Joltin' Joe DiMaggio
By: Alisha Erin Heavilon

Joe DiMaggio was the American hero. He played America's favorite past time, and he played it well. He was known for his utmost grace and excellence. Tim McCarver once said of him, "The very mention of his name personifies class, dignity, elegance, and professionalism, both on and off the field." But who was this extraordinary man that the country held such a fascination with for so long?

Joseph Paul DiMaggio was born in Martinez, California on November 25th, 1914 and died on March 8th, 1999. He was the eighth of nine children and his father was a fisherman. His large Italian family was poor and he didn't have a lot of education. Nevertheless, Joe took what he had and did what he loved best with it.

As a kid, he played baseball all day with the neighborhood kids. In 1933 he signed with the San Francisco Seals, a minor league team. The Yankee scouts, who were looking for a replacement for Babe Ruth, were impressed with Joe's skills. He played the 1935 season with the Seals while caring for a knee injury, and reported to the Yankees the year after for spring training. He was with the Yankees for thirteen years, retiring in 1951. Staying with one team for an entire career is almost unheard of, but Joe never wanted to leave. The team loved him, New York loved him, and he loved them back - once publicly thanking God for making him a Yankee.

DiMaggio led the American League twice in home runs, in 1937 and 1948. His batting average was the highest in the league during the 1939 season. His slugging averages in 1937 and 1950 were the highest, and runs batted in during 1941 and 1948 were the best that there were. He was voted Most Valuable Player three different times, and led the Yankees to ten pennants, and nine World Series titles. He played in the All-Star series every year he played major league baseball. His greatest, and as yet unapproached, achievement came in 1941 when he hit safely in a record streak of 56 games. DiMaggio finished his career with a .325 batting average, 2,214 hits, 361 home runs, and 1,537 runs batted in, despite missing three prime years to serve in World War II. He was so popular and so great at the game that he was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1955, four years after he retired. Sometime after his retirement he was voted as the "Greatest Living Player" by fans.

Playing center field his entire career, excepting one game at first base, Joe DiMaggio was considered the best there was in that position. He was soon nicknamed "the Yankee Clipper", after the sailing ships that were as graceful on water as he was on the field. Later in life he owned a boat by the same name. He was so agile in running and going after balls that he was said to have grace akin to Fred Astaire. Manager Joe McCarthy once said regarding his fielding, "He did everything so easily. That's why they never appreciated him as much as they should. You never saw him make a great catch. You never saw him fall down or go diving for a ball. He didn't have to. He just knew where the ball was hit and he went and got it." But fielding wasn't all there was to DiMaggio. He could hit too.

As a batter, he was considered a good, if not dangerous hitter. Someone once said that the ball must have looked like a grapefruit to Joe, because there was no other explanation for his being able to get so much of his bat on every pitch. His batting earned him a second nickname, "Joltin' Joe". The key to DiMaggio's hitting was his ability to hit pitches, no matter what kind of a pitch it was, or who was throwing. He didn't care whom he was up against; he just hit the ball. Bill Dickey, a former teammate of DiMaggio's, once commented, "It's funny to think about it now, but I think DiMaggio was underestimated as a player. He did things so easily; people didn't realize how good he was. DiMaggio would hit a home run but nobody would get excited. He never hit those towering home runs, not like the kind Ruth or Gehrig hit, or Ralph Kiner later on. Joe's would just be nice line drives, a few rows back, enough to count but not enough to make you realize he had put another one in there."

Jim Hegan was a catcher for the Indian's, and later in life a coach for Detroit. He said, "Joe didn't have any weakness in the game. He did everything well. Joe was the best all-around ballplayer I've ever seen. DiMaggio was special all over, at Yankee Stadium or on the road. He could catch the ball anywhere, hit any pitch, steal a base if he need to, stretch a hit, do whatever had to be done to help the Yankees win a ball game. He was just a complete ballplayer. I've never seen anybody do as many things well as Joe could. He was by himself." DiMaggio made the game come alive for the fans. Jimmy Breslin once commented, "Baseball isn't statistics, it's Joe DiMaggio rounding second base."

DiMaggio was a quiet man. He was painfully shy, and very private. He also had a huge amount of pride. He gave everything he had to his team and his fans because he couldn't allow himself to let them down. He gave one thousand percent every game he played. He was totally dedicated to the game. He knew that if he didn't dazzle the crowd, he would disappoint them. He always said, "There may be some kid out there who may be seeing me play for the first time. I owe him my best." A good friend, Toots Shor, said, "He was more concerned about his teammates and other people than he was about himself. If Joe had a great day and the team lost, he'd never smile. If Joe had a terrible day and the team won, then you would think had five-for-five. He was just a great team player as well as being just a great baseball player himself. I miss seeing him in the game, chasing a ball or hitting it or running those bases. That was some thrill."

At the same time, DiMaggio was often hounded by his adoring fans. To eat his dinner in peace he almost always remained in his hotel room. Years later, he was on his honeymoon with Marilyn Monroe. She was entertaining troops stationed in Korea at the time. Overwhelmed by the adulation she received, Marilyn told him, "You can't imagine what it's like." "Yes, I can," he replied.

Years before retirement, DiMaggio was married to an actress named Dorothy Arnold. While he was fighting in World War II they got divorced. In 1954 DiMaggio married Marilyn Monroe. Though they were only married for nine months, they remained close until Monroe's death in 1962. Joe never stopped loving Monroe, and one day in 1962 decided to ask her to remarry him. So he pquit his current job and flew to Los Angeles. When he arrived it was just in time to arrange for her burial.

Joe DiMaggio was a legend. The country was fascinated with him. He was the hero that could be loved on or off the field. He had the baseball skills that were admired by everyone who knew anything about baseball. And DiMaggio had the morals and dignity of a man that was worthy of a nation's respect. Tommy Heinrich said, "Joe had a lot of character. He was the most moral man ever knew. He couldn't do anything cheap; he wouldn't do anything in the world that would hurt his name or hurt the Yankees. He really felt an obligation to the public, to the fans, and to the club." Joe had charm and class. Everyone wanted to be him. His friend Toots Shor said in an interview many years ago, "He's the best ballplayer I ever saw, the best anybody ever saw. He's a nice boy. He the same guy today I knew thirty-five years ago, very decent, very strong, good morals, good family instincts - his family is everything to him. He's a real hero - mine and everybody else's." Tommy Lasorda commented, "He was to people all over the world what a baseball player was supposed to be like. If you said what a player should be, God would have created Joe DiMaggio·and he did."

After Joe retired, he settled down to a quieter life, mostly playing golf and appearing at baseball banquets or Yankees' Old Timer's Days. In the 60's Paul Simon wrote a song called "Mrs. Robinson". In it he made the point of the loss of focus and morality in our nation, and the lack of a real hero to look up to. Using the Yankee Clipper as his focus he wrote, "Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? A nation turns her lonely eyes to you. What's that you say, Mrs. Robinson? Joltin' Joe has left and gone away." At the time, the song puzzled Joe, who stated that he hadn't gone anywhere. The message, however, is as appropriate now as it was then. Never before was there a man like Joe DiMaggio, and there never will be again. At the height of Joe's career, sportswriter Red Smith wrote, "The Yankees have a guy named DiMaggio. Sometimes a fellow gets a little tired of writing about DiMaggio. A fellow thinks, 'There must be some other ballplayer in the world worth mentioning.' But there isn't really, not worth mentioning in the same breath as DiMaggio." As I said, Joe DiMaggio was the American hero. He symbolized everything our nation believed in and stood for. There has never been a public figure as decent as him. Joe DiMaggio was the hero the whole country could root for.