Joseph Paul DiMaggio (; 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. 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. 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.
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. DiMaggio began with the neighborhood team. Within months, a rival team tempted him away for two dollars. Before long, he was bouncing between teams as a hired bat. 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 2025) 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.
New York Yankees (1936–1942, 1946–1951)
DiMaggio made his Major League debut on May 3, 1936, batting ahead of Lou Gehrig in the lineup. The Yankees had not been to the World Series since 1932, but they won the next four World Series. Over the course of his 13-year Major League career, DiMaggio led the Yankees to nine World Series championships, where he trails only Yogi Berra (10) in that category.
DiMaggio set a franchise record for rookies in 1936 by hitting 29 home runs. DiMaggio accomplished the feat in 138 games. His record stood for over 80 years until it was shattered by Aaron Judge, who tallied 52 homers in 2017.
In 1937, DiMaggio built upon his rookie season by leading the majors with 46 home runs, 151 runs scored, 167 runs batted in and 418 total bases, all career highs. He also hit safely in 43 of 44 games from June 27 to August 12. He finished second in American League MVP voting in a close race with Charlie Gehringer of the Detroit Tigers.
In 1939, DiMaggio was nicknamed "the Yankee Clipper" by Yankee's play-by-play announcer Arch McDonald, when he likened DiMaggio's speed and range in the outfield to the then-new Pan American airliner. That year in August, DiMaggio recorded 53 RBIs, tying Hack Wilson's 1930 record for most in a single month. He also won his first career batting title and MVP award, as well as leading the Yankees to their fourth consecutive World Series championship.
DiMaggio was pictured with his son on the cover of the inaugural issue of SPORT magazine in September 1946.
In 1947, DiMaggio won his third MVP award and his sixth World Series with the Yankees. That year, Boston Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey and Yankees GM Larry MacPhail verbally agreed to trade DiMaggio for Ted Williams, but the trade was canceled when MacPhail refused to include Yogi Berra.
In the September 1949 issue of SPORT, Hank Greenberg said that DiMaggio covered so much ground in center field that the only way to get a hit against the Yankees was "to hit 'em where Joe wasn't." DiMaggio also stole home five times in his career. According to the David Halberstam book Summer of '49, former manager Joe McCarthy said, "DiMaggio might have stolen 60 bases a season if I had given him the green light."
On February 7, 1949, DiMaggio signed a contract worth $100,000 (equivalent to $1,400,000 in 2025) ($70,000 plus bonuses), and became the first baseball player to break $100,000 in earnings. By 1950, he was ranked the second-best center fielder by the Sporting News, after Larry Doby. After a poor 1951 season, various injuries, and a scouting report by the Brooklyn Dodgers that was turned over to the New York Giants and leaked to the press, DiMaggio announced his retirement at age 37 on December 11, 1951. When remarking on his retirement to the Sporting News on December 19, 1951, he said:
I feel like I have reached the stage where I can no longer produce for my club, my manager, and my teammates. I had a poor year, but even if I had hit .350, this would have been my last year. I was full of aches and pains and it had become a chore for me to play. When baseball is no longer fun, it's no longer a game, and so, I've played my last game.