Joe Di Maggio

Born: November 24, 1914
Martinez, California
Died: March 8, 1999
Hollywood, Florida
American baseball player

Joe DiMaggio was named the "Greatest Living Player" in a 1969 poll of sportswriters. He took the great American pastime of baseball to new heights during his career, and he was the epitome (the perfect example) of the sports hero of the 1940s and 1950s.

Before the Yankees

Giuseppe Paolo (Joe) DiMaggio Jr. was born on November 24, 1914. He was the son of Italian immigrant parents. He grew up in the San Francisco, California, area with his four brothers and four sisters. All eleven DiMaggios lived in a small, four-room house. His father fished for crabs and his sons helped him when they were old enough. Joe did not like fishing, and he always found ways to avoid going out to sea with his father and brothers or to avoid cleaning the catch when the boat came home.

At the age of seventeen DiMaggio started to play minor league baseball with the San Francisco Seals. One of his older brothers was playing on that team and recommended Joe for a position. Joe started with a salary of $250 a month. He became a Bay Area celebrity in 1933 when he got hits in sixty-one consecutive games, an all-time record for the league. His batting average (the percentage of time that a batter gets a hit) was .340 and he batted in 169 runs.

A year later DiMaggio hit .341, and the New York Yankees purchased his contract for twenty-five thousand dollars and five minor league players. DiMaggio's debut (start) in centerfield with the Yankees was delayed because of an injury. When he appeared on the field for the first time, on May 3, 1936, twenty-five thousand cheering, flag-waving, Italian residents of New York showed up to welcome him to the team.

"Joltin' Joe, the Yankee Clipper"

By 1936 DiMaggio was known as "Joltin' Joe" for the power of his batting and "The Yankee Clipper" after the ships built for speed that crossed the Atlantic Ocean. He led the league with a career-high of 46 home runs. Over the term of his career DiMaggio hit 361 home runs. He placed fifth on the major league all-time home run list when he retired in 1951.

In 1937 DiMaggio batted an impressive .346, driving in 167 runs. The next season DiMaggio hit .324, followed in 1939 with a .381. This gave him his first batting championship and won him the league's Most Valuable Player award. Late in the 1939 season DiMaggio was hitting at a .412 pace, but eye trouble kept him from staying above the .400 mark.

The streak

During the 1940 season, DiMaggio captured his second consecutive batting title with a .352, but for the first time since he had joined the Yankees his team failed to win the pennant (the league championship). However, DiMaggio made baseball history in the 1941 season.

DiMaggio began a fifty-six-game hitting streak starting on May 15, 1941. He got a hit in every game he played until July 17, 1941. In between he hit .406, and fans all over the country anxiously checked each game day to see if the Yankee Clipper had kept his streak going. People crowded into the ballpark, radio programs were interrupted for "DiMag" bulletins, the U.S. Congress designated a page boy to rush DiMaggio bulletins to the floor, and newspaper switchboards lit up every afternoon with the question of the day, "Did DiMaggio get his hit?" Two pitchers on the Cleveland Indians ended his hitting streak on July 17, but after that game he started another hitting streak that went on for seventeen games.

In 1941 DiMaggio won his second Most Valuable Player award. Like the rest of the people in the country, he also began to feel the pressure of a nation readying itself for war. World War II lasted from 1939 until 1945. During that time the Axis (Germany, Italy, and Japan) tried to gain control of the world, but the Allies (the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and France) defeated them. During the 1942 season DiMaggio batted .305, but he was drafted into the army along with thousands of other young men.

DiMaggio spent three years in the army and returned to professional baseball in 1946. That season was a disappointment—he batted only .290—but by 1947 he was back in form, hitting .315. That year he won his third Most Valuable Player award and led his team to the pennant.

Baseball Hall of Fame

Aided by New York City newspapers, radio, and television, as well as his own powerful statistics, DiMaggio became a national hero after the war. Even people who did not like the Yankees liked Joe. In 1948 DiMaggio had returned to the height of this form, winning the home run title with 39, the RBI (runs batted in) crown with 155, and the batting title with a .320 average. DiMaggio sat out the first two months of the 1949 season with problems in his heel, but, as always, his return was memorable. In 1949 he became the American League's first player to earn $100,000.

DiMaggio played in pain during his first games for new manager Casey Stengel (1890–1975), but he hit four home runs in three games and helped the Yankees bring home another pennant. In 1951, with another soon-to-be Yankee superstar, young Mickey Mantle, on the scene, DiMaggio's average slipped to .263 with only twelve home runs.

DiMaggio announced his retirement in 1952 when he was thirty-seven. He turned down another $100,000 contract for that year. This would have been his fourth contract of this size in a row. DiMaggio said, "When baseball is no longer fun, it's no longer a game." The Yankees honored him by retiring his uniform number, number five. This means that no Yankee baseball player will ever wear that number again.

After DiMaggio retired he hosted television shows shown before baseball games, made television commercials, and was briefly married to the Hollywood actress Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962). He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955, named the "Greatest Living Player" in 1969 in a poll of sportswriters, and was named as a member of the All-Century Team in 1999.

Joe DiMaggio died at his home in Hollywood, Florida, on March 8, 1999. He was always a modest man and always worked to play his best game even when faced with health problems. Joe DiMaggio is remembered as an inspiration not only for sports fans, but for all people.

For More Information

Allen, Maury. Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio? The Story of America's Last Hero. New York: Dutton, 1975.

Cramer, Richard Ben. Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.

Seidel, Michael. Streak: DiMaggio and the Summer of '41. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1988.

Testa, Maria. Becoming Joe DiMaggio. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press, 2002.

Joe DiMaggio

Named the "Greatest Living Player" in a 1969 centennial poll of sportswriters, baseball star Joe DiMaggio (born 1914) took the great American pastime to new heights during his enormously successful career and epitomizes the sports heroes of the 1940s and 1950s.

One of the most popular and fabled players to compete in Yankee Stadium, Joe DiMaggio was winner of three Most Valuable Player awards. His 1941 hitting streak of 56 games was one of the most closely watched achievements in baseball history, and he was so beloved by his fans that Japanese attempting to insult American soldiers on World War II battlefields called out insults to DiMaggio. His career batting average was .325, and he hammered 361 home runs. In 1949 he became the American League's first $100,000 player.

Before the Yankees

Son of Italian immigrant parents, Giuseppe Paolo DiMaggio Jr. grew up in the San Francisco area with his four brothers and four sisters. At seventeen DiMaggio elected to play minor league baseball with the San Francisco Seals, the team on which his brother was making his professional debut near the end of the 1932 season. With a salary of $250 a month, 6-foot-2-inch DiMaggio became a Bay Area celebrity in 1933, hitting safely in 61 consecutive games, an all-time record for professional baseball, while hitting .340 and driving in 169 runs. A year later DiMaggio hit .341 and was purchased by the New York Yankees for $25,000 and five minor league players. An impressive .398 batting average earned him a Yankee tryout in 1936, where he was billed as the next Babe Ruth. DiMaggio's debut was delayed because of an injury, yet when he appeared on the field for the first time, on 3 May 1936, 25,000 cheering, flag-waving Italian residents of New York showed up to welcome him to the team.

"Joltin Joe, the Yankee Clipper"

By 1936 "Joltin' Joe," as he was called, led the league with a career-high 46 home runs. Even with the depth of the left field fence in Yankee Stadium, DiMaggio hit 361 career home runs, placing him fifth on the major league all-time home run list when he retired in 1951. In 1937 he batted an impressive .346, driving in 167 runs. The next season DiMaggio hit .324, followed in 1939 with a .381 and his first batting championship and the league Most Valuable Player award. Late in the 1939 season DiMaggio was hitting at a .412 pace, but eye trouble, and possibly the pressure, kept him from staying above the .400 mark.

The Streak

During the 1940 season DiMaggio captured his second consecutive batting title with a .352, but for the first time since he had joined the Yankees his team failed to win the pennant—setting the stage for the 1941 season that would make baseball history. DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak during the 1941 season began on 15 May, when he singled home a run, and ended on 17 July. In between he hit .406, and fans all over the country anxiously checked each game day to see if the Yankee Clipper had kept the streak going. People jammed the ballpark; radio programs were interrupted for "DiMag" bulletins, the U.S. Congress designated a page boy to rush DiMaggio bulletins to the floor, and newspaper switchboards lit up every afternoon with the question of the day, "Did DiMaggio get his hit?" Immediately after Cleveland pitchers Al Smith and Jim Bagby held DiMaggio hitless on 17 July, with the help of two great plays at third base by Ken Keltner, he started another hitting streak that ran 17 games. At the same time, twenty-two-year-old Red Sox slugger Ted Williams was setting a modern-age batting average of .406. During that same year, young pitcher Bob Feller won 25 games for the Cleveland Indians, and veteran pitcher Lefty Grove won his 300th game. In 1941 DiMaggio won his second Most Valuable Player award and like the rest of the nation began to feel the pressure of a nation readying itself for war. During the 1942 season DiMaggio batted .305 and was drafted into the army along with thousands of other young men. During his three years in the army DiMaggio played baseball in the Pacific and across the United States. The 1946 season was a disappointment (he batted .290), but by 1947 he was back in form, hitting .315 to win his third Most Valuable Player award and lead his team to the pennant.

Hall of Famer

Aided by the media machine of New York City and his own powerful statistics, DiMaggio became a national hero after the war—even though he played for the often-hated Yankees. He was even immortalized in a song called "Joltin' Joe DiMaggio," recorded by the Les Brown Orchestra. In 1948 DiMaggio had returned to the height of this form, winning the home run title with 39, the RBI crown with 155, and the batting title with a .320 average. DiMaggio sat out the first two months of the 1949 season with a bone spur in his heel, but as always his return was memorable. Although playing in pain, during his first games for new manager Casey Stengel, DiMaggio belted four homers in three games that broke the back of the league-leading Red Sox and helped the Yankees bring home another pennant. In 1951, with another soon-to-be Yankee superstar, young Mickey Mantle, on the scene, DiMaggio's average slipped to .263 with only 12 homers. Announcing his retirement at age thirty-seven in 1952, he turned down a fourth consecutive $100,000 contract because "when baseball is no longer fun, it's no longer a game." The Yankees, whose history is replete with heroes, retired his uniform, the world-famous pinstripe number five. In later years DiMaggio hosted pregame television shows, made television commercials, and was briefly married to the voluptuous Hollywood actress Marilyn Monroe. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955, and in 1969 he was named the "Greatest Living Player" in a centennial poll of sportswriters.

Further Reading

Maury Allen, Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio? The Story of America's Last Hero (New York: Dutton, 1975);

Jack B. Moore, Joe DiMaggio: A Bio-Bibliography (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1986);

Michael Seidel, Streak: DiMaggio and the Summer of '41 (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1988).

Durso, Joseph, DiMaggio: the last American knight (Boston: Little, Brown, 1995). □

DIMAGGIO, JOE 1914-

Baseball player

Career

One of the most popular and fabled players to compete in Yankee Stadium, Joe DiMaggio was winner of three Most Valuable Player awards. His 1941 hitting streak of 56 games was one of the most closely watched achievements in baseball history, and he was so beloved by his fans that Japanese attempting to insult American soldiers on World War II battlefields called out insults to DiMaggio. His career batting average was .325, and he hammered 361 home runs. In 1949 he became the American League's first $100,000 player.

Before the Yankees

Son of Italian immigrant parents, Giuseppe Paolo DiMaggio Jr. grew up in the San Francisco area with his four brothers and four sisters. At seventeen DiMaggio elected to play minor league baseball with the San Francisco Seals, the team on which his brother was making his professional debut near the end of the 1932 season. With a salary of $250 a month, 6-foot-2-inch DiMaggio became a Bay Area celebrity in 1933, hitting safely in 61 consecutive games, an all-time record for professional baseball, while hitting .340 and driving in 169 runs. A year later DiMaggio hit .341 and was purchased by the New York Yankees for $25,000 and five minor league players. An impressive .398 batting average earned him a Yankee tryout in 1936, where he was billed as the next Babe Ruth. DiMaggio's debut was delayed because of an injury, yet when he appeared on the field for the first time, on 3 May 1936, 25,000 cheering, flag-waving Italian residents of New York showed up to welcome him to the team.

"Joltinjoe, the Yankee Clipper."

By 1936 "Joltin Joe," as he was called, led the league with a career-high 46 home runs. Even with the depth of the left field fence in Yankee Stadium, DiMaggio hit 361 career home runs, placing him fifth on the major league all-time home run list when he retired in 1951. In 1937 he batted an impressive .346, driving in 167 runs. The next season DiMaggio hit .324, followed in 1939 with a .381 and his first batting championship and the league Most Valuable Player award. Late in the 1939 season DiMaggio was hitting at a .412 pace, but eye trouble, and possibly the pressure, kept him from staying above the .400 mark.

The Streak

During the 1940 season DiMaggio captured his second consecutive batting title with a .352, but for the first time since he had joined the Yankees his team failed to win the pennant—setting the stage for the 1941 season that would make baseball history. DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak during the 1941 season began on 15 May, when he singled home a run, and ended on 17 July, In between he hit .406, and fans all over the country anxiously checked each game day to see if the Yankee Clipper had kept the streak going. People jammed the ballpark; radio programs were interrupted for "DiMag" bulletins, the U.S. Congress designated a page boy to rush DiMaggio bulletins to the floor, and newspaper switchboards lit up every afternoon with the question of the day, "Did DiMaggio get his hit?" Immediately after Cleveland pitchers Al Smith and Jim Bagby held DiMaggio hitless on 17 July, with the help of two great plays at third base by Ken Keltner, he started another hitting streak that ran 17 games. At the same time, twenty-two-year-old Red Sox slugger Ted Williams was setting a modern-age batting average of .406. During that same year, young pitcher Bob Feller won 25 games for the Cleveland Indians, and veteran pitcher Lefty Grove won his 300th game. In 1941 DiMaggio won his second Most Valuable Player award and like the rest of the nation began to feel the pressure of a nation readying itself for war. During the 1942 season DiMaggio batted .305 and was drafted into the army along with thousands of other young men. During his three years in the army DiMaggio played baseball in the Pacific and across the United States. The 1946 season was a disappointment (he batted .290), but by 1947 he was back in form, hitting .315 to win his third Most Valuable Player award and lead his team to the pennant.

Hall of Famer

Aided by the media machine of New York City and his own powerful statistics, DiMaggio became a national hero after the war—even though he played for the often-hated Yankees. He was even immortalized in a song called "Joltin" Joe DiMaggio," recorded by the Les Brown Orchestra. In 1948 DiMaggio had returned to the height of this form, winning the home run title with 39, the RBI crown with 155, and the batting title with a .320 average. DiMaggio sat out the first two months of the 1949 season with a bone spur in his heel, but as always his return was memorable. Although playing in pain, during his first games for new manager Casey Stengel, DiMaggio belted four homers in three games that broke the back of the league-leading Red Sox and helped the Yankees bring home another pennant. In 1951, with another soon-to-be Yankee superstar, young Mickey Mantle, on the scene, DiMaggio's average slipped to .263 with only 12 homers. Announcing his retirement at age thirty-seven in 1952, he turned down a fourth consecutive $100,000 contract because "when baseball is no longer fun, it's no longer a game." The Yankees, whose history is replete with heroes, retired his uniform, the world-famous pinstripe number five. In later years DiMaggio hosted pregame television shows, made television commercials, and was briefly married to the voluptuous Hollywood actress Marilyn Monroe. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955, and in 1969 he was named the "Greatest Living Player" in a centennial poll of sportswriters.

Sources:

Maury Allen, Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio? The Story of Americas Last Hero (New York: Dutton, 1975);

Jack B. Moore, Joe DiMaggio: A Bio-Bibliography (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1986);

Michael Seidel, Streak: DiMaggio and the Summer of '41 (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1988).

DiMaggio, Joe (1914–1999), baseball player.Born into a California immigrant family that spoke only Italian, Joseph Paul DiMaggio quit high school to work and play baseball. In 1936 the New York Yankees bought him, hoping to replace Babe Ruth. He finished that year with a .323 batting average, 29 home runs, and the nickname “Joltin' Joe.” In 13 seasons with the Yankees, DiMaggio hit .325 with 361 homers, easily becoming the first Italian American elected to the Hall of Fame.

To contemporaries, DiMaggio was not just great but special. First, he was consistent. He led the league in major categories in nine seasons and, in 1941, hit safely in fifty‐six straight games. He was also versatile. Equally skilled at hitting, fielding, and base running, he led the Yankees to ten pennants and eight world championships. And he performed with a grace, self‐possession, and poise that astounded sportswriters and made him the most charismatic athlete of his generation.

Moreover, though reserved and uncomfortable in crowds, DiMaggio enjoyed meeting celebrities and beautiful women at Toots Shor's and other New York City nightspots, where he learned to hold his liquor and his tongue. The immigrant's son thus became “Broadway Joe” as well as the “Yankee Clipper,” a gossip‐column favorite and the subject, however dignified and distant, of mass adoration. Fittingly, after divorcing his first wife, he married Hollywood's reigning sex symbol, Marilyn Monroe, in 1954. The marriage lasted a year. When Monroe died in 1962, DiMaggio had roses placed thereafter at the crypt holding her ashes. To the turbulent 1960s, he came to symbolize a lost grace and stability. In the commercial 1980s, he appeared, dignity intact, in television commercials, adding “Mr. Coffee” to his list of affectionate nicknames.
See also Sports: Professional Sports.

Bibliography

Maury Allen , Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio?, 1975.
George DeGregorio , Joe DiMaggio: An Informal Biography, 1981.

Ronald Story

Joe DiMaggio (Joseph Paul DiMaggio) , 1914–99, American baseball player, b. Martinez, Calif. One of the most charismatic of 20th-century sports figures, "Joltin' Joe" joined the New York Yankees of the American League in 1936 and quickly rose to stardom, winning the league's batting title with a .381 average in his fourth season. In a career interrupted by World War II, the center fielder became the celebrated epitome of grace and humility. In 1939, 1941, and 1947 he was the American League's Most Valuable Player, and in 1941 the "Yankee Clipper" established one of baseball's best-known records by hitting safely in 56 consecutive games. He retired in 1951 and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955. His quiet heroics and brief marriage (1954) to Marilyn Monroe made him an icon of popular culture, although later biographical study has tended to deflate that status to some degree.

Bibliography: See biographies by R. B. Cramer (2000) and J. Charyn (2011); K. Kennedy, Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports (2011).

His brother, Dominic DiMaggio, 1917–2009, b. San Francisco, was also a major-league baseball player. Although always in his elder brother's shadow, the "Little Professor" was a talented centerfielder and an aggressive hitter, who began playing pro ball in 1937 and spent most of his career with the Boston Red Sox (1940–41, 1946–53). A seven-time All-Star, he had a career average of .298 with the Sox.

Bibliography: See his memoir (1990, with B. Gilbert, repr. 2004).

DiMaggio, Joe ( Joseph Paul) (1914–99) US baseball player. DiMaggio played for the New York Yankees (1936–42, 1946–51), and holds the record for hitting safely in 56 consecutive games. He had a lifetime batting average of 325. DiMaggio married Marilyn Monroe (1954) and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame (1955).