DiMaggio was considered to be one of the greatest baseball players of all time as well as a man who was loved by all. Find out this man's life story by reading this informative article!
Joseph Paul DiMaggio was born on November 25, 1914, in Martine, California, a fishing town north of San Francisco. Joseph was the eighth of nine children. His father was a fisherman, and assumed that all five of his sons would follow him into the fishing business. Fortunately, for the world of baseball and for America, that did not happen.
In 1930, when young Joe was sixteen years old he dropped out of high school and got a job at a local bottling plant. Joe didn't like the work, so he moved on to become a dockworker. In 1932, Vince DiMaggio, Joe's older brother, got his chance to play minor league baseball on the Pacific Coast League. The team needed a shortstop later in the season, and Vince suggested his younger brother.
The following year, at the age of seventeen, the right-handed batter played professional baseball with the Seals. Within that year, he hit twenty-eight home runs, brought in 169 home runs, and had a sixty-one game hitting streak.
In 1934, the Seals owner, Charlie Graham, sold Joe to the Yankees with twenty-five thousand dollars and five players. Graham knew a good thing when he saw it, though, and included a stipulation into the deal, Joe DiMaggio would spend the next season playing for him again.
In 1936, Joe returned to baseball after being out of commission for a year. He was recovering from an injury he had received in an automobile accident. Finally, Joe played his first major league game at the Yankee Stadium against Saint Louis. That season, Joe DiMaggio played in one hundred and thirty-eight games, and hit twenty-nine home runs, and batted in one hundred and twenty-five runs! Joe had just begun.
Joe successfully ran-up a fifty-six game batting streak in 1941. This incredible feat earned him the nickname "Joltin' Joe." He was also nicknamed the "Yankee Clipper" in honor of his fielding ability. The same year, the Associated Press honored the baseball star by giving him the Athlete of the Year Award.
Within Joe DiMaggio's first four years with the Yankees, the team won consecutive American League pennants and World Series Championships. On top of those feats, Joe's other incredible feats earned him many honors and awards. He was honored as the American League's Most Valuable Player not just once, but three times, in 1939, in 1941, and in 1947.
In Joe's private life he married Dorothy Arnold in 1939, and had a son named Joe Junior. The marriage became rocky and ended in divorce in 1944.
In his professional life, everything was going well until the year 1951. Joe DiMaggio played the worst season of his baseball career. Due to health problems, he only played in one hundred and sixteen games, and hit a total of twelve home runs. That same year, at thirty-seven years old, Joe DiMaggio called it quits by announcing his retirement from baseball. With all of the wins Joe had led them through, the management of Yankees offered him the astounding sum of one hundred thousand dollars to play one more season. However, Joe DiMaggio knew he was done, and refused their offer.
Joe DiMaggio ended his baseball career with an amazing three hundred and sixty-one home runs. This record was made during one thousand, seven hundred, and thirty-six games. He had three hundred and sixty-nine career strikeouts, which helped the New York Yankees earn ten American League Pennants, and nine World Series Championships.
After his retirement, Joe DiMaggio stayed in the public eye doing television commercials, like "Mr. Coffee." He also aided in broadcasting baseball games, and working as a trainer for the New York Yankees. He also married famed actress Marilyn Monroe in 1954, but, the couple divorced after just nine months of marriage.
The next year, in 1955, Joe DiMaggio was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and later, in 1986, received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor for his outstanding achievements during his baseball career.
After the Great Depression and World War II, America needed a hero to restore the human spirit. Joe DiMaggio fit the image. He was referred to as being the "Greatest American Icon" and "The Last American Hero." Joe had a reputation as an impeccable man who gave his best to everything in life, especially baseball.
In the 1960's, singer and songwriter Paul Simon wrote this lyric in the song Mrs. Robinson, "where have you gone Joe DiMaggio, our nation turns its lonely eyes to you?" This song reflects the search for a happier way of life, the days of old when a shy boy from California simply did what he loved best, and was embraced and loved by the world because of it.
Joe DiMaggio died at his Florida home on March 8, 1999, following a battle with lung cancer.
