ESPN Classic - The great DiMaggio

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Joltin' Joe's a hit for all reasons

Wednesday, November 19, 2003
The great DiMaggio
By Larry Schwartz
Special to ESPN.com

Signature Games
June 28-30, 1949 - Though DiMaggio underwent surgery for bone spurs in his right heel last November, he still was experiencing pain through the first two months of the season and had yet to appear in a regular-season game. "There was considerable doubt that I'd ever play again," DiMaggio said. "Many believed the bone spurs in my heels spelled the finish."

Finally, on June 28, he took a flight from New York to Boston and told first-year Yankees manager Casey Stengel, "I'm ready." The Yankee Clipper exceeded even his own expectations. In the first game of the three-game series against the Red Sox, DiMaggio singled in his first at-bat and then belted a two-run homer in his next to lead the Yankees to a 5-4 victory.

The next game, DiMaggio jump-started a New York comeback from a 7-1 deficit with a three-run homer in the fifth inning and then, with the game deadlocked at 7-7 in the eighth, he slugged a game-winning solo homer as the Yankees won, 9-7. In the series finale, DiMaggio capped his legendary series with a three-run homer in a 6-3 victory. A plane flew over Fenway Park with a banner that read: "The Great DiMaggio."

In the three games, DiMaggio went 5-for-11 with four homers and nine runs batted in. "It was like a new lease on life for an old machine that lots of people thought was washed up," DiMaggio wrote after he retired.

Joe DiMaggio by the numbers

Career Statistics

AB BA Runs Hits HR RBI OBP SLG

1936 637 .323 132 206 29 125 .352 .576

1937 621 .346 151 215 46 167 .412 .673

1938 599 .324 129 194 32 140 .386 .581

1939 462 .381 108 176 30 126 .448 .671

1940 508 .352 93 179 31 133 .425 .626

1941 541 .357 122 193 30 125 .440 .643

1942 610 .305 123 186 21 114 .376 .498

1943-45
military service

1946 503 .290 81 146 25 95 .367 .511

1947 534 .315 97 168 20 97 .391 .522

1948 594 .320 110 190 39 155 .396 .598

1949 272 .346 58 94 14 67 .459 .596

1950 525 .301 114 158 32 122 .394 .585

1951 415 .263 72 109 12 71 .365 .422

Totals 6821 .325 1390 2214 361 1537 .398 .579
numbers in bold represent league leading totals

Odds 'n' Ends

DiMaggio's career can be divided into two parts:

Joe DiMaggio

Before Service
(1936-42) Postwar
(1946-51)

Batting Ave. .339 .304

HRs/Yr 31 24

RBI/Yr 133 101

Runs/Yr 123 89

In the last 10 games of his 56-game hitting streak, DiMaggio batted .575 (23-for-40) compared to .372 (68-of-183) in the first 46 games. Overall, he batted .408 (91-for-223), just two points higher than Ted Williams hit for that entire 1941 season.

While DiMaggio's hitting streak is one of the most impressive records in baseball history, other players have batted higher in a 56-game stretch. Some examples: Rogers Hornsby .480 in 1924, George Brett .465 in 1980, Ty Cobb .455 in 1911 and Babe Ruth .452 in 1923.

On July 17, 1941, the cab driver who took DiMaggio to the ballpark in Cleveland told him his streak would end that day. They would meet again. "Now this is over 30 years later," DiMaggio said, "and the guy said he was that cab driver. He apologized and he was serious. I felt awful. He might have been spending his whole life thinking he had jinxed me. But I told him he hadn't. My number was up."

In Game 6 of the 1947 World Series, with the Yankee trailing 8-5 in the sixth inning, DiMaggio was robbed of an extra-base hit (and possibly a game-tying homer) by Dodgers' sub leftfielder Al Gionfriddo, who made a leaping catch in front of the bullpen. As DiMaggio neared second base he showed more emotion than he ever had on the field, kicking the dust in disgust.

On May 23, 1948, DiMaggio hit three consecutive homers for the only time in his career. Two of the homers were off Bob Feller. DiMaggio knocked in all the Yankees runs in a 6-5 victory in Cleveland.

A Yankees press release in 1951 said that in DiMaggio's 13 seasons, newspaper stories estimated his salaries totaled $646,250. They said he started out at $8,000 as a rookie and was paid $100,000 in each of his final three years. They also wrote his 10 World Series shares came to $52,073.

DiMaggio batted just .271 (54-for-199) in his 10 Series, with eight homers and 30 RBI.

He was selected to play in the All-Star Game every season of his career. In 11 games (he didn't play in two because of injury), he batted .225 (9-for-40) with one homer and six RBI.

DiMaggio ranks seventh all-time in at-bats per RBI at 4.44 with 1,537 RBIs in 6,821 at-bats.

When DiMaggio's marriage to Marilyn Monroe ended in divorce, Oscar Levant said it proved that no man could be a success in two national pastimes.

Before Monroe, DiMaggio was married to actress Dorothy Arnold from 1939-43. They had one son, Joe Jr., who died at 57 in August 1999.

DiMaggio died at 84 on March 8, 1999 from complications due to lung cancer. Among his pallbearers was Joe Jr., whom DiMaggio had not spoken with for the last two years of his life.

Quotes

"DiMaggio seldom showed emotion. One day, after striking out, he came into the dugout and kicked the ball bag. We all went, 'Ooh.' It hurt. He sat down and the sweat popped out on his forehead and he clinched his fists without ever saying a word. Everybody wanted to howl. But he was the god. You don't laugh at gods."
-- Jerry Coleman, former Yankee infielder and Padres announcer

"In my heart I have always felt I was a better hitter than Joe, which was always my first consideration, but I have to say he was the greatest player of our time. He could do it all."
-- Ted Williams, Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer

Baseball isn't statistics, it's Joe DiMaggio rounding second base."
-- Jimmy Breslin

When asked why he played so hard all the time, DiMaggio said, "Because there might be somebody out there who's never seen me play."

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