Report of Death Was Greatly Exaggerated

Nobody was more surprised than Joe DiMaggio when he saw a television report that he had died.

“He was livid,” his lawyer Morris Engelberg said Monday. “Then I made him laugh. I said, ‘Joe, we must be in heaven together.’ ”

The two were watching a tape of “Gunfight at the OK Corral”--DiMaggio’s favorite Western--at DiMaggio’s home Sunday.

The tape was stopped just when the report appeared as a “crawl” across the screen during “Dateline NBC.”

NBC ran another crawl about 20 minutes later, saying its previous report was inaccurate. The network later said a technician in the New York control room inadvertently sent the item.

NBC delivered an apology to DiMaggio to Engelberg’s office on Monday, spokesman Cory Shields said.

DiMaggio, recovering from pneumonia and lung cancer surgery on Oct. 12, already was upset by a story in the New York Daily News that described him as bedridden and in grave condition.

“He’s walking,” Engelberg said. “He’s taking therapy. And he will be at opening day.”

New York Yankee owner George Steinbrenner said last week when DiMaggio was released after a 99-day hospital stay, “Joe will certainly toss out the first ball.”