"Joe DiMaggio's tete-a-tetes with Marilyn Monroe prove he's still got a great batting eye- he doesn't miss many curves."
-Earl Wilson in the New York Post (Baseball Digest, January 1953)
"Every winter it is the custom of the publicity department of the Yankees to send out questionnaires to the players. They are asked to answer a number of queries, one of which is, 'Who is your baseball model, and which player do you admire the most?'
Over the past five years 90 per cent of the answers to this question have been Joe DiMaggio.
Joe's teammates stressed his grace, his pride, his power, his speed. They emphasized his aggressiveness, his high quality as a team player, his effortlessness, superlative skill.
As a judge of a fly ball, Guiseppe, in his heyday, was in a class by himself. I will never forget that catch he made years ago, to the chagrin of Hank Greenberg. It happened in the Stadium. Hank, with the Tigers, aimed for the center field bleachers, into which no one has yet been able to drive a baseball. The drive barely fell short, and became involved with the center field flagpole. DiMaggio 'had it all the way,' in the argot of the diamond, and made one of the most amazing catches it has been my good fortune to see.
During the 1934 season, Joe went through a particularly wearing Sunday double-header in San Francisco. He felt like going home and into bed. But there was a family dinner at a sister's home, and Joe just had to be there.
The fatigued outfielder got into a jitney bus at the Seals Stadium, and soon found himself sitting in a very cramped position in an overcrowded vehicle. When Joe reached his destination, he stepped to the curb on a leg which had become numb. The leg buckled under him, the knee was injured, and Outfielder Joe DiMaggio found himself a casualty.
The major league fraternity showed reduced interest in Joe. The word got around that his knee injury was chronic. With no decent offers for him, DiMaggio found himself detoured from his major league objective. Back he went into Coast League competition in 1935.
Joe played in 172 games that year, hit .398. The late Bill Essick and Joe Devine had developed a fresh interest in Guiseppe. They were working for Edward G. Barrow, general manager of the Yankees, and told him that they believed that DiMaggio's knee was responding to treatment. Barrow obtained permission from Owner Charley Graham of San Francisco to submit that knee to examination by a Los Angeles specialist.
'That leg should not hamper Joe's career,' Essick and Devine were told.
Barrow drove a hard bargain with Graham. He obtained DiMaggio for $25,000 in cash, and five players. One of these, Dr. Edward Farrell, now a flourishing dentist in New Jersey, refused to go the Seals, and retired from baseball. Barrow had to shell out another five grand to make up for Farrell.
No sooner had the Yankees closed the deal for Joe than they were besieged with offers for him from other major league clubs. I was with Barrow in the Yankee offices one afternoon when the late Eddie Collins, of the Red Sox, called Cousin Ed over the telephone and tried to land Joe for $55,000. 'Make that $155,000 and you still get nowhere,' Barrow told Eddie.
Had the Red Sox obtained Joe DiMaggio, with Ted Williams to follow, the pennant situation in the American League certainly would have been changed. As it was, the coming of Guiseppe to the Stadium enabled the New York club and Joe McCarthy to set an American League record, and match John J. McGraw's record with the 1921-24 Giants, by winning four consecutive pennants. Marse Joe bettered Mac's showing by hanging a world championship onto each of those four league titles."
-Dan Daniel, New York World-Telegram and Sun (Baseball's Greatest Lineup, Baseball Digest, February 1953)
"Hollywood wags report Joe DiMaggio purchased Marilyn Monroe a 'baseball gown.' It shows a lot of curves, has a diamond back and a grandstand view in front!"
-Irv Kupcinet in the Chicago Times (Baseball Digest, May 1953)
DISENCHANTMENT
"Junior Standish, a Latin Quarter beauty, was dated by Joe DiMaggio while he was out of the lineup because of a batting slump and an injured heel. The next day DiMaggio went back into the lineup and got two hits. All ball players are superstitious, and to him Miss Standish and hits became cause and effect. He continued to date her, and continued to hit. Her place in his affection became secure- for two weeks, while his batting spree continued. Then, one day, Joe went hitless. The first gossip-columnist to make a deadline reported, without fear of contradiction, that 'Junior Standish and Joe DiMaggio have split.'"
-Leonard Lyons in the New York Post (Baseball Digest, October 1953)
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