Joe DiMaggio Biography

Introduction

Joe DiMaggio was born on November 25, 1914 and died on March 8, 1999.  He was an American baseball player who had his career with the New York Yankees.  He made it into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955.  He was the middle brother in his family, and each of his brothers became center fielders for the major league, and their names were Dom and Vince.

Joe DiMaggio managed to be a three time MVP winner as well as a 13 time All-Star, and he was also the only major league player to be selected to play in the All-Star Game in every season that he played.  When DiMaggio retired, he had the sixth highest total of home runs, the sixth-highest slugging percentage, and was known for his 56 game hitting streak, which as a record still stands to this day.  In 1969, there was a poll conducted that voted him as the sport of baseball's greatest living player.

Joe DiMaggio's Early Life

Joe DiMaggio was born in Martinez, California.  He was the eighth child born of nine children to Giuseppe and Rosalia DiMaggio, both immigrants from Italy.  He was delivered by a midwife and he was named "Paulo" after his father's favorite saint, Saint Paul.  When Joe was one year old, the family moved to San Francisco.  Giuseppe, Joe's father, was a fisherman, as were many generations of DiMaggio's prior to his father.  Giuseppe was the first to come to the United States, and after being processed at Ellis Island, he worked his way towards California, settling near the home of his wife's father in Pittsburg, California.  After a time period of four years, he was able to earn money to send to his wife and their daughter, who was born after he had already left for the United States. 

Giuseppe wanted his five sons to become fisherman, just like generations of DiMaggio men.  However, Joe was not of the same opinion.  He hated cleaning his father's boat, and the smell of dead fish made him feel sick.  As a result, his father called him "good for nothing" and "lazy."  Giuseppe did not have an understanding of how his interest in baseball could help him face reality of poverty and make something of himself. 

Joe's Baseball Career

Joe was playing semi-pro baseball when his brother, Vince, who was playing for the San Francisco Seals, talked his own manager into allowing Joe to fill in at the shortstop position.  Therefore, Joe made his professional debut of baseball on October 1, 1932.  Between the time of May 27-July 25, 1933, he got at minimum one hit per game in a record of 61 games in a row. 

In 1934, Joe's baseball career could have ended when he tore ligaments in his left knee when he stepped out of a jitney at his sister's house.  The Seals, who wanted to sell his contract, were unable to even give him away.  Even the Chicago Cubs would not even grant him a no-risk tryout.  However, Scout Bill Essick continued to pester the New York Yankees to give the then nineteen year old a shot.  He passed a test on his knee, and then he was bought for $25,000 and five players.  The Seals would keep him for the 1935 season.  He batted with an average of .398 and had 34 homeruns, and 154 RBIs.  He led the Seals to the PCL title in 1935 and was named as the League's Most Valuable Player.

On May 3, 1936, DiMaggio made his major league debut batting in front of Lou Gehrig.  Although the Yankees had not been to the World Series since 1932, they won the next four Fall Classics, in thanks partly to their new player.  In total, Joe DiMaggio was able to lead the Yankees to nine titles out of 13 years.  Joe DiMaggio was also a superb fielder.  It was his reputation that stated that to get a hit you had to hit it away from Joe DiMaggio.  As a baserunner, he was also accomplished.  He managed to steal home base five times during his career. 

In 1949, Joe DiMaggio signed a record contract of $100,000 and an extra $70,000 in bonuses, as he became the very first professional baseball player to break the $100,000 in yearly earnings.  He was considered to be the game of baseball's best as well as the hardest working player.  However, injuries did hurt him so much that walking had its pain.  His 1951 season was considered sub-par and he had a brutal scouting report by the Brooklyn Dodgers that was leaked to the press.  He then decided to announce his retirement, which he did on December 11, 1951.  At this point he felt that he could no longer produce for himself, his teammates, or his team, combined with all of the aches and pains he was experienced, had caused the game of baseball to feel more like a chore.  He said it was no longer fun, so he was finished. 

In 1953, Joe had been offered the managerial job of the Brooklyn Dodgers, but had turned it down.  In 1953, Joe DiMaggio became eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame.  He was not elected into the Hall of Fame until 1955. 

Personal Life

In January of 1937, Joe DiMaggio met Dorothy Arnold, an actress, on the set of Manhattan Merry Go Round. They were married at St. Peter and Paul Church in San Francisco on November 19, 1939 with around 20,000 well wishers in the streets.  They had one child, a son, named Joseph Paul DiMaggio III, who was born on October 23, 1941.  Yet their marriage was in trouble even before their son was born.  DiMaggio's life revolved around the game of baseball, and Dorothy was feeling neglected.  Yet she was an ambitious social climber who apparently enjoyed being married to a star of baseball.  She would drag her husband out to one nightspot to another.  He did not like how she spent his money, and she did not like his off-the-field activities.  She threatened to leave him in 1942, and DiMaggio went into a slump.  He then began developing ulcers.  After he enlisted in the Army and went to Hawaii, she filed for divorce from him, and it was granted on May 12, 1944.  She then received custody of Joe Jr. and $150 in child support and $500 a month in alimony. 

Marilyn Monroe allegedly did not want to meet Joe DiMaggio, believing that he would be a jock.  He wanted to settle down, and her career was just starting to take off.  They eloped at San Francisco City Hall on January 14, 1954.  The two had a complex relationship that was filled with ambition and jealousy.  Some have asserted that the relationship was even violent.  Only 274 days following the wedding, she filed for divorce on the grounds of mental cruelty.

Over the years, Joe DiMaggio was linked to a number of other women.  There was a photo of him with Lee Meriwether, that lead to the speculation that they were engaged, but this was just a rumor.  He was also supposedly close to marrying Miss America Marian McKnight, but this was denied.  He was additionally linked to Gloria DeHaven, Rita Gam, Marlene Dietrich, Cleo Moore, and Liz Renay.  Later he was linked to Morgan Fairchild and Elizabeth Ray, but DiMaggio never publicly confirmed any of these relationships. 

DiMaggio got back into Marilyn Monroe's life after her marriage to Arthur Miller concluded.  He helped her to be released from Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic on February 10, 1961.  She went to him in Florida where he was the batting coach for the New York Yankees.  This of course prompted more remarriage rumors to circulate.  Allegedly Joe DiMaggio quit his job where he was a military post-exchange supplier on August 1, 1962 in order to ask Marilyn to remarry him, but she was found dead just four days later.  Joe's son, Joe Junior, had spoken to Marilyn the night of her death and said she had seemed fine.  Marilyn's death has been deemed to be a suicide, but many people refuse to believe this.  Joe DiMaggio was devastated by Marilyn's death, claimed her body, and then arranged her funeral.  He would not allow the elite of Hollywood to attend.  Since her death, he has had a half-dozen red roses delivered to her crypt three times each week.  He would not speak of her or their relationship publicly.  Joe DiMaggio never married again.

Death of Joe DiMaggio

On October 12, 1998, Joe DiMaggio was admitted into Memorial Regional Hospital located in Hollywood, Florida in order to have lung cancer surgery. He stayed at the hospital for the following 99 days.  On January 19, he came back to his home in Florida, but he died on March 8, 1999.  His last words were, "I'll finally get to see Marilyn."  On the eleventh of March in 1999, his funeral was at Ss. Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church in San Francisco.  Later that year, Joe's estranged son, Joe Jr., died that same year.  Joe DiMaggio was interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, California.