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Today Is the Sixty-Eighth Anniversary of Joe DiMaggio’s Election to the Hall of Fame!

Let’s Recall Joe’s Debut as a Yankee

“I came into this restaurant and a fella asked me to have a drink and I said I’m not drinking tonight. Then another fella said ‘I hear you and Joe DiMaggio aren’t speaking,’ and I said, ‘I’ll take that drink!’ ” – Yankee manager Casey Stengel

“Whenever I sat at a table with Joe and other people…all the men were always looking at Joe instead of me!!” – Marilyn Monroe, speaking of her husband Joe DiMaggio.

I just can’t believe this kind of “humiliation” happened very often to Marilyn Monroe. Could this have had something to do with their well-publicized divorce? If it was physically possible for any man’s mere presence to divert lustful male eyes away from the glamorous sex symbol – which I would have tended to doubt – then only a “man’s man” like Joe DiMaggio would be capable of such a feat. Not to mention that a simple suggestion of a possible tiff with him could drive his manager Casey Stengel to drink! (see quote above) That’s the kind of man Joe DiMaggio was. The rest of us “mere mortals” can only imagine what it was like to be Joe DiMaggio!

I also learned that today is the sixty-eighth anniversary of Joe’s election to the Hall of Fame. It happened on January 26, 1955. The baseball writers selected the Great Yankee Clipper in his third year of eligibility with 88% of the vote. I thought this would be a good occasion to recall Joe’s first game as a Yankee. 

Joe Becomes a Yankee!

And it all started 87 years ago. On March 17, 1936, the future “Yankee Clipper” made his Yankee debut in a big way, collecting four hits, including a triple, in an 8-7 exhibition loss to the Cardinals in St. Petersburg, Florida.

A few weeks after his first appearance in the exhibition game, Joe made his much-heralded major league debut on Sunday, May 3, 1936. He had suffered a foot injury that delayed his season premiere by a few weeks. The Yankees were hosting the St. Louis Browns that day and trailed the first-place Red Sox by a half-game.

The Yankees sent Lefty Gomez to the mound to face the Browns’ Jack Knott. DiMaggio batted third, ahead of Lou Gehrig, and played left field. He was magnificent in his first official major league game, with two singles and a triple in the 14-5 win. It was certainly a loud preview announcing that good things were shortly to come. In the second game of the series after a rainout, DiMaggio picked up where he left off with three hits, all singles, in five at-bats as the Yankees again defeated the hapless Browns, 8-2.

The 21-year-old DiMaggio went on to have an outstanding rookie season. He batted .323, with 132 runs, 29 home runs, 125 RBIs, 44 doubles, 15 triples, a .352 on-base percentage, and a .576 slugging average. He certainly would have won the “Rookie of the Year” award had it existed.

The Yankees, with their sensational rookie leading the way, won the 1936 pennant by 19 1/2 games over the Tigers. Facing their New York rivals, the Giants, in the World Series, the Bronx Bombers won in fairly easy style in six games. DiMaggio batted .346, hitting three doubles, three singles and driving in three runs in 26 at-bats.

Joe’s Outstanding Career!

As we all know, Joe went on to have a marvelous major league career. Over his 13 years in the Big Show (1936-51), interrupted by military service during World War II (1943-45), he batted .325, with 2214 hits, 1390 runs, 361 home runs, 1537 RBIs, a .398 on-base percentage, and a .579 slugging average. Joe struck out only 369 times in 6821 at-bats. His mark of 155 OPS+ places him well above average for players of his era (100 being the major league average). In 51 post-season games, he hit .271, with 30 RBIs, and eight home runs. In addition, he was known as an extremely graceful centerfielder, and certainly one of the best defensive outfielders of his era.

Career highlights include 13 All-Star selections, ten pennants, nine World Series championships, three American League MVP Awards, two American League batting titles, two American League home run titles, two American League RBI titles; and, of course, his 56-game major league record hitting streak, a record that may never be broken. His #5 has been retired by the Yankees, he was selected for the Major League Baseball All-Century team, and he was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1955.

So today, I’m glad to shine our baseball spotlight on the great Yankee Clipper, the only man alive who could divert lustful eyes away from Marlyn Monroe! (see photo to the right) The only questions that remain are why did it take three tries to get him into the Hall of Fame…and why only 88% of the ballots??

Gary Livacari

Photo Credits: Charles Conlon collection and from Google search

Information: Excerpts edited from article on Joe DiMaggio in The Bleacher Report, by Harold Friend, July 27, 2011, and from the Joe DIMaggio Wikipedia page. Stats from Baseball-Reference.com               

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