San Francisco Seals,
talked his manager into letting his kid brother
fill in at shortstop for the last three games of
the season. Joe, making his pro debut on October
1, 1932, it turned out, couldn't play shortstop
well, but he could hit. From May 28 - July 25,
1933, he hit in 61 consecutive games. "Baseball
didn't really get into my blood until I knocked
off that hitting streak," DiMaggio said.
"Getting a daily hit became more important to me
than eating, drinking or sleeping."

However, in 1934, his career almost ended. Going
to his sister's house for dinner, Joe tore the
ligaments in his left knee when he stepped out of
a jitney. The next day, he hit a homer, but had to
walk around the bases! The Seals, hoping to get as
much as $100,000, a staggering sum in the Great
Depression, couldn't give him away; the Chicago
Cubs turned down a no-risk tryout. Fortunately,
scout Bill Essick pestered the New York Yankees to
give the 19 year old another look. After Joe
passed a test on his knee, the Yankees bought him
on November 21 for $25,000 and 5 players, with the
Seals keeping him another year. He batted .398
with 154 RBIs and 34 HRs and led the Seals to the
1935 PCL title.


"The Yankee Clipper"

Touted by sportswriters as well as stars such as
Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb and Shoeless Joe Jackson, he
made his debut on May 3, 1936, batting ahead of
Lou Gehrig. The Yankees hadn't been to the World
Series since 1932, but, thanks in large part to
their sensational rookie, they won the next four.
DiMaggio is the only athlete in North American pro
sports history to be on four championship teams in
his first 4 full seasons. In total, he led the
Yankees to 9 titles in 13 years.

On February 7, 1949, DiMaggio became the first pro
athlete to sign for $100,000 ($70,000 + bonuses).
He was still regarded as the game's best player,
but injuries got to the point where he couldn't
take a step without pain. A sub-par 1951 season
and a brutal scouting report by the Brooklyn
Dodgers that was turned over to the NL champion
New York Giants and leaked to the press convinced
him to announce his retirement on December 11,
1951, turning center field over to Mickey Mantle.
Joe was not elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame
until his third try in 1955. He amassed 361 home
runs, averaged 118 runs batted in (RBI) annually,
compiled a .325 lifetime batting average, and
struck out only 369 times. He won two batting
crowns and three MVP awards.

DiMaggio would have even better statistics if his
home park had been any park other than Yankee
Stadium. As it was "The House That (Babe) Ruth
Built," Yankee Stadium was designed to
accommodate The Sultan of Swat. Hence, for
right-handed power hitters like DiMaggio, it was a
nightmare. Left-center field went as far back as
457ft, compared to ballparks today where left
center rarely reachs 380ft.

DiMaggio was given the nickname Yankee Clipper by
broadcaster Arch McDonald.


"Enemy aliens"

Joe DiMaggio enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces
on February 17, 1943, rising to the rank of
Sergeant. While fellow superstars Ted Williams and
Bob Feller saw action at their request,
DiMaggio's popularity was such it was feared that
if he was put in harm's way and killed, it would
devastate morale. He was stationed at Santa Ana,
California, Hawaii, and Atlantic City as a
physical education instructor during his 31-month
stint and played baseball.

Giuseppe and Rosalie DiMaggio were among the
thousands of German, Japanese and Italian
immigrants deemed "enemy aliens" after Pearl
Harbor was attacked. They had to carry photo ID
booklets at all times, weren't allowed to travel
more than 5 miles from their home without a
permit, and Giuseppe's boat was seized. Rosalie
became an American citizen in 1944; Giuseppe in
1945.


Marriages
Marilyn Monroe and DiMaggio on their wedding day,
January 14, 1954


In January 1937, DiMaggio met Dorothy Arnold on
the set of Manhattan Merry Go-Round in which he
was featured and she was one of its adornments.
They married at San Francisco's Church of Sts.
Peter's and Paul's on November 19, 1939 as
well-wishers jammed the streets.

Even before their son, Joseph III, was born, the
marriage was in trouble. DiMaggio was like most
ballplayers: a high-school dropout with limited
social skills whose life revolved around the game.
While not the "party animal" Babe Ruth was, he
had his fun, leaving Dorothy feeling neglected.
However, she was an ambitious social-climber who
took full advantage of her status as the wife of
baseball's biggest star. He came to resent how
she complained about his off-the-field activities
while she spent his money. But, when she
threatened to divorce him in 1942, the usually
unflappable DiMaggio went into a slump, and
developed ulcers. After the season, she went to
Reno, Nevada to get a divorce. He followed her,
and they reconciled. But, after he enlisted in the
Army and was sent to Hawaii, she returned to Reno.
She divorced him in 1944.

The relationship continued off and on. Dorothy
promised Joe she would wait for him to return from
1946 spring training, but married another man
while he was away. It was only after he met the
love of his life on a blind date in 1952 did
DiMaggio finally get her out of his system for
good.

According to her autobiography, Marilyn Monroe did
not want to meet DiMaggio, imagining he had
bulging muscles and wore pink ties. Both were at
different points in their lives: the just-retired
DiMaggio wanted to settle down; Marilyn's career
was taking off. They married at San Francisco City
Hall on January 14, 1954, the culmination of a
courtship that had captivated the nation (he was
excommunicated by the Catholic Church for
bigamy).

By all accounts, their relationship was loving yet
complex, marred by his jealousy and her casual
infidelity. DiMaggio biographer Richard Ben Cramer
asserts it was also violent. One incident
allegedly happened after the skirt-blowing scene
in The Seven Year Itch was filmed on New York's
Lexington Avenue before hundreds of fans; director
Billy Wilder recalled "the look of death" on
DiMaggio's face as he watched. When she filed for
divorce just 274 days after the wedding, Oscar
Levant quipped it proved that no man could be a
success in two pastimes.

He re-entered her life as her marriage to Arthur
Miller was ending. In February 1961, DiMaggio
secured Monroe's release from a psychiatric
clinic (she was reportedly placed in the ward for
the most seriously disturbed). She later joined
him in Florida where he was a batting coach at the
Yankees' training camp. Their "just friends"
claim didn't stop remarriage rumors from flying.
Reporters staked out Monroe's Manhattan apartment
building. Bob Hope even "dedicated" Best Song
nominee The Second Time Around to them at the
Academy Awards.

According to DiMaggio biographer Maury Allen, Joe
was alarmed at how Marilyn had returned to her
self-destructive habits, associating with people
he considered detrimental to her well-being
(including Frank Sinatra and his "Rat Pack").
Joe quit his job with a military post-exchange
supplier to ask Marilyn to remarry him. But,
before he could, she was found dead on August 5,
1962, a probable suicide. He claimed her body and
arranged her funeral. He had a dozen red roses
delivered 3 times a week to her crypt for 20
years. Unlike other men who knew her intimately
(or claimed to), he never talked about her
publicly nor wrote a book. He never married
again.

Death

Early in 1999, NBC erroneously broadcast a
premature obituary of DiMaggio following newspaper
reports that he was close to death. However, he
did die of complications from lung cancer surgery
shortly afterwards at his home. His last words,
according to Engelberg (see below), were "I'll
finally get to see Marilyn." (Famous last words)

He is interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma,
California south of San Francisco. In his eulogy
at St. Peters and Paul Church in North Beach (San
Francisco's Italian neighborhood), Dom DiMaggio
declared his brother had everything except "the
right woman to share his life with," a remark
seeming to confirm the family's disapproval of
Monroe. Richard Ben Cramer told the New York Times
that Dom cooperated with him on his controversial
biography, and got other family members to.

The equally-controversial executor of DiMaggio's
estate, Morris Engelberg, offered dozens of signed
bats on Shop At Home for $3,000 each weeks before
DiMaggio died. Weeks after DiMaggio died,
Engelberg sued the City of San Francisco to stop
its plan to name the North Beach park, where Joe
learned to play baseball, after him. That June, he
sold hundreds of DiMaggio pieces to a sports
collectibles dealer, including baseballs DiMaggio
signed on his deathbed, and offered several of
DiMaggio's personal items at a Sotheby's
auction. In 2003, Engelberg published his own book
on DiMaggio.


Legacy


DiMaggio was used by artists as a touchstone in
American culture, not only during his career, but
decades after he retired. He is mentioned in the
South Pacific song "Bloody Mary." "Joltin' Joe
DiMaggio," recorded during his hitting streak by
Les Brown, was a big hit. In Raymond Chandler's
Farewell, My Lovely, Philip Marlowe follows
DiMaggio's streak, which Chandler uses as a
metaphor for good in an increasingly-debased
world. A generation later, Simon and Garfunkel
used DiMaggio in that same vein in "Mrs.
Robinson". The literal-minded DiMaggio was
reportedly not fond of the lyric "Where have you
gone, Joe DiMaggio?" as he himself was very much
alive and well.

Woody Guthrie wrote a song about DiMaggio's
tremendous performance in a crucial series against
the Boston Red Sox in June 1949, when surgery for
bone spurs had kept DiMaggio out of the Yankees'
first 65 games and threatened to end his career.
It is during this period Ernest Hemingway's The
Old Man and the Sea is set, the worshipful
Santiago drawing courage from his hero's ordeal.
DiMaggio is even referenced in the Porky Pig/Daffy
Duck cartoon, Boobs in the Woods.

He was admired by his peers as a consummate
professional, refusing to rest on his skills,
working constantly to improve, and playing in
spite of tremendous pain and injuries. On July 21,
1969, DiMaggio was named the greatest living
player at a gala celebrating baseball's 100th
anniversary.

No doubt, his place in American culture would have
been different had he not become involved with
Monroe, and had she not died young and under
tragic circumstances. His refusal to "cash in"
on their union enhanced his standing with the
public as a man of integrity.

On September 19, 1992, the Joe DiMaggio
Children's Hospital opened, for which he raised
over $4,000,000. Elián González was taken there
after he was rescued off the coast of Miami on
what would have been DiMaggio's 85th birthday.

Yankee Stadium's fifth monument was dedicated to
DiMaggio on April 25, 1999. The Yankees wore 5's
(DiMaggio's uniform number) on the right side of
their uniforms for the entire 1999 season.