Joe Dimaggio Essay, Research Paper

DiMaggio, Joe

Joseph Paul DiMaggio, b. Martinez, Calif., Nov. 25, 1914, was professional baseball’s premier center fielder during the late 1930s and 1940s. Playing his entire career (1936-42, 1946-51) for the New York Yankees, DiMaggio was a dangerous batter and one of the most graceful and fleet outfielders ever to play the game–hence his nicknames, Joltin’ Joe and the Yankee Clipper.

DiMaggio was the eighth of nine children of a San Francisco fisherman. In 1936 the Yankees purchased him from the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast league, where at age 18 he had compiled a 61-game hitting streak. The center fielder’s rookie season in New York was sensational, and DiMaggio would go on to lead the American League twice in home runs (1937, 1948, batting average (1939-40), slugging average (1937, 1950), and runs batted in (1941, 1948). He was three times voted the league’s Most Valuable Player (1939, 1941, 1947), and in his 13 seasons he led the Yankees to 10 pennants and 9 World Series titles. His greatest, and as yet unapproached, achievement came in 1941, when he hit safely in 56 consecutive games. DiMaggio finished his career with a .325 batting average, 2,214 hits, 361 home runs, and 1,537 runs batted in. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1955.

Ever the soft-spoken gentleman, both on and off the field, DiMaggio endeared himself to the American public.

Rick Cunningham

Bibliography: De Gregorio, George, Joe DiMaggio: An Informal Biography (1981); Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher, Me and DiMaggio (1986); Moore, Jack G., Joe DiMaggio: Baseball’s Yankee Clipper (1987); Seidel, Michael, Streak: Joe DiMaggio and the Summer of ‘41 (1988).

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