Joe+Dimaggio


 * Joe's Young Life**

He was born Giuseppe Paolo DiMaggio in Martinez, California on November 25, 1914. "Giuseppe" (Joseph) was for his father; "Paolo" (Paul) for St. Paul, his father's favorite saint. He was the fourth son and the eighth child born to Giuseppe and Rosalie DiMaggio. The couple immigrated to America in 1898 from Sicily and moved to North Beach, a heavily Italian neighborhood in San Francisco when Joe was a year old.

Giuseppe, the father, was a fisherman, as were generations of DiMaggio’s before him. He hoped all five of his sons would follow his footsteps. The two oldest sons, Tom and Michael, joined their father as fishermen but, Joe had no desire to follow in his father’s chosen career. As Joe recalled, 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.”

Instead of fishing, Joe followed his older brother Vince, along with his younger brother Dominic onto the sandlot baseball fields of San Francisco. It was only after Joe became the sensation of the Pacific Coast League that Joe’s father was finally won over. **Minor League Experience**

Joe first suited up for a team sponsored by a local olive-oil distributor named Rossi. Joe helped Rossi win the championship with two home runs in a game. DiMaggio received two baseballs and $ 16 worth of merchandise for his play. In March of 1932, Vince, Joe’s older brother made the roster of the city’s minor league team, the SF Seals. Later that year, a shortstop was needed, and Vince recommended his younger brother. It was then that Joe made his professional debut, playing in 3 games to finish out the 1932 season. The following year, 1933, his first full year with the Seals, Joe batted .340 with 169 RBI’s and 28 home runs. It turned out that Joe wasn’t a shortstop, but boy could he play baseball. He had found a career. In a sure sign of things to come, Joe had an incredible 61 game hitting streak in his first full professional season.. Scouts flocked to see DiMaggio as he was beginning to make a national name for himself.

In November of 1934, the Seals owner, Charlie Graham sold the rights to Joe DiMaggio to the NY Yankees for $25,000 dollars and five players. A knee injury kept Joe from reporting to the Yankees that year, forcing him to play for the Seals for one final year. Joe finished his minor league career with an impressive .398 batting average, 154 RBI’s and 34 home runs.

**The Yanks** Joe joined the Yankees for the 1936 season. In his rookie season he immediately had a significant impact. He helped lead his new team to their first pennant in four years. From there they went on to beat the NY Giants in the World Series and began a streak of 4 consecutive championships. In 1939 he won his first of three most valuable player awards. He was a leader all the same, steering the Yankees to nine World Championships. DiMaggio was a great hitter with a classic swing. He had an exceptionally wide stance that gave him a controlled short stride, strong wrists that generated enormous power, and the ability to wait until the last instant before lashing into a pitch. His 46 homers in 1937, including a ML-record 15 in July, remain a Yankee record for a right handed hitter. What makes his HR total more impressive is that he played half his games at Yankee Stadium, then the toughest power park in baseball for righties. But DiMaggio was more than a hitter. He was a splendid defensive outfielder with a great throwing arm. He made tough plays look easy. He was always alert to the game situation, and always threw to the correct base. He was virtually flawless in 1947, making one lone error on the year. And to his manager, Joe McCarthy, he was "the best base runner I ever saw." In the 1941 season Joe excited the nation with his 56 game hitting streak. The streak began on May 15th, 1941 and lasted until Cleveland’s third basemen Ken Keltner ended it on July 17 with two dazzling plays. During the streak, Joe had 91 hits in 223 at bats for an average of .409. Amazingly, after being stopped at 56, he hit safely in the next 17 games. The 1941 season ended with the Yankees beating the Brooklyn Dodgers in the World Series. That year Joe hit .357 with 125 RBI’s, 30 home runs and won his second league MVP in spite of Ted Williams hitting an incredible .406 for the Boston Red Sox’s that same year. The war took three prime years from DiMaggio's baseball career. In 1947, one season after his return from military duties, the Yankees were back on top. Joe had another career year winning his third MVP league title and once again leading the Yankees to another world championship again over the Brooklyn Dodgers in 7 games. The Yankees were World Champions again in 1949, 1950, and 1951. Even while playing most of 1948 with a painful heel injury, DiMaggio almost made it a clean sweep. The Yankees lost out to the Red Sox and Indians on the next-to-last day of the season, but DiMaggio led the league with 39 home runs and 155 RBI’s. By the end of the 1951 season, the pain in Joe’s heel had become so bad he knew it was time to retire from the game of baseball. "I feel like I have reached the stage where I can no longer produce for my club, my manager, and my teammates. I had a poor year, but even if I had hit .350, this would have been my last year. I was full of aches and pains and it had become a chore for me to play. When baseball is no longer fun, it's no longer a game." Joe DiMaggio was inducted into the Baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1955
 * 13 year career with the Yankees **

• 9 world championships • 10 American league Pennants • 3 MVP awards 1939, 1941, 1947 • 56 game hitting streak, major league record • Career batting average .325 • Career home runs 361, only struck out 369 times • Won two batting titles, .381 in 1939 and .352 in 1940 • Appeared in 11 All-Star Games • Elected to the HOF 1955 • Voted greatest living player 1969, Centennial poll of sportswriters