Joe DiMaggio

Joe DiMaggio was an Italian American baseball player who was born on November 25, 1914, in California, United States, to Sicilian Italian immigrants. His father Giuseppe Paolo DiMaggio was a fisherman, and hoped that all of his five sons, including Joe, would become a fisherman. However, Joe did not enjoy the trade and found himself in the field of professional baseball.

His baseball career proved to be successful, as he was the winner of the three-time Most Valuable Player Award winner and was labeled an All-Star player in each season he played baseball. He also won nine World Series. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955.

He was also known for his marriage and lifelong devotion to Marylin Monroe. Despite their rapid divorce, in fact, the two remained close friends until Monroe's tragic death, in 1962.

In 1969, DiMaggio made his return on the field as coach of Oakland Athletics. That same year, a public survey named him the best living baseball player.

Throughout his life, DiMaggio often went to Italy, visiting his Sicilian relatives in Isola delle Femmine, in the province of Palermo. He was also involved in various initiatives aimed at promoting baseball in the peninsula: he participated in trainings and visited local teams. The American attempt to contribute to the Americanization of post-war Italian society through the diffusion of baseball remained however unfulfilled. In spite of the popularity of this sport in America and the presence of numerous prominent Italian-American figures - not only DiMaggio, but also Yogi Berra, Joe Garagiola, Tommy La Sorda and others - the American sport par excellence never became popular in Italy.

The success obtained by Italian immigrants on the baseball field was however important, as it help overcoming bias, prejudice and hardship, fostering Italian Americans' integration into American society. Italian-American baseball players, especially those who became stars, were the first important group of Italians to obtain celebrity status in America.

Joe died on March 8, 1999, in Florida, United States, from lung cancer. The New York Times hailed him by defining DiMaggio’s 1941 56-game hitting streak "perhaps the most enduring record in sports."

Documents

• What Joe DiMaggio meant for Italian Americans
• How DiMaggio Turned the Tide, and Brought Italians Into the Mainstream
• Joe DiMaggio: How the Son of an Italian Fisherman Became the Symbol of American Baseball
• "Joe DiMaggio, Yankee Clipper, Dies at 84" - The New York Times