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==Death==
[[Image:Hcc-colma-dimaggio1.jpg|left|thumb|DiMaggio's grave]]
Following [[lung cancer]] surgery on [[October 14]], [[1998]], DiMaggio fell ill again [[December 11]]. The attack forced his lawyer, Morris Engelberg, to admit that the positive reports he had been feeding to the press were greatly exaggerated. He claimed Joe made him promise not to tell even his family about his condition.


DiMaggio died on [[March 8]], [[1999]]. On [[January 24]], [[NBC]] broadcast a [[List of premature obituaries|premature obituary]]; Engelberg claimed he and DiMaggio were watching TV and saw it. His [[last words]], according to Engelberg, were "I'll finally get to see Marilyn." However, the day after DiMaggio's death, a [[Hospice care|hospice]] worker who cared for him gave a radically different account to ''[[The New York Post]]''.{{Fact|date=February 2008}}

On [[March 11]], [[1999]], DiMaggio's funeral was held at [[St. Peter and Paul Church|Ss. Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church]] in [[San Francisco]], and officiated by lifelong friend and DiMaggio confidant, Armand Oliveri, S.D.B.<ref>http://espn.go.com/sportscentury/features/00014154.html</ref> In his eulogy, [[Dom DiMaggio]] declared that 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 do likewise. In an eerie coincidence, Joe DiMaggio's estranged son, Joe, Jr., died later that same year.

DiMaggio is interred at [[Holy Cross Cemetery, Colma|Holy Cross Cemetery]] in [[Colma, California]].

The equally controversial Engelberg offered dozens of signed bats on Shop At Home, for $3,000 each, weeks before DiMaggio died. In April 1999, he 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 items to a collectibles dealer, including baseballs DiMaggio signed on his deathbed, and offered Joe's personal effects at a [[Sotheby's]] auction.

In 2003, Engelberg broke [[attorney-client privilege]], and published his own book on DiMaggio as a rebuttal to Cramer's. Conversely, Fr. Oliveri politely but firmly refuses interviews or requests to discuss any details of DiMaggio's life.


==In Popular Culture==
==In Popular Culture==

Revision as of 19:32, 9 January 2009

Template:Infobox MLB retired Joseph Paul DiMaggio (born Giuseppe Paolo DiMaggio, Jr. (November 25, 1914 in Martinez, California - March 8, 1999 in Hollywood, Florida) was an American baseball player, and the brother of Vince DiMaggio and Dom DiMaggio.

A member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, DiMaggio was a 3-time MVP winner and 13-time All-Star (the only player to be selected for the All-Star Game in every season he played). At the time of his retirement, he had the fifth-most career home runs (361) and sixth-highest slugging percentage (.579) in history. He is perhaps best known for his 56-game hitting streak (May 15–July 16, 1941), a record which still stands. [1] A 1969 poll conducted to coincide with the centennial of professional baseball voted him the sport's greatest living player.


Wartime

DiMaggio enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces on 17 February 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. He was discharged in September 1945.

Giuseppe and Rosalia DiMaggio were among the thousands of German, Japanese and Italian immigrants classified as "enemy aliens" by the government after Pearl Harbor was attacked. They had to carry photo ID booklets at all times, were not allowed to travel outside a five mile radius from their home without a permit. Giuseppe was barred from the San Francisco Bay, where he had fished for decades, and his boat was seized. Rosalia became an American citizen in 1944; Giuseppe in 1945.

Married life

Dorothy Arnold

File:Dmm.jpg
DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe on their wedding day, 14 January 1954

In January 1937, DiMaggio met actress Dorothy Arnold on the set of Manhattan Merry Go-Round. They married at San Francisco's St. Peter and Paul Church on 19 November 1939 as 20,000 well-wishers jammed the streets.

Even before their son was born, the marriage was in trouble. DiMaggio was like many ballplayers: a high-school dropout whose life revolved around the game. While not the man about town that Babe Ruth was, he had his fun, leaving Dorothy feeling neglected. However, she was an ambitious social climber who took advantage of her status as the wife of baseball's biggest star. DiMaggio biographer Michael Seidel reported that, except on the nights before Lefty Gomez was to pitch, Dorothy and Lefty's wife, former Broadway star June O'Dea, would drag their husbands from one Manhattan nightspot to another. He resented how she complained about his off-the-field activities while she spent his money. But when Dorothy threatened to leave him in 1942, the usually unflappable DiMaggio went into a slump, and developed ulcers. She went to Reno, Nevada in February 1943; he followed her there, and they reconciled. But shortly after he enlisted in the Army and was sent to Hawaii, she filed for divorce.

The relationship continued off and on. Dorothy reportedly promised Joe she would wait for him to return from 1946 training camp, but married another man while he was gone.



In Issue 27 of the comic book 100 Bullets Agent Graves gave Joe DiMaggio a briefcase with 100 untraceable bullets and irrefutable proof that Marilyn Monroe's death was the direct result of her threat to go public with her affair with John F. Kennedy. DiMaggio was the gunman on the "Grassy Knoll", although according to Agent Graves there were a total of four gunman, and even he (Graves) didn't know if it was DiMaggio's shot that had killed Kennedy.

South Pacific

DiMaggio was used by artists as a touchstone in popular culture not only during his career, but decades after he retired. In the South Pacific song, "Bloody Mary" has "skin tender as DiMaggio's glove". Joltin' Joe DiMaggio was recorded during his hitting streak by Les Brown.

Music

DiMaggio meets President Ronald Reagan at the White House, March 1981

In Raymond Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely, Philip Marlowe follows the streak, which Chandler uses as a metaphor for good. A generation later, Simon and Garfunkel used him 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 was very much alive, and had not gone anywhere.[2] However, he changed his mind when he gained a whole new generation of fans from that song.[citation needed] When he died The Times of London observed in its obituary that the lines from "Mrs Robinson" were what DiMaggio would be most remembered for. In their eulogical report on DiMaggio, ESPN SportsCenter quoted the last line of the song: "What's that you say, Mrs. Robinson? Joltin' Joe has left and gone away?" A tributory newspaper comic strip shows DiMaggio standing in front of the Pearly Gates in his Yankees uniform, holding his bat on his shoulder. St. Peter, in foreground, writes in his book: "Memo to Mr. Simon & Mr. Garfunkel: he's here."

He is mentioned in John Fogerty's "Center Field." He and Monroe are mentioned in Jennifer Lopez's "I'm Gonna Be Alright," Madonna's "Vogue," Tori Amos's "Father Lucifer," Sleeper's "Romeo Me," The Lemonheads "Mrs. Robinson" and Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire."

Woody Guthrie wrote "DiMaggio Done It Again" about his performance in a crucial series against the Red Sox in June 1949 when surgery for bone spurs in his right heel kept him out of the Yankees' first 65 games and threatened his career. It is during this period Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea is set, Santiago drawing courage from his hero's ordeal (Guthrie's song was later covered by Wilco for the 2000 album Mermaid Avenue Vol. II).

Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe's relationship is cited in a number of songs. Diesel Boy Song, "She's My Queen." "She is my queen, she's my Marilyn, and I'm her Joe DiMaggio." Man From Delmonte's "Beautiful People": "I can be your Miss Monroe and you can be my Joe DiMaggio and we can do the things beautiful people like to do."

Television

DiMaggio is referenced in the Seinfeld episode "The Note", when Kramer claims to see him in a donut shop (and insists that he dips his donuts in coffee, to the disbelief of his friends). In The Simpsons episode "'Tis The Fifteenth Season", Montgomery Burns gives Homer Simpson a DiMaggio rookie card (Burns sneers: "Apparently, they're allowing ethnics into the big leagues"). In Boobs in the Woods, Daffy Duck gets a befuddled Porky Pig to "Steal home, DiMaggio! It means the game!"

DiMaggio's consecutive game hitting streak was also a point of reference in the Star Trek universe. In an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Harmon "Buck" Bokai of the London Kings, a favorite player of Commander Sisko in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine breaks DiMaggio's streak.

Commercials

In 1971, Italian industrial design firm Poltronova released the "Joe" chair, shaped like a gigantic baseball glove. The original brown leather versions are considered collectors' items.

From 1972 to 1992, DiMaggio was spokesman for the Bowery Savings Bank.

In 1974, he became the company spokesman for Mr. Coffee. Harvey Korman spoofed DiMaggio's commercials in a Carol Burnett Show episode.

Film

He appeared in the original Angels in the Outfield and The First of May (released 1999). The First of May was DiMaggio's last and most involved motion picture cameo, requiring that he memorize lines for an entire scene. According to director Paul Sirmons, DiMaggio refused payment because the movie's subject, foster children, was dear to him, but Screen Actors Guild rules mandated he take the minimum $250 per day fee. [3] In addition, DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak (which was in progress at the time of filming) was mentioned by Lou Costello in the 1942 film, Ride 'Em Cowboy.

Literature

In Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, the young boy told the old man that he was afraid of Cleveland. The old man told him: Don't doubt the Yankees just yet. Have faith in the great DiMaggio.

Legacy

Stephen Jay Gould often wrote of DiMaggio's hit streak as the only sports record that was an unpredictable anomaly based on statistical analysis, and therefore the greatest feat in all of sports.

His hitting streak has been used as a standard to compare similar feats in other sports. Johnny Unitas throwing at least 1 TD in 47 consecutive games is often cited as football's version. Martina Navratilova referred to her 74 straight match wins as "my DiMaggio streak." Wayne Gretzky's 51-game point-scoring run also was compared with the streak. DiMaggio was less than impressed, quoted as saying that Gretzky (who scored an empty-net goal in the final moments of a game to keep the streak alive) "never had to worry about a mid-game washout in the middle of the second period."

In an article in 1976 in Esquire magazine, sportswriter Harry Stein published an "All Time All-Star Argument Starter," consisting of five ethnic baseball teams. Joe DiMaggio was the center fielder on Stein's Italian team.

On 17 September 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.

Yankee Stadium's fifth monument was dedicated to DiMaggio on 25 April 1999, and the West Side Highway was officially renamed in his honor. The Yankees wore DiMaggio's number 5 on the left sleeves of their uniforms for the 1999 season. He is ranked #11 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was elected by fans to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.

An auction of DiMaggio's personal items was held on May 19-20, 2006 by his son's adopted daughters. Highlights included: the ball hit to break Wee Willie Keeler's hitting-streak record ($63,250); 2,000th career hit ball ($29,900); 1947 Most Valuable Player Award ($281,750); uniform worn in the 1951 World Series ($195,500); Hall of Fame ring ($69,000); photograph Marilyn autographed "I love you Joe" ($80,500); her passport ($115,000); their marriage certificate ($23,000). The event netted a total of $4.1 million.

DiMaggio was named the greatest athlete to wear the #5 by Sports Illustrated. [1]. He was pictured with his son on the cover of the inaugural issue of SPORT magazine in September, 1946.

Stats

Season G AB R H HR RBI BB SO Avg. SLG
1936 138 637 132 206 29 125 24 39 .323 .576
1937 151 621 151 215 46 167 64 37 .346 .673
1938 145 599 129 194 32 140 59 21 .324 .581
1939 120 462 108 176 30 126 52 20 .381 .671
1940 132 508 93 179 31 133 61 30 .352 .626
1941 139 541 122 193 30 125 76 13 .357 .643
1942 154 610 123 186 21 114 68 36 .305 .498
1946 132 503 81 146 25 95 59 24 .290 .511
1947 141 534 97 168 20 97 64 32 .315 .522
1948 153 594 110 190 39 155 67 30 .320 .598
1949 76 272 58 94 14 67 55 18 .346 .596
1950 139 525 114 158 32 122 80 33 .301 .585
1951 116 415 72 109 12 71 61 36 .263 .422
Career Statistics 1736 6821 1390 2214 361 1537 790 369 .325 .579

Notes

  1. ^ Arbesman, Samuel; Strogatz, Steven (2008, March 30), "A Journey to Baseball's Alternate Universe", The New York Times {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  2. ^ Paul Simon, "The Silent Superstar," The New York Times, March 9, 1999.
  3. ^ The First of May Official Site
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Joe DiMaggio.



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