56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports (48 page)

Photograph by Bettmann/Corbis

DiMaggio scoring in Game 56

Photograph by Bettmann/Corbis

M
ANY PEOPLE ALLOWED
themselves to be peppered with my questions and inquiries over the course of writing this book and I’m grateful to all of them for what they shared: their memories, their insights and, most precious of all, their time. My gratitude begins with the ballplayers from 1941, those who helped bring me onto the field and into the game. A great tip of the cap to the late Dominic DiMaggio, who was patient and gracious at a time in his life when he had every excuse not to be. And to Dom’s daughter Emily for her own thoughts. And to Dom’s son Dominic Paul. I owe thanks to Bobby Doerr, Benny McCoy, the late Herman Franks and the late Rapid Robert, Bob Feller; to Al Brancato and Marty Marion and Yogi Berra (by way of the exceedingly helpful Art Berke). I enjoyed and was inspired by few conversations more than the several that I had talking baseball with Rugger Ardizoia and Charlie Silvera. I’m also indebted to some important offspring, particularly Charles Keller and Robert Cleveland Muncrief III.

My reporting in San Francisco and North Beach was enriched by numerous longtime residents of the city including Dante Santora and Dick Boyd; Art Peterson of the Telegraph Hill Society; the seemingly indefatigable Alessandro Baccari Jr.; Father Paul Maniscalco and Father Armand Oliveri at the church of Saints Peter and Paul; Gil Hodges III and Trevor Noonan at Liverpool Lil’s; David Wright and David Wees at Café Divine; Ida Debrunner and Suzanne Debrunner (and their wonderful photo album) on Taylor Street; Joe Toboni Jr.; Joseph Alioto Jr.; Betty at Galileo High. Telephone conversations with Patti Barsocchini were also very helpful, as were those far-reaching ones with Sam Spear.

Visiting San Francisco would have been far less enlightening, as well as less enjoyable, without the company and guidance of the late Ron Fimrite. I wish I could thank Ron for that again, in person, and also for bringing me to his beloved Washington Square Bar & Grill and introducing me to Michael McCourt, a splendid bartender and also a source for this book.

Several writers helped fill in the landscape, not only with their work, but, more pointedly, in our conversations. Among them: Robert Creamer, Ray Robinson, Dave Anderson, Roger Kahn and the late Maury Allen. They were also among those who escorted me back to 1941, as did Mario Cuomo and Gay Talese.

To Tom Villante: Thank you for your clarity and your precision, again and again.

In New Jersey, special gratitude goes to Bina Spatola and to Larry Chiaravallo, and a nod to Dr. Richard Boiardo. In East Harlem, thanks to Albert Luongo and to Jimmy and Joey.

Among the many others who provided salient wisdom or detail, or both: Bert Sugar, Ed Moose, Orin Dahl, Al Kaufman, Kristi Jacobson, Rich Lindbergh, Andrew Crichton, Nick Peters, Norman Goldberger, George Bailin, Richard Goldstein, Stan Moroknek, Sam Goldman, Paolo Corvino, Sheila King in Chicago and Tucker Anderson.

Many active, or just retired, major leaguers lent me an ear and gave me their voices on any number of relevant subjects, including (but not limited to): Clint Barmes, Luis Castillo, Ryan Church, Adam Dunn,
Ken Griffey Jr., Todd Helton, Derek Jeter, Nick Johnson, Dan Murphy, Jimmy Rollins, Aaron Rowand, Ichiro Suzuki, Gary Sheffield, Matt Stairs, Nick Swisher, Robin Ventura, David Wright and Ryan Zimmerman.

Other players, from the 1970s and ’80s, were helpful too, especially: Don Baylor, Wade Boggs, George Brett, Ken Griffey Sr., Tony Gwynn, Keith Hernandez, Carney Lansford, Larry McWilliams, Ron Reed and Pat Zachry.

Pete Rose gets a big thank you just for being himself.

For helping me parse through matters of mind and probability, many thanks to: Robert Remez, Steven Strogatz, Alan Goldberg, Bill James, Jim Lackritz, Benjamin McGill, Gordon Bower and Stanley Lieberson.

For other important illuminations, thanks to Steve Hirdt, Walt Hriniak, Marty Brennaman, Rick Cerrone, Marty Appel, David Robbeson, Don Chance, Richard Hartman and two careful arbiters, Michael Duca and Ivy McLemore.

This book would not have gotten done had I not received help in facilitating access, interviews and materials. For such help I am grateful to Phyllis Merhige, Eric Mann, Jay Horwitz, Corey Kilgannon, Joe Posnanski, Bob Richardson, Betsy Gotbaum, Ethan Wilson, Greg Casterioto, Padraic Boyle, Shirley in Cleveland, Andrew Krueger, David W. Smith, Patricia O’Toole, David Ouse, Jack O’Connell and Jim Nagourney.

At the Yankees, thanks to Randy Levine, as well as to Tony Morante.

At the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, special thanks to the indispensable Bill Francis. Also to Benjamin Harry, Freddie Berowski and Brad Horn. Thank you as well to my guides at the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory, especially to bat-turner Garrik Napier and to then curator Dan Cohen.

A quiet thanks as well to those of you who gave me your time and thoughts or otherwise assisted on the book but asked not to be mentioned by name.

A list of materials that I used follows in a bibliography, but I would like to cite two descriptions in particular: Tommy Henrich’s account of the moment Joe DiMaggio realized his bat had been stolen, and Phil Rizzuto’s account of the night the hitting streak ended, both from HBO’s
Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio?
Also, a special citation to Joyce Hadley’s book,
Dorothy Arnold: Joe DiMaggio’s First Wife
.

Now, a little closer to home:

This book wouldn’t be here without the encouragement and guidance of Andrew Blauner, my agent, adviser and all-around savior. I’m grateful for Andrew’s intelligence and clear thinking, and perhaps most of all his abiding sense of decency.

The book was greatly improved by the sharp, thoughtful and careful attention of David Bauer. Sense and sensibility in one. I feel lucky to have had David as an editor.

I’m grateful to Kevin Kerr, a consummately professional and, in my experience, peerless copy editor. And to Sarah Kwak for her hard, thorough and creative work in making sure that we got things right. Many thanks as well to designer Stephen Skalocky and to photo editor Cristina Scalet.

I was helped by Christy Hammond, who kindly excavated materials in Detroit, and by Matthew Parker, who did fine research in New York.

Thank you in a big way to Terry McDonell for believing in the book from the start and then for supporting it. And a big thank you to Richard Fraiman for the same.

Thanks to everyone at
Sports Illustrated
and Time Home Entertainment Inc. who kept things afloat: to the terrific, multitalented Stefanie Kaufman and the wonderfully diligent Allison Parker; to Joy Butts, Tom Mifsud, Helen Wilson, Scott Novak, Emily Christopher, Malena Jones and Lee Sosin.

To Amy, for your fine eye and your counsel at every step of this process (and for your excellent work in Newark) and for your support and companionship and generosity, and for far more than I can here put into words, I embrace you and thank you and thank you again.

In Kathrin Perutz, my eternal guide to defying gravitas, and in Michael Studdert-Kennedy, who sees to the heart of things, I had the two best teachers alive. They were, and are, my inspiration. Thank you for all of it. Thank you for having me.

Kostya Kennedy

New York

2011

Alexander, Charles C.
Rogers Hornsby: A Biography
. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1995

Allen, Maury.
Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio?
New York: Dutton, 1975

Auker, Elden and Keegan, Tom.
Sleeper Cars and Flannel Uniforms
. Chicago: Triumph Books, 2001

Barber, Red and Creamer, Robert.
Rhubarb in the Catbird Seat
. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1968.

Barolini, Helen et al.
Images: A Pictorial History of Italian Americans
. Staten Island, New York: Center for Migration Studies (Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli), 1981

Blount, Roy, Jr. (co-author)
Williams and DiMaggio, The Stuff of Dreams
. Winnetka, Illinois: Rare Air Media, 1999

Cataneo, David.
I Remember Joe DiMaggio
. Nashville, Tennessee: Cumberland House, 2001

Considine, Bob.
Toots
. New York: Meredith Press, 1969

Cramer, Richard Ben.
Joe DiMaggio: The Hero’s Life
. New York. Simon & Schuster, 2000

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly.
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
. New York: Harper & Row, 1990

Davis, Kenneth S.
FDR, Into the Storm, 1937–1940: A History
. New York: Random House, 1993

_____.
FDR, The War President, 1940–43: A History
. New York: Random House, 2000

DiMaggio, Dom with Gilbert, Bill.
Real Grass, Real Heroes
. New York: Kensington Pub. Corp., 1990

DiMaggio, Joe.
Baseball for Everyone
. New York: Whittlesey House, 1948

_____.
Lucky to Be a Yankee
. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1957

_____, as told to Ross, John M.
The Joe DiMaggio Story, A True Book-Length Feature

Dowson, Ernest.
The Poems of Ernest Dowson, 1896
. New York: John Lane Company, 1915

Eig, Jonathan.
Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig
. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005

Eliot, T.S.
Collected Poems 1909–1962
. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1963

Feller, William.
An Introduction to Probability Theory and Its Applications
. New York: Wiley, 1968

Hadley, Joyce M.
Dorothy Arnold, Joe DiMaggio’s First Wife
. Oak Park, Illinois: Chauncey Park Press, 1993

Hill, Art.
Don’t Let Baseball Die
. Au Train, Mich.: Avery Color Studios, 1979

Hemingway, Ernest,
For Whom the Bell Tolls
. New York: Scribner, 1940

_____.
The Old Man and the Sea
. New York: Scribner, 1952

Henrich, Tommy and Gilbert, Bill.
Five O’Clock Lightning
. New York: Carol Publishing Corp. 1992

Honig, Donald.
Baseball When the Grass Was Real
. New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1975

_____.
Baseball Between the Lines
. Lincoln, Nebraska and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1976

Huhn, Rick.
The Sizzler: George Sisler, Baseball’s Forgotten Great
. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 2004

Immerso, Michael.
Newark’s Little Italy: The Vanished First Ward
. New Brunswick, N.J., and Newark: Rutgers University Press and Newark Public Library, 1997

James, Bill and Neyer, Rob.
The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers
. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004

James, Bill.
The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract
. New York: Free Press, 2001

Johnson, Dick and Stout, Glenn.
DiMaggio: An Illustrated Life
. New York: Walker and Co., 1995

Johnson, Steven.
The Invention of Air
. New York: Riverhead Hardcover, 2008

Kyvig, David E.
Daily Life in the United States, 1920–1940
. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2004

Lindberg, Richard C.
Total White Sox
. Chicago: Triumph Books, 2006

Lagumina, Salvatore J.
Wop! A Documentary History of Anti-Italian Discrimination in the United States
. San Francisco: Straight Arrow Books, 1973

Lee, Sandra S.
Italian Americans of Newark, Belleville and Nutley
. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2008

Lukacs, John.
Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat: the Dire Warning
. New York: Basic Books, 2008

Madden, Bill.
Pride of October: What It Was to Be Young and a Yankee
. New York: Warner Books, 2003

Malta, Vince.
A Complete Reference Guide: Louisville Slugger Professional Player Bats
. Concord, Calif.: Black Diamond Publications, 2007

McElvaine, Robert S. Mario
Cuomo: A Biography
. New York: Scribner’s, 1988

_____.
The Great Depression, America, 1929–1941
. New York: Times Books, 1984

McKim, Vaughn R. and Turner, Stephen P. (editors).
Causality in Crisis? Statistical Methods and the Search for Causal Knowledge in the Social Sciences
. Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1997

Mlodinow, Leonard.
The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives
. New York: Pantheon Books, 2008

Mondello, Salvatore.
A Sicilian in East Harlem
. Youngstown, New York: Cambria Press, 2005

Monroe, Marilyn with Hecht, Ben.
My Story
. Lanham, Maryland: Taylor Trade Publishing, 2007

Moore, Jack B.
Joe DiMaggio, a Bio-Bibliography
. New York: Greenwood Press, 1986