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Joe DiMaggio 1914 - 1999

Joe DiMaggio of Hollywood, Broward County, FL was born on November 25, 1914 in Martinez, CA to Rosalie (Mercurio) DiMaggio and Joseph DiMaggio. Joe DiMaggio had siblings Dominic DiMaggio, Vincent Paul DiMaggio, Nellie (DiMaggio) Hellquist, Mamie Scrivani (DiMaggio) Jacobsen, Thomas Arnold DiMaggio, Marie Agnes DiMaggio, Michael Frank DiMaggio, and Frances Agnes (DiMaggio) Petromilli. He married Dorothy Arnoldine Olson on November 19, 1939 and they later divorced on May 12, 1944. They had a child Joseph Paul DiMaggio III. He also married Marilyn Monroe on January 14, 1954 and they later divorced on October 31, 1955. Joe DiMaggio died at age 84 years old on March 8, 1999 in Hollywood, Florida United States, and was buried on March 12, 1999 at Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery 1500 Mission Rd, in Colma, San Mateo County, CA.

Joe DiMaggio
Joseph DiMaggio
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Hollywood, Broward County, FL 33021
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November 25, 1914
Martinez, CA
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March 8, 1999
Hollywood, Broward County, Florida, United States
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Joe DiMaggio's History: 1914 - 1999

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  • Introduction

    Joe DiMaggio Center fielder. Born: November 25, 1914. Martinez, California Died: March 8, 1999 (aged 84) Hollywood, Florida. Batted: Right. Threw: Right. MLB debut May 3, 1936, for the New York Yankees. Last MLB appearance: September 30, 1951, for the New York Yankees. MLB statistics Batting average .325 Hits 2,214 Home runs 361 Runs batted in 1,537 Teams New York Yankees (1936–1942, 1946–1951) Career highlights and awards 13× All-Star (1936–1942, 1946–1951) 9× World Series champion (1936–1939, 1941, 1947, 1949–1951) 3× AL MVP (1939, 1941, 1947) 2× AL batting champion (1939, 1940) 2× AL home run leader (1937, 1948) 2× AL RBI leader (1941, 1948) MLB record 56-game hitting streak New York Yankees No. 5 retired Monument Park honoree Major League Baseball All-Century Team Member of the National Induction 1955 Joseph Paul DiMaggio[a] (November 25, 1914 – March 8, 1999), nicknamed "Joltin' Joe" and "The Yankee Clipper", was an American baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career in Major League Baseball for the New York Yankees. Born to Italian immigrants in California, he is widely considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time, and is perhaps best known for his 56-game hitting streak (May 15–July 16, 1941), a record that still stands.[1] DiMaggio was a three-time Most Valuable Player Award winner and an All-Star in each of his 13 seasons. During his tenure with the Yankees, the club won ten American League pennants and nine World Series championships. His nine career World Series rings is second only to fellow Yankee Yogi Berra, who won ten. At the time of his retirement after the 1951 season, he ranked fifth in career home runs (361) and sixth in career slugging percentage (.579). He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955 and was voted the sport's greatest living player in a poll taken during the baseball's centennial year of 1969.[2] His brothers Vince (1912–1986) and Dom (1917–2009) also were major league center fielders. DiMaggio is widely known for his marriage and lifelong devotion to Marilyn Monroe. Early life Joseph Paul DiMaggio was born on November 25, 1914, in Martinez, California,[3] the sixth of seven children born to Italian immigrants Giuseppe (1872–1949) and Rosalia (née Lucido; 1878–1951) DiMaggio, from Isola delle Femmine, Sicily. He was named Paolo after his father Giuseppe's favorite saint, Saint Paul. Giuseppe was a fisherman, as were generations of DiMaggios before him. According to statements from Joe's brother Tom to biographer Maury Allen, Rosalia's father wrote to her with the advice that Giuseppe could earn a better living in California than in their native Isola delle Femmine, a northwestern Sicilian village in the province of Palermo. After being processed on Ellis Island, Giuseppe worked his way across America, eventually settling near Rosalia's father in Pittsburg, California, on the east side of the San Francisco Bay Area. After four years, he earned enough money to send to Italy for Rosalia and their daughter, who was born after he had left for the United States. Giuseppe hoped that his five sons would become fishermen. DiMaggio recalled that he would do anything to get out of cleaning his father's boat, as the smell of dead fish nauseated him. Giuseppe called him "lazy" and "good-for-nothing." DiMaggio did not finish his education at Galileo High School and instead worked odd jobs including hawking newspapers, stacking boxes at a warehouse and working at an orange juice plant. DiMaggio was playing semi-pro ball when older brother Vince, playing for the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League (PCL), talked his manager into letting DiMaggio fill in at shortstop. Joe DiMaggio made his professional debut on October 1, 1932. From May 27 to July 25, 1933, he hit safely in 61 consecutive games, a PCL-record,[6] and second-longest in all of Minor League Baseball history. "Baseball didn't really get into my blood until I knocked off that hitting streak," he said. "Getting a daily hit became more important to me than eating, drinking or sleeping." In 1934 DiMaggio suffered a career-threatening knee injury when he tore ligaments while stepping out of a jitney. Scout Bill Essick of the New York Yankees, convinced that the injury would heal, pestered his club to give him another look. After DiMaggio passed a physical examination in November, the Yankees purchased his contract for $50,000 and five players. He remained with the Seals for the 1935 season and batted .398 with 154 runs batted in (RBIs) and 34 home runs. His team won the 1935 PCL title, and DiMaggio was named the league's Most Valuable Player. Major league career Seven of the American League's 1937 All-Star players: Lou Gehrig, Joe Cronin, Bill Dickey, Joe DiMaggio, Charlie Gehringer, Jimmie Foxx, and Hank Greenberg. All seven were inducted into the Hall of Fame. DiMaggio made his major league debut on May 3, 1936, batting ahead of Lou Gehrig in the lineup. The Yankees had not been to the World Series since 1932, but they won the next four Fall Classics. Over the course of his 13-year Major League career, DiMaggio led the Yankees to nine World Series championships, where he trails only Yogi Berra (10) in that category. DiMaggio set a franchise record for rookies in 1936 by hitting 29 home runs. DiMaggio accomplished the feat in 138 games. His record stood for over 80 years until it was shattered by Aaron Judge, who tallied 52 homers in 2017. In 1939 DiMaggio was nicknamed the "Yankee Clipper" by Yankee's stadium announcer Arch McDonald, when he likened DiMaggio's speed and range in the outfield to the then-new Pan American airliner.
  • 11/25
    1914

    Birthday

    November 25, 1914
    Birthdate
    Martinez, CA
    Birthplace
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  • Ethnicity & Family History

    Italian from Palermo.

  • Nationality & Locations

    California and New York.

  • Early Life & Education

    Quit High School to go to work.

  • Religious Beliefs

    Yes. A Catholic. buried in Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery. Colma, San Mateo County, California, USA

  • Professional Career

    In the September 1949 issue of SPORT, Hank Greenberg said that DiMaggio covered so much ground in center field that the only way to get a hit against the Yankees was "to hit 'em where Joe wasn't." DiMaggio also stole home five times in his career. On February 7, 1949, DiMaggio signed a contract worth $100,000 ($1,070,000 in current dollar terms) ($70,000 plus bonuses), and became the first baseball player to break $100,000 in earnings. By 1950, he was ranked the second-best center fielder by the Sporting News, after Larry Doby. After a poor 1951 season, various injuries, and a scouting report by the Brooklyn Dodgers that was turned over to the New York Giants and leaked to the press, DiMaggio announced his retirement at age 37 on December 11, 1951. DiMaggio kissed his bat in 1941, the year he hit safely in 56 consecutive games. His wife Dorothy Arnold was pregnant with their son Joe Jr. while the streak was in progress. A Yankee Stadium crowd of 52,832 fans watched DiMaggio tie the all-time hitting streak record (44 games, Wee Willie Keeler in 1897) on July 1. The next day against the Boston Red Sox, he homered into Yankee Stadium's left field stands to extend his streak to 45, setting a new record. DiMaggio recorded 67 hits in 179 at-bats during the first 45 games of his streak, while Keeler recorded 88 hits in 201 at-bats. DiMaggio continued hitting after breaking Keeler's record, reaching 50 straight games on July 11 against the St. Louis Browns. On July 17 at Cleveland's Municipal Stadium, DiMaggio's streak was finally snapped at 56 games, thanks in part to two backhand stops by Indians third baseman Ken Keltner. DiMaggio batted .408 during the streak with 15 home runs and 55 RBI. The day after the streak ended, DiMaggio started another streak that lasted 16 games. The distinction of hitting safely in 72 of 73 games is worthy of mention. The closest anyone has come to equaling DiMaggio is Pete Rose, who hit safely in 44 straight games in 1978. During the streak, DiMaggio played in seven doubleheaders. The Yankees' record during the streak was 41–13–2. DiMaggio's streak is the most extraordinary thing that ever happened in American sports.One of the most famous baseball players in history. I met him in the late 1950's. He was friendly and gave me his autograph which I gave to a teenage boy baseball fanatic in the 1960's along with Mickey Mantle's and Hank Aaron's autographs. He had to keep from fainting!

  • Personal Life & Family

    THE NEW YORK YANKEES. Some consider DiMaggio's streak a uniquely outstanding and unbreakable record and a statistical near-impossibility. Nobel Prize-winning physicist and sabermetrician Edward Mills Purcell calculated that, to have the likelihood of a hitting streak of 50 games occurring in the history of baseball up to the late 1980s be greater than 50%, fifty-two .350 lifetime hitters would have to have existed instead of the actual three (Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, and Shoeless Joe Jackson). His Harvard colleague Stephen Jay Gould, citing Purcell's work, called DiMaggio's 56-game achievement "the most extraordinary thing that ever happened in American sports". Samuel Arbesman and Steven Strogatz of Cornell University disagree. They conducted 10,000 computer simulations of Major League Baseball from 1871 to 2005, 42% of which produced streaks as long or longer, with record streaks ranging from 39 to 109 games and typical record streaks between 50 and 64 games. World War II DiMaggio enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces on February 17, 1943, rising to the rank of sergeant. He was stationed at Santa Ana, California, Hawaii, and Atlantic City, New Jersey, as a physical education instructor.[37] He was released on a medical discharge in September 1945, due to chronic stomach ulcers.[38] Other than being paid $21 a month, DiMaggio's service was as comfortable as a soldier's life could be. He spent most of his military career playing for baseball teams and in exhibition games against fellow Major Leaguers and minor league players, and superiors gave him special privileges due to his prewar fame. DiMaggio ate so well from an athlete-only diet that he gained 10 pounds, and while in Hawaii he and other players mostly tanned on the beach and drank. Embarrassed by his lifestyle, DiMaggio requested that he be given a combat assignment but was turned down. Parents as "enemy aliens" Giuseppe and Rosalia DiMaggio, both from Isola delle Femmine, were among the thousands of German, Japanese, and Italian immigrants classified as "enemy aliens" by the government after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Each was required to carry photo ID booklets at all times and were not allowed to travel outside a five-mile radius from their home without a permit. Giuseppe was barred from San Francisco Bay, where he had fished for decades, and his boat was seized. Rosalia became an American citizen in 1944, followed by Giuseppe in 1945. Marriages Dorothy Arnold In January 1937, DiMaggio met actress Dorothy Arnold on the set of Manhattan Merry-Go-Round, in which he had a minor role, and she was an extra. They married at San Francisco's St. Peter and Paul Church on November 19, 1939, as 20,000 well-wishers jammed the streets. Their son, Joseph Paul DiMaggio, Jr. (1941–1999), was born at Doctors Hospital in Staten Island.[39] The couple divorced in 1944, while he was on leave from the Yankees during World War II. Marilyn Monroe Monroe and DiMaggio when they were married in January 1954 According to her autobiography My Story, ghostwritten by Ben Hecht,[40] Marilyn Monroe originally did not want to meet DiMaggio, fearing that he was a stereotypical arrogant athlete. They eloped at San Francisco City Hall on January 14, 1954. Although she suffered from endometriosis,[41] Monroe and DiMaggio each expressed to reporters their desire to start a family. A violent fight between the couple occurred immediately after the skirt-blowing scene in The Seven Year Itch that was filmed on September 14, 1954, in front of Manhattan's Trans-Lux 52nd Street Theater.[42] Then 20th Century Fox's East Coast correspondent Bill Kobrin told the Palm Springs Desert Sun that it was director Billy Wilder's idea to turn the shoot into a media circus. The couple then had a "yelling battle" in the theater lobby.[43] A month later, she contracted the services of celebrity attorney Jerry Giesler and filed for divorce on grounds of mental cruelty nine months after the wedding.[citation needed] After the failure of their marriage, DiMaggio underwent therapy, stopped drinking alcohol, and expanded his interests beyond baseball; he and Monroe read poetry together in their later years. On August 1, 1956, an International News wire photo of DiMaggio with Lee Meriwether gave rise to speculation that the couple were engaged, but Cramer wrote that it was a rumor started by Walter Winchell. Monroe biographer Donald Spoto claimed that DiMaggio was "very close to marrying" 1957 Miss America Marian McKnight, who won the crown with a Marilyn Monroe act, but McKnight denied it.[45] He was also linked to Liz Renay, Cleo Moore, Rita Gam, Marlene Dietrich, and Gloria DeHaven during this period and to Elizabeth Ray and Morgan Fairchild years later, but he never publicly confirmed any involvement with any woman. DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe staying at Imperial Hotel in Tokyo on their honeymoon DiMaggio reentered Monroe's life as her marriage to Arthur Miller was ending. On February 10, 1961, he secured her release from Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic in Manhattan. She joined him in Florida where he was a batting coach for the Yankees. Their "just friends" claim did not stop remarriage rumors from flying. Reporters staked out her Manhattan apartment building. Bob Hope "dedicated" Best Song nominee "The Second Time Around" to them at the 33rd Academy Awards. According to Maury Allen's biography, DiMaggio was alarmed at how Monroe had fallen in with people he felt were detrimental to her well-being. Val Monette, owner of a military post-exchange supply company, told Allen that DiMaggio left his employ on August 1, 1962, because he had decided to ask Monroe to remarry him. She was found dead in her Brentwood, Los Angeles, home on August 5 after housekeeper Eunice Murray telephoned Monroe's psychiatrist, Dr. Ralph Greenson. DiMaggio's son had spoken to Monroe on the phone the night of her death and said that she seemed fine. Her death was deemed a probable suicide by "Coroner to the Stars" Thomas Noguchi. It has also been the subject of conspiracy theories. Devastated, DiMaggio claimed her body and arranged for her funeral at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery; he barred Hollywood's elite as well as members of the Kennedy family, including then-U.S. President John F. Kennedy, from attending. He had a half-dozen red roses delivered three times a week to her crypt for 20 years. He refused to talk about her publicly or otherwise exploit their relationship. He never married again. According to DiMaggio's attorney Morris Engelberg, DiMaggio's last words were: "I'll finally get to see Marilyn." However, Joe's brother Dominic challenged both Engelberg's version of Joe's final moments as well as his motives.
  • 03/8
    1999

    Death

    March 8, 1999
    Death date
    Lung cancer from smoking.
    Cause of death
    Hollywood, Broward County, Florida United States
    Death location
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  • 03/12
    1999

    Gravesite & Burial

    March 12, 1999
    Funeral date
    Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery 1500 Mission Rd, in Colma, San Mateo County, California 94014, United States
    Burial location

  • Obituary

    Joe DiMaggio, Yankee Clipper, Dies at 84. By Joseph Durso. March 9, 1999. Joe DiMaggio, the flawless center fielder for the New York Yankees who, along with Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle, symbolized the team's dynastic success across the 20th century and whose 56-game hitting streak in 1941 made him an instant and indelible American folk hero, died early today at his home here. He was 84 years old. DiMaggio died shortly after midnight, nearly five months after undergoing surgery for cancer of the lungs. He had spent 99 days in the hospital while battling lung infections and pneumonia, and his illness generated a national vigil as he was reported near death several times. He went home on Jan. 19, alert but weak and with little hope of surviving. Several family members and close friends were at his bedside this morning. DiMaggio's body was flown to Northern California for a funeral Thursday and for burial in San Francisco, his hometown. In a country that has idolized and even immortalized its 20th century heroes, from Charles A. Lindbergh to Elvis Presley, no one more embodied the American dream of fame and fortune or created a more enduring legend than Joe DiMaggio. He became a figure of unequaled romance and integrity in the national mind because of his consistent professionalism on the baseball field, his marriage to the Hollywood star Marilyn Monroe, his devotion to her after her death, and the pride and courtliness with which he carried himself throughout his life. DiMaggio burst onto the baseball scene from San Francisco in the 1930's and grew into the game's most gallant and graceful center fielder. He wore No. 5 and became the successor to Babe Ruth (No. 3) and Lou Gehrig (No. 4) in the Yankees' pantheon. DiMaggio was the team's superstar for 13 seasons, beginning in 1936 and ending in 1951, and appeared in 11 All-Star Games and 10 World Series. He was, as the writer Roy Blount Jr. once observed, ''the class of the Yankees in times when the Yankees outclassed everybody else.'' He was called the Yankee Clipper and was acclaimed at baseball's centennial in 1969 as ''the greatest living ballplayer,'' the man who in 1,736 games with the Yankees had a career batting average of .325 and hit 361 home runs while striking out only 369 times, one of baseball's most amazing statistics. (By way of comparison, Mickey Mantle had 536 homers and struck out 1,710 times; Reggie Jackson slugged 563 homers and struck out 2,597 times.) But DiMaggio's game was so complete and elegant that it transcended statistics; as The New York Times said in an editorial when he retired, ''The combination of proficiency and exquisite grace which Joe DiMaggio brought to the art of playing center field was something no baseball averages can measure and that must be seen to be believed and appreciated.'' DiMaggio glided across the vast expanse of center field at Yankee Stadium with such incomparable grace that long after he stopped playing, the memory of him in full stride remains evergreen. He disdained theatrical flourishes and exaggerated moves, never climbing walls to make catches and rarely diving headlong. He got to the ball just as it fell into his glove, making the catch seem inevitable, almost preordained. The writer Wilfrid Sheed wrote, ''In dreams I can still see him gliding after fly balls as if he were skimming the surface of the moon.'' His batting stance was as graceful as his outfield stride. He stood flat-footed at the plate with his feet spread well apart, his bat held still just off his right shoulder. When he swung, his left, or front, foot moved only slightly forward. His swing was pure and flowing with an incredible follow-through. Casey Stengel, the Yankee manager for DiMaggio's last three seasons, said, ''He made the rest of them look like plumbers.'' At his peak, he was serenaded as ''Joltin' Joe DiMaggio'' by Les Brown and saluted as ''the great DiMaggio'' by Ernest Hemingway in ''The Old Man and the Sea.'' He was mentioned in dozens of films and Broadway shows; the sailors in ''South Pacific'' sing that Bloody Mary's skin is ''tender as DiMaggio's glove.'' Years later, he was remembered by Paul Simon, who wondered with everybody else: ''Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.'' Sensitive to anything written, spoken or sung about him, he confessed that he was puzzled by Simon's lyrics and sought an answer when he met Simon in a restaurant in New York. ''I asked Paul what the song meant, whether it was derogatory,'' DiMaggio recalled. ''He explained it to me.'' When injuries eroded his skills and he could no longer perform to his own standard, he turned his back on his $100,000 salary -- he and his rival Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox then drew the largest paychecks in sports -- and retired in 1951 with the dignity that remained his hallmark. His stormy marriage to Marilyn Monroe lasted less than a year, but they remained one of America's ultimate romantic fantasies: the tall, dark and handsome baseball hero wooing and winning the woman who epitomized Hollywood beauty, glamour and sexuality. He was private and remote. Even Monroe, at their divorce proceedings, said he was given to black moods and would tell her, ''Leave me alone.'' He once said, with disdain, that he kept track of all the books written about his storied life without his consent, and by the late 1990's knew that the count had passed 33. Yet he could be proud, reclusive and vain in such a composed, almost studied way that his reclusiveness contributed to his mystique. In the book ''Summer of '49,'' David Halberstam wrote that DiMaggio ''guards his special status carefully, wary of doing anything that might tarnish his special reputation. He tends to avoid all those who might define him in some way other than the way he defined himself on the field.'' Quietly Doing It All For 13 Seasons DiMaggio joined the Yankees in 1936, missed three years while he served in the Army Air Forces in World War II, then returned and played through the 1951 season, when Mickey Mantle arrived to open yet another era in the remarkable run of Yankee success. In his 13 seasons, DiMaggio went to bat 6,821 times, got 2,214 hits, knocked in 1,537 runs, amassed 3,948 total bases and reached base just under 40 percent of the time. For decades, baseball fans argued over who was the better pure hitter, DiMaggio or Williams. Long after both had retired, Williams said: ''In my heart, I always felt I was a better hitter than Joe. But I have to say, he was the greatest baseball player of our time. He could do it all.'' And he did it all with a sureness and coolness that seemed to imply an utter lack of emotion. DiMaggio was once asked why he did not vent his frustrations on the field by kicking a bag or tossing a bat. The outfielder, who chain-smoked cigarettes and had suffered from ulcers, replied: ''I can't. It wouldn't look right.'' But he betrayed his sensitivity in a memorable gesture of annoyance in the sixth game of the 1947 World Series after his long drive was run down and caught in front of the 415-foot sign in left-center field at Yankee Stadium by Al Gionfriddo of the Brooklyn Dodgers. As DiMaggio rounded first base, he saw Gionfriddo make the catch and, with his head down, kicked the dirt. The angry gesture was so shocking that it made headlines. In the field, DiMaggio ran down long drives with a gliding stride and deep range. In 1947, he tied what was then the American League fielding record for outfielders by making only one error in 141 games. He also had one of the most powerful and precise throwing arms in the business and was credited with 153 assists in his 13 seasons. His longtime manager, Joe McCarthy, once touched on another DiMaggio skill. ''He was the best base runner I ever saw,'' McCarthy said. ''He could have stolen 50, 60 bases a year if I let him. He wasn't the fastest man alive. He just knew how to run bases better than anybody.'' Three times DiMaggio was voted his league's most valuable player: in 1939, 1941 and 1947. In 1941, the magical season of his 56-game hitting streak, he won the award even though Williams batted .406. In each of his first four seasons with the Yankees, DiMaggio played in the World Series, and the Yankees won all four. He appeared in the Series 10 times in 13 seasons over all, and nine times the Yankees won. And although he failed to get enough votes to make the baseball Hall of Fame when he became eligible in 1953, perhaps because his aloofness had alienated some of the writers who did the voting, he sailed into Cooperstown two years later. Whitey Ford was a rookie pitcher in 1950 when he first saw DiMaggio, and he later remembered, ''I just stared at the man for about a week.'' Baseball Blood In a Fisherman's Family Joseph Paul DiMaggio was born on Nov. 25, 1914, in Martinez, Calif., a small fishing village 25 miles northeast of the Golden Gate. He was the fourth son and the eighth of nine children born to Giuseppe Paolo and Rosalie DiMaggio, who had immigrated to America in 1898 from Sicily. His father was a fisherman who moved his family to North Beach, the heavily Italian section near the San Francisco waterfront, the year Joe was born. The two oldest sons, Tom and Michael, joined their father as fishermen; Michael later fell off a boat and drowned. But the three other sons became major league outfielders by way of the sandlots of San Francisco. Vince, four years older than Joe, played 10 seasons with five teams and led the National League in strikeouts six times. Dominic, three years younger than Joe, was known as the Little Professor because he wore eyeglasses when he played 11 seasons with the Boston Red Sox, hitting .298 for his career. Of the three, Joe was the natural. He started as a shortstop in the Boys Club League when he was 14, dropped out of Galileo High School after one year and joined Vince on the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League, the highest level of minor league baseball. It was 1932, and Joe was still 17 years old. The next year, in his first full season with the Seals, he hit .340 with 28 home runs and knocked in 169 runs in 187 games. He also hit safely in 61 games in a row, eight years before he made history in the big leagues by hitting in 56. He tore up the league during the next two seasons, hitting .341 and .398. But he injured his left knee stepping out of a cab while hurrying to dinner at his sister's house after a Sunday doubleheader and was considered damaged goods by most of the teams in the big leagues. He got his chance at the majors because two scouts, Joe Devine and Bill Essick, persisted in recommending him to the Yankees. The general manager, Ed Barrow, talked it over with his colleagues. And for $25,000 plus five players, the Yankees bought him from the Seals. DiMaggio was left in San Francisco for the 1935 season to heal his knee and put the finishing touches on his game, then was brought up to New York in 1936 to join a talented team that included Lou Gehrig, Bill Dickey, Tony Lazzeri, Red Rolfe, Red Ruffing and Lefty Gomez. It was two years after Babe Ruth had left, and an era of success had ended. But now, the rookie from California was arriving with a contract for $8,500, and a new era was beginning. It was delayed because of a foot injury, but DiMaggio made his debut on May 3 against the St. Louis Browns. He went on to play 138 games, got 206 hits with 29 home runs, batted .323 and drove in 125 runs. In the fall, the Yankees made the first of four straight trips to the World Series -- they would go on to play in 22 out of 29 Series through 1964 -- and the rookie hit .346 against the Giants and made a spectacular catch in deepest center field in the Polo Grounds before a marveling crowd of 43,543, including President Franklin D. Roosevelt. DiMaggio's luster was sometimes dimmed by salary disputes. In 1937 he hit .346 with 46 home runs and 167 r.b.i. and the following year he held out for $40,000, but was forced to sign for $25,000. DiMaggio's holdout lasted a couple of weeks into the season; when he returned, he was booed. When he began the 1941 season, he had missed four of his first five openers because of injury or salary fights, and many fans resented it. ''He got hurt early in his career, more than he ever let on,'' Phil Rizzuto once said. He also had to endure the casual bigotry that existed when he first came up. Life magazine, in a 1939 article intending to compliment him, said: ''Although he learned Italian first, Joe, now 24, speaks English without an accent, and is otherwise well adapted to most U.S. mores. Instead of olive oil or smelly bear grease he keeps his hair slick with water. He never reeks of garlic and prefers chicken chow mein to spaghetti.'' But he energized the fans by leading the league in hitting in 1939 (at .381) and again in 1940 (.352). Then in 1941, he put together what has since been known simply as the Streak, and fashioned perhaps the most enduring record in sports. Streaks were nothing new to DiMaggio. He had hit in those 61 straight games for the Seals, in 18 straight as a rookie with the Yankees, in 22 straight the next year and in 23 straight the year after that. In fact, in 1941, he hit safely in the last 19 games in spring training, and he kept hitting for eight more games after the regular season opened. The Streak began on May 15, 1941, with a single in four times at bat against the Chicago White Sox. The next day, he hit a triple and a home run. Two weeks later, he had a swollen neck but still hit three singles and a home run in Washington. The next week against the St. Louis Browns, he went 3 for 5 in one game, then 4 for 8 in a doubleheader the next day with a double and three home runs. His streak stood at 24. On June 17, he broke the Yankees' club record of 29 games. On June 26, he was hitless with two out in the eighth inning against the Browns, but he doubled, and his streak reached 38. On June 29, in a doubleheader against Washington, DiMaggio lined a double in the first game to tie George Sisler's modern major league record of hitting in 41 straight games and then broke Sisler's record in the second game by lining a single. On July 1, with a clean single against the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium, he matched Willie Keeler's major league record of 44 games, set in 1897 when foul balls did not count as strikes. The next day he broke it with a three-run homer. As DiMaggio kept hitting safely, radio announcers kept an excited America informed, Bojangles Robinson danced on the Yankee dugout roof at the Stadium for good luck, and Les Brown recorded ''Joltin' Joe DiMaggio . . . we want you on our side.'' The Streak Ends, But Not the Heroics The Streak finally ended on the steamy night of July 17 in Cleveland, before 67,468 fans at Municipal Stadium. The Cleveland pitchers were Al Smith and Jim Bagby Jr., but the stopper was the Indians' third baseman, Ken Keltner, who made two dazzling backhand plays deep behind third base to rob DiMaggio of hits. It is sometimes overlooked that DiMaggio was intentionally walked in the fourth inning of that game, and that he promptly started a 16-game streak the next day. In 56 games, DiMaggio had gone to bat 223 times and delivered 91 hits for a .408 average, including 15 home runs. He drew 21 walks, twice was hit by pitched balls, scored 56 runs and knocked in 55. He hit in every game for two months, and struck out just seven times. The Yankees, fourth in the American League when the streak began, were six games in front when it ended, and won the pennant by 17. DiMaggio was passing milestones in his personal life, too. In 1939, he married an actress, Dorothy Arnold. In October 1941, his only child, Joseph Jr., was born. In addition to his son, he is survived by his brother Dominic; two granddaughters, Paula and Cathy; and four great-grandchildren. On Dec. 3, 1942, DiMaggio enlisted in the Army Air Forces and spent the next three years teaching baseball in the service. Along with other baseball stars like Bob Feller and Williams, he resumed his career as soon as the war ended, returning to the Yankees for the 1946 season and a year later leading them back into the World Series. His most dramatic moments came in the season of 1949, after he was sidelined by bone spurs on his right heel and did not play until June 26. Then he flew to Boston to join the team in Fenway Park, hit a single and home run the first two times he went to bat, hit two more home runs the next day and another the day after that. The Yankees entered the final two days of that season trailing the Red Sox by one game. They had to sweep two games in Yankee Stadium to win the pennant, and they did. There were poignant moments before the first game when 69,551 fans rocked the stadium and cheered their hero, who was being honored with a Joe DiMaggio Day. He was almost too weak to play because of a severe viral infection, but he did, and he hit a single and double before removing himself from center field on wobbly legs. After the Yankees won yet another World Series in 1951, he retired and eased into a second career as Joe DiMaggio, legend. It included cameo roles as a broadcaster, a spring training instructor with the Yankees and a coach with the Oakland Athletics, appearances at old-timers' games, where he was invariably the last player introduced, and a larger role, with surprising impact, as a mellow and credible pitchman on television commercials. He had long since created an image of a loner both on and off the playing field, particularly in the 1930's and 1940's when he lived in hotels in Manhattan and was considered something of a man about town. He once was characterized by a teammate as the man ''who led the league in room service.'' But he spent many evenings at Toots Shor's restaurant in Manhattan, where he hid out at a private table far in the back while Shor protected him from his public. But his legend took a storybook turn in 1952, the year after he retired from the Yankees, when DiMaggio, whose marriage to Dorothy Arnold had ended in divorce in 1944, arranged a dinner date with Marilyn Monroe in California. They were married in San Francisco on Jan. 14, 1954, and spent nine months trying to reconcile their differences before they divorced in October. DiMaggio always seemed tortured by Monroe's sex goddess image. He protested loudly during the making of Billy Wilder's ''The Seven Year Itch'' when the script called for her to cool herself over a subway grate while a sudden wind blew her skirt up high. But when the actress seemed on the verge of an emotional collapse in 1961, DiMaggio took her to the Yankees' training camp in Florida for rest and support. And when she died of an overdose of barbiturates at age 36 on Aug. 4, 1962, he took charge of her funeral, and for the next 20 years he sent roses three times a week to her crypt in the Westwood section of Los Angeles. Finally at Ease In the Spotlight When DiMaggio made an unexpected and dramatic return to the public scene in the 1970's as a television spokesman for the Bowery Savings Bank of New York and for Mr. Coffee, a manufacturer of coffee makers, he did it with remarkable ease for a man who had been obsessed with privacy, who had once confided that he always had ''a knot'' in his stomach because he was so shy and tense. Gone was the stage fright that had rattled him during earlier sorties into broadcasting. Instead, he was the epitome of credibility, the graying and trustworthy hero who had hit his home runs and was now returning to extol the virtues of saving money and brewing coffee. He soon became a familiar and comforting presence for a generation of baseball fans who never saw him play. For some years, he lived in San Francisco with his widowed sister Marie in a house in the Marina District that he had bought for his parents in 1939 and that he and his sister had shared with Marilyn Monroe. When the damp San Francisco climate troubled the arthritis in his back, he began to spend most of his time in Florida, where he established his home. He played golf and made selected excursions to Europe and the Far East, where the demand for his appearance and his autograph returned high dividends. But he seemed to take the most pleasure in establishing a children's wing, called the Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital, at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Fla. And he seemed to relish the invitations back to Yankee Stadium, where he frequently threw out the first ball on opening day, tall but slightly stooped, dressed elegantly, as always, in a dark business suit, walking to the mound and lobbing one to the catcher. It was there on the day the season ended last year, as the Yankees set a team record with their 114th victory, that he was acclaimed on yet another Joe DiMaggio Day, the timeless hero and the symbol of Yankee excellence, acknowledging the cheers of Yankee players and fans. It was the kind of cheering that accompanied him through life and that he had quietly come to expect. It recalled the time when he and Monroe, soon after their wedding, took a trip to Tokyo. She continued on to entertain American troops in Korea, and said with fascination when she returned, ''Joe, you've never heard such cheering.'' And Joe DiMaggio replied softly, ''Yes, I have.''
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12 Memories, Stories & Photos about Joe

Joe DiMaggio
Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
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05/16/2020
Joe DiMaggio
This is a photo of Joe DiMaggio added by Amanda S. Stevenson on May 16, 2020.
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Joe's Grave.
Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
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12/19/2022
Joe's Grave.
22 years later and people put flowers on his grave.
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Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
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12/19/2022
I met walking down the street in Manhattan by himself.
I only met Joe DiMaggio once but it was nice because he was by himself and I had my autograph book with me.
He was very sweet and pleasant and soft spoken. I gave him this big tribute on ancientfaces. I WAS THE FIRST!
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Mickey C Mantle
Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
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05/19/2020
Mickey C Mantle
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Joe DiMaggio
Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
17.8k+ favorites
05/16/2020
Joe DiMaggio
This is a photo of Joe DiMaggio added by Amanda S. Stevenson on May 16, 2020.
Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.
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Joe DiMaggio
Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
17.8k+ favorites
05/16/2020
Joe DiMaggio
This is a photo of Joe DiMaggio added by Amanda S. Stevenson on May 16, 2020.
Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.
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Joe DiMaggio
Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
17.8k+ favorites
05/16/2020
Joe DiMaggio
This is a photo of Joe DiMaggio added by Amanda S. Stevenson on May 16, 2020.
Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.
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Joe DiMaggio
Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
17.8k+ favorites
05/16/2020
Joe DiMaggio
This is a photo of Joe DiMaggio added by Amanda S. Stevenson on May 16, 2020.
Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.
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Joe DiMaggio
Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
17.8k+ favorites
05/16/2020
Joe DiMaggio
This is a photo of Joe DiMaggio added by Amanda S. Stevenson on May 16, 2020.
Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.
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Joe DiMaggio
Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
17.8k+ favorites
05/16/2020
Joe DiMaggio
This is a photo of Joe DiMaggio added by Amanda S. Stevenson on May 16, 2020.
Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.
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Other Biographies

Other Joe Dimaggio Biographies

Dimaggio, Joe (Nov 28, 1904 - Jul 1972) Dimaggio, Joe (Nov 25, 1912 - Mar 7, 1994) Dimaggio, Joe (Dec 31, 1906 - Jul 1979) Dimaggio, Joe (Jul 19, 1916 - Feb 1982) Dimaggio, Joe (Jan 1, 1925 - Aug 15, 1996)
Dimaggio, Joe (Nov 29, 1919 - May 18, 1990) Dimaggio, Joe (Jul 1897 - Sep 1980) Dimaggio, Joe (Nov 4, 1896 - Nov 1972) Dimaggio, Joe (Nov 15, 1916 - Aug 11, 2003) Dimaggio, Joe (Jan 25, 1924 - Mar 1, 1991)

Other DiMaggio Family Biographies

Dimaggio, Carmen (Apr 12, 1928 - May 29, 2002) Dimaggio, Leo (Mar 21, 1902 - Jun 1965) Dimaggio, Pasquale (Aug 12, 1885 - Mar 1966) Dimaggio, John (Mar 21, 1902 - Jun 1980) Dimaggio, Carl (Feb 5, 1922 - Jun 30, 2002) Dimaggio, Assunta (Feb 1, 1905 - Oct 1985) Dimaggio, Alma (Jun 17, 1911 - Jun 1987) Dimaggio, Domenic (May 9, 1946 - Dec 17, 2004) Dimaggio, Elena (Sep 26, 1897 - May 1986) Dimaggio, Leola (Nov 9, 1923 - Aug 1986)
Dimaggio, Crocefissa (Jan 27, 1911 - May 29, 1998) Dimaggio, Giuseppe (May 1, 1890 - Apr 1967) Dimaggio, Diane (Sep 24, 1953 - May 24, 2010) Dimaggio, Biagio (Sep 15, 1884 - Nov 1963) Dimaggio, Frank (Apr 9, 1913 - Dec 1986) Dimaggio, Ignazio (Dec 12, 1873 - Dec 1965) Dimaggio, Albert (Apr 20, 1934 - Apr 17, 2009) Dimaggio, Frank (Sep 16, 1935 - Jun 9, 2008) Dimaggio, Joseph (Dec 18, 1907 - Aug 1986) Dimaggio, Peter (Sep 27, 1922 - Feb 27, 1996)
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