Joltin' Joe DiMaggio died today at the age of 84, leaving behind a legacy that distinguishes him as the class of an incomparable group of players in New York Yankees history.
Joe and his brothers Vince and Dom, natives of the San Francisco Bay area, formed the most famous trio of brothers to ever play Major League Baseball. Vince and Dom were workman-like players, but Joe was the special talent, playing in ten World Series with the Yankees from 1936-51.
Nobody ever played the game like Joe DiMaggio.
AS AN 18-YEAR-OLD FOR the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League, he hit in an astonishing 61 consecutive games. However, it is his 56-game Major League hitting streak in 1941 that remains one of the records least likely to fall. During six of those games, he kept the streak alive in his last at-bat.
DiMaggio was voted the Most Valuable Player in the American League three times and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955, just four years after his retirement.
But the special quality of DiMaggio was about more than just his great hitting ability. The style and grace with which he roamed center field for the Yankees was emblematic of the way he went through life.
Before DiMaggio, baseball players in general were perceived as boorish louts with tobacco juice running down their faces, reeking of alcohol and cigarettes. They were slovenly in appearance and were often getting into barroom brawls.
Not DiMaggio. He was quiet, with a droll sense of humor according to those who knew him well. He was the original stylish superstar athlete in dark suits and slicked back hair. His first marriage was to actress Dorothy Arnold, but it was his second marriage to actress/sex symbol Marilyn Monroe in 1954 that made him even more famous.
DiMaggio had a tough time handling all the adulation Marilyn Monroe received from the American male population. News articles at the time referred to him as "insanely jealous." The marriage lasted just nine months before DiMaggio filed the divorce papers on the grounds of "mental cruelty" and "conflict of careers."
DESPITE THE UNHAPPY END of their marriage, DiMaggio was the most devoted of Monroe's ex-husbands following her untimely death in 1962. He was highly visible during her funeral and regularly visited her grave. Even out of his frustration in marriage, DiMaggio showed the class that dominated his life and his baseball career.
Joltin' Joe DiMaggio may not have had the bluster and omnipresence of Babe Ruth, or the ever-present good times Mickey Mantle brought to the table in his golly-gee days at Yankee Stadium, but DiMaggio had a presence all his own that made him their equal in every aspect of superstardom.
If Ruth and Mantle were the Brahma Bulls of their era, DiMaggio was indeed the toreador, who mastered both the bulls and the crowd. In terms of statistics, maybe Ruth or Mantle is the greatest Yankee of all time. When it comes to style points, DiMaggio was the man from the day he stepped on the field.
It is a streak that will extend far beyond 56 games.
