Yankees Have Day to Remember

Baseball took a back seat to emotion Sunday at Yankee Stadium, as the World Champions dedicated a monument to Joe DiMaggio before their game with Toronto.

On a sun-splashed afternoon, a sellout Stadium crowd watched DiMaggio’s former teammates--Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Phil Rizzuto, Hank Bauer, Jerry Coleman and Gil McDougald--gather for the unveiling of the granite and bronze monument, only the fifth to be dedicated in the team’s 97-year history. The others honor Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle and Miller Huggins.

All the players except Ford were in the starting lineup for Game 6 of the 1951 World Series--DiMaggio’s final game. Public-address announcer Bob Sheppard recited the lineup on Sunday, just as he did on that day--Oct. 10, 1951.

After an invocation by Cardinal John O’Connor, Rizzuto addressed the crowd. Then Paul Simon, standing in center field, sang the song that was written for the movie “The Graduate” and became an anthem for the ‘60s.

When he sang the line, “Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?” the crowd responded with one more cheer for the Yankee Clipper, who died March 8 at 84.

Highlights of DiMaggio’s career were shown on the scoreboard, including clips of his final visit to Yankee Stadium, Sept. 27, 1998, when he was honored before the final game of last season.

Joining the ex-Yankees for the ceremony were DiMaggio’s granddaughters, Paula and Kathy, and longtime friend and lawyer Morris Engelberg.

Coleman remembered DiMaggio as a solitary man and recalled being in awe of him when they became teammates.

“I was raised in San Francisco. I knew more about him than any player that lived,” he said. “He was the god, the icon. He was it. He was baseball.

“My first spring training was ’48. He was there. It was thrilling, the magnitude of the man. I didn’t go up to him and say, ‘Hi, Joe, I’m so-and-so.’ Billy Martin tried to cozy up to him. That lasted about a week.”

The monument salutes DiMaggio’s accomplishments, including his recognition in 1969--a year after the Simon song was published--as baseball’s greatest living player.

It concludes with the words, “An American icon. He has passed but will never be forgotten.”

After the ceremony, the Yankees and Blue Jays played to a 3-3 tie through 10 innings before Bernie Williams hit a tiebreaking single in the bottom of the 11th inning to lift the Yankees to a 4-3 victory and a sweep of their three-game series with Toronto.

Chuck Knoblauch led off the inning and was hit by a pitch from Robert Person. After Derek Jeter struck out, Paul O’Neill walked and Williams followed with the winning hit.

That made a winner of Jason Grimsley, who retired all six batters he faced.