Joe DiMaggio
Hall of Famers at War
| Date and Place of Birth: | November 15, 1914 Martinez, CA |
| Date and Place of Death: | March 8, 1999 Hollywood, FL |
| Baseball Experience: | Hall of Fame |
| Position: | Outfield |
| Rank: | Staff Sergeant |
| Military Unit: | 7th AAF, USAAF |
| Area Served: | United States/Hawaii |
Private Joe DiMaggio's spring training has been somewhat,
different this year and not much time is devoted to baseball at Santa
Ana Army Air Base, where he is stationed, but the Yankee Clipper hasn't
lost his batting eye. In five games Joe has pounded out six hits from
eighteen official times at bat.
Reno Evening Gazette May 18, 1943
Joseph P. “Joe” DiMaggio was born in Martinez, California, on November
25, 1914. DiMaggio was the eighth of nine children born to Sicilian
immigrants. DiMaggio dropped out of high school in 1930 and spent much
of his time playing baseball at the diary-wagon parking lot, an open
space where milk drivers parked their horses and wagons, near San
Francisco’s fisherman’s wharf. He soon joined a team sponsored by a
local olive-oil distributor named Ross and helped them win the
championship with two home runs in a game.
Joe’s older brother, Vince, was playing for the San Francisco Seals in
1932. During the season a shortstop was needed, and Vince recommended
his younger brother. Joe made his professional debut appearing in three
with the Seals. The following year he hit .340 with 169 RBIs, and an
incredible 61-game hitting streak.
In November of 1934, the Seals owner, Charlie Graham, sold DiMaggio to
the New York Yankees for $25,000 dollars and five players. A knee injury
kept Joe from reporting to the Yankees that year but he made his major
league debut in 1936, hitting .323 with 29 home runs. DiMaggio was an
MVP in 1939 and recorded a magical 56-game hitting streak in 1941 that
captivated the nation.
During the spring of 1942, much publicity surrounded DiMaggio’s hold out
for a pay rise. A group of soldiers from Camp Blanding, Florida, sent
him a telegram that read: “In event the Yankees don’t kick in with more
than $37,000, we cordially invite you to a tryout with the 143rd
Infantry, 36th Division, the fightingest regiment in this man’s Army.”
On February 17th, 1943, DiMaggio traded his $43‚750 salary from the
Yankees‚ for $50 a month as an army enlisted man. “He is built for the
soldier,” wrote Dan Daniel in Baseball magazine. “He has the temperament
for the soldier. He has gone into the Army looking for no favors,
searching for no job as a coach. He wants to fight, and when he gets his
chance, he will prove a credit to himself and his game and the Yanks and
his family. This DiMaggio guy really has it.”
He was assigned to Special Services with the Army Air Force and reported
for duty on February 24, 1943 to Santa Ana Army Air Base in California,
the Army Air Forces’ west coast training center headquarters.
DiMaggio was a big boost to the Santa Ana baseball team. The line-up
featured pitchers Glen Gabler (brother of major league pitcher Frank
Gabler), Jack Jacobs and Three-I Leaguer Bob White; first and second
base were Dick and Bobby Adams, who would both play major league
baseball after the war; Jack Hanson, formerly with Tulsa of the Texas
League played third base; Kenny Andrews, a semi-pro player from
Pennsylvania was at shortstop; Merle Hapes and Lee Trim flanked DiMaggio
in left and right field; Ohio State University’s Bill Waller was behind
the plate and former pro footballer John Biancone was the manager. The
Santa Ana team compiled an impressive record including a winning streak
of 20 straight games, and DiMaggio put together a 27 consecutive game
hitting streak. In addition to the Santa Ana games, DiMaggio played for
a team of Armed Forces all-stars managed by Babe Ruth on July 12, 1943,
against the Boston Braves.
Sergeant DiMaggio was transferred to Honolulu, Hawaii in June 1944. He
served with the Seventh Air Force and played for their baseball team
with Red Ruffing, Johnny Beazley, and Joe Gordon. The Navy was also
bringing many of their top players to the island including Phil Rizzuto,
Pee Wee Reese, Johnny Mize, and Joe’s brother Dom. On June 4, 1944,
DiMaggio hit a 435-foot home run in a Seventh Army Force, 6-2, loss to
the Navy‚ as Bob Harris threw a 4-hitter.
But a stomach ailment sidelined DiMaggio and he was hospitalized in
August. He was then transferred to a West Coast hospital and then to
Special Services at the Army Air Force Redistribution Station 1 in
Atlantic City, New Jersey. In September, he was transferred to the Army
Air Forces’ Don Ce Sar Convalescent Hospital in St Petersburg, Florida,
again suffering from stomach ulcers. He was released from service on
September 14, 1945.
"Though he never came within a thousand miles of actual combat," wrote
David Jones in Joe DiMaggio: a biography, "DiMaggio resented the war
with an intensity equal to the most battle-scarred private. It had
robbed him of the best years of his career. When he went into the Army,
DiMaggio had been a 28-year-old superstar, still at the height of his
athletic powers. By the time he was discharged from the service, he was
nearly 31, divorced, underweight, malnourished, and bitter. Those three
year, 1943 to 1945, would carve a gaping hole in DiMaggio's career
totals, creating an absence that would be felt like a missing limb."
Back with the Yankees in 1946, DiMaggio batted .290 - after having been
a .300-plus hitter every season before military service. But he was soon
back in form and helped guide the Yankees to World Championships in
1947, 1949, 1950, and 1951.
DiMaggio announced his retirement on December 11, 1951, four days short
of his 37th birthday. He married Marilyn Monroe in 1954 and was elected
to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955. DiMaggio received the Presidential
Medal of Freedom in 1977.
Following a lengthy battle with lung cancer, DiMaggio passed away at his
home in Hollywood, Florida, on March 8, 1999. He was 84 years old and is
buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, California.
Date Added July 26, 2016
Joe DiMaggio at Baseball-Almanac
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