Joe DiMaggio

Joseph Paul DiMaggio (/dəˈmɑːdʒioʊ/; born Giuseppe Paolo DiMaggio, Italian: [dʒuˈzɛppe ˈpaːolo diˈmaddʒo]; November 25, 1914 – March 8, 1999), nicknamed "Joltin' Joe", "the Yankee Clipper" and "Joe D.", was an American professional baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees. Born to Italian immigrants in California, he is considered to be one of the greatest baseball players of all time and set the record for the longest hitting streak (56 games from May 15 – July 16, 1941).

DiMaggio was a three-time American League (AL) Most Valuable Player Award winner and an All-Star in each of his 13 seasons. During his tenure with the Yankees, the club won ten American League pennants and nine World Series championships. His nine career World Series rings put him second only to his fellow Yankee Yogi Berra, who won 10.

At the time of his retirement after the 1951 season, he ranked fifth in career home runs (361) and sixth in career slugging percentage (.579). He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955 and was voted the sport's greatest living player in a poll taken during baseball's centennial year of 1969. His brothers Vince (1912–1986) and Dom (1917–2009) also were major league center fielders. Outside of baseball, DiMaggio is also widely known for his marriage and lifelong devotion to Marilyn Monroe.

Giuseppe Paolo DiMaggio was born on November 25, 1914, in Martinez, California, the eighth of nine children born to Italian immigrants Giuseppe and Rosalia DiMaggio, from Isola delle Femmine (Sicily). His Italian birth name was Giuseppe Paolo DiMaggio. Rosalia named her son "Giuseppe" after his father in the hopes he would be her last child; "Paolo" was in honor of Giuseppe's favorite saint, Paul of Tarsus.

Giuseppe was a fisherman, as were generations of DiMaggios before him. DiMaggio's brother Tom told Maury Allen that Rosalia's father wrote to her saying Giuseppe could earn a better living in California. Giuseppe and Rosalia decided that he would go to the United States for one year: if things were better, he would send for her; if not, he would return home. After being processed on Ellis Island, Giuseppe worked his way across the country, eventually settling near Rosalia's father in Pittsburg, California, on the east side of the San Francisco Bay Area. After four years, he had earned enough money to send for Rosalia and their daughter, who was born after he left. When Joe was a toddler, Giuseppe moved his family to the North Beach section of San Francisco. Giuseppe hoped that his five sons would become fishermen.

DiMaggio recalled that he would do anything to get out of cleaning his father's boat, as the smell of dead fish nauseated him. Giuseppe called him "lazy" and "good-for-nothing". At age ten, he took up baseball, playing third base at the North Beach playground near his home. After attending Hancock Elementary and Francisco Middle School, DiMaggio dropped out of Galileo High School and worked odd jobs.

By 1931, DiMaggio was playing semi-pro ball. Nearing the end of the 1932 season, his brother Vince, playing for the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League (PCL), talked his manager into letting DiMaggio fill in at shortstop. He made his professional debut on October 1, 1932, playing the last three games. In less than two years, DiMaggio made the jump from the playground to the PCL, one notch below the majors. In his full rookie year, from May 27 to July 25, 1933, he hit safely in 61 consecutive games, a PCL-record, and second-longest in Minor League Baseball history. "Baseball didn't really get into my blood until I knocked off that hitting streak," he said. "Getting a daily hit became more important to me than eating, drinking, or sleeping.”

In 1934, DiMaggio suffered a potentially career-threatening knee injury when he tore ligaments of his right knee while stepping out of a jitney. Convinced the injury would heal, Yankees scout Bill Essick pestered his bosses to give DiMaggio another look. After he passed a physical, the team bought him for $50,000 (equivalent to $1,200,000 in 2024) and five players, with the Seals keeping him for the 1935 season. DiMaggio batted .398 with 154 runs batted in (RBIs) and 34 home runs. The Seals won the 1935 PCL title, and he was named the league's Most Valuable Player.