Baseball
Mvp Baseball
Baseball’s Great Yankee Clipper Joe DiMaggio
For those who know baseball history, the name Joe DiMaggio is very much associated with baseball greatness. This Hall of Fame ballplayer was voted baseball’s greatest living player in a 1969 poll during the centennial anniversary of Professional Baseball.
DiMaggio was born in California in 1914 to Italian immigrants living in San Francisco. Born into a family of fishermen, Joe’s father hoped his son would follow in his footsteps. DiMaggio decided a career in baseball suited him better since he didn’t enjoy cleaning his father’s boat and smelling the nauseating stench of dead fish.
DiMaggio’s older brother, Vince, was playing for the minor league San Francisco Seals, and convinced his manager to let Joe play at shortstop. He proved to be a good player, and in 1933, got into a daily hitting streak that lasted 61 consecutive games. He led the Seals to the 1935 Pacific Coast League title and was named the league’s MVP.
Despite a knee injury that could have ended his career in 1934, the New York Yankees decided to take a chance on him and bought him from the Seals for $25,000. DiMaggio played his entire 13-year Major League Baseball career for them. Batting ahead of Lou Gehrig, DiMaggio debuted in the major leagues in 1936. Wearing the number 5, he led the Yankees to nine titles in thirteen years. He was known for covering a lot of ground in center field and hitting home runs. In 1939, a Yankee’s stadium announcer was so impressed by DiMaggio’s speed and range, that he compared him to a Pan American airliner and nicknamed him “Yankee Clipper.”
Although his Italian parents were considered “enemy aliens” by the U.S. government after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, DiMaggio enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces in 1943. Stationed in California, Hawaii, and New Jersey, he worked as a physical education instructor until his discharge in 1945 with the rank of sergeant.
On February 7, 1949, DiMaggio became the first baseball player to sign a contract worth $100,000. He is best known for his 56-game hitting streak record unbeaten to this day. During his impressive career with the Yankees, he became the only player to be selected for the All-Star Game in every season he played. Also a 3-time MVP winner, the Yankees won ten pennants and nine world championships while DiMaggio played for the club.
Off the baseball field, DiMaggio is also remembered for his brief marriage to Marilyn Monroe. She filed for divorce less than a year after the wedding on grounds of mental cruelty. He tried to remarry her in 1962, but she was found dead in her home. After her death, DiMaggio refused to speak about Marilyn in public and never married again.
After Joe retired from baseball in 1951, he worked for a military post-exchange supplier. During the 1970s he became a spokesman for Mr. Coffee, an electric coffee maker, and also for the Bowery Savings Bank. A heavy smoker most of his adult life, DiMaggio was diagnosed with lung cancer and died on March 8, 1999. He was buried in San Francisco. An auction of his personal items held in 2006 netted four million dollars.
The New York Yankees retired his number 5 and Yankee Stadium’s fifth monument was dedicated to him on April 25, 1999. Shortly after his passing, The New York Times called DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak in 1941, “perhaps the most enduring record in sports.”
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