Timeline
1914-1936
1914
Nov. 25: Born in Martinez, Calif.
1930
Just after his 16th birthday, DiMaggio drops out of Galileo High in San Francisco and takes a job selling newspapers.
1931
Summer: Joe’s brother Vince, a star player for the San Francisco Boys Club baseball team, paves the way for Joe to join. Joe made his debut July 5. He plays shortstop and goes 0 for 3 in a 10-5 victory over Willoh Dry Goods. This is the first recorded instance of DiMaggio playing baseball. The next day, Joe goes two for three, scores two runs and earns a spot in the starting lineup.
1932
September: The San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League, which at the time was almost like a third major league, need a shortstop at the end of the season, and at Vince DiMaggio’s recommendation they sign Joe.
Oct. 1: DiMaggio makes his professional debut with the Seals. Batting second and playing shortstop, he triples and scores a run in a 4-3 victory over the San Jose Missions.
Winter: DiMaggio is assigned to the Seals’ winter league team, the Kenneally Seals, and draws rave reviews for his hitting and fielding at short. The San Francisco Seals quickly sign him to a contract that pays him $225 a month.
‘32 SEASON: .222 batting average, 0 homers, 2 RBIs, 3 games
1933
February: In spring training, DiMaggio is not expected to make the Seals. The star at camp is shortstop Tony Gomez, who hit with power and fielded brilliantly. But Manager Ike Caveney cuts Gomez with two weeks remaining in camp, telling him: ‘You’re just too black.” DiMaggio benefits from baseball’s racism.
April: Despite making 23 errors in 18 exhibition games, DiMaggio makes the Seals’ opening-day 20-man roster. His brother Vince is cut two days after the season begins.
April 6: The Seals are playing their third game of the season, and DiMaggio has yet to appear. In the ninth inning, after pinch-hitting for right fielder George Thomas, DiMaggio stays in the game and plays right, his first appearance in the outfield. He rarely plays shortstop again.
May 15: DiMaggio, batting .237, ranks 77th of the 83 batters who have played at least 15 games in the PCL. The Seals bench him.
May 28: DiMaggio starts the second game of a doubleheader against Portland and doubles. It is the first game of a 61-game hitting streak.
July 14: Seals’ Stadium is packed with 10,000 fans, five times the normal crowd, for ‘Joe DiMaggio Night.” DiMaggio goes four for five, extending his hitting streak to 50 games, a PCL record.
July 26: DiMaggio wins a game with a sacrifice fly in the ninth inning but goes hitless to end the streak.
‘33 SEASON: .340 batting average, 28 homers, 169 RBIs, 187 games
1934
May 19: A scout for the New York Giants meets with Seal owner Charley Graham and says the Giants will offer Graham $100,000 to buy DiMaggio from him by the end of the week.
May 20: DiMaggio tears cartilage and stretches tendons in his left knee while getting out of a cab after a doubleheader. The Giants rescind their offer. DiMaggio continues to play and his average plummets from .370 to .270 over the next 10 weeks.
Aug. 10: While he is rising from the bench to take the field in the bottom of the first, DiMaggio’s knee buckles. His season is over.
Nov. 23: New York offers the Seals $25,000 and five players--Les Powell, Ted Norbett, Ed Farrell, Jim Densmore and Floyd Newkirk--for DiMaggio. But the Yankees allow DiMaggio to play for the Seals in 1935 to see if his knee holds up. If it fails, Graham doesn’t get the money.
‘34 SEASON: .341 batting average, 12 homers, 69 RBIs, 101 games
1935
1935 season: The knee holds up, although it continues to bother DiMaggio occasionally for the rest of his career. DiMaggio bats .398 with 48 doubles, 18 triples, 34 home runs, 154 runs batted in, 173 runs and 24 stolen bases.
September: The Yankees ask Seal Manager Lefty O’Doul to move DiMaggio from right to center.
October: DiMaggio is voted Pacific Coast League MVP. The Yankees pay Graham his $25,000 and DiMaggio becomes a New York Yankee.
‘35 SEASON: .398 batting average, 34 homers, 154 RBIs, 172 games
1936
March 21: After getting spiked in the foot, DiMaggio gets heat treatment, but he doesn’t inform anyone that the heat pack is too hot. DiMaggio’s foot is severely burned and he is confined to bed for 10 days.
April 28: Two weeks into the season, DiMaggio plays his first regular-season game with the Yankees and goes three for six with three runs and an RBI in a 14-5 victory over the St. Louis Browns.
May 10: In a 7-2 victory over Philadelphia, DiMaggio hits his first home run, against pitcher George Turbeville.
June 24: DiMaggio hits a two-run homer against the White Sox’s Ray Phillips and a three-run homer against Red Evans as part of a 10-run fifth inning, becoming only the third player in American League history to hit two homers in one inning.
All-Star break: DiMaggio leads the AL in voting for the All-Star game. Yankee attendance is up 200,000 over 1935, thanks mainly to DiMaggio. In the All-Star game, DiMaggio goes 0 for 5.
Oct. 6: The Yankees win Game 6 and the World Series against the New York Giants. DiMaggio hits .346 in the Series.
‘36 SEASON: .323 batting average, 29 homers, 125 RBIs, 138 games
1937-1941
1937
July 5: DiMaggio hits his first grand slam, against Boston’s Rube Walberg, in an 8-4 victory.
July 30: DiMaggio hits his 15th homer in July, a record for the month.
Oct. 10: DiMaggio homers in Game 5 of the World Series, a 4-2 Yankee win that gives New York its second consecutive championship.
‘37 SEASON: .346 batting average, 46 homers, 167 RBIs, 151 games
1938
Jan. 21: DiMaggio rejects a $25,000 contract offer from the Yankees and begins a holdout. DiMaggio wants $45,000. General Manager Ed Barrow tells DiMaggio that $45,000 is more than Lou Gehrig is paid, to which DiMaggio responds: ‘It’s too bad that Gehrig is so underpaid.”
March 12: The Yankees increase Gehrig’s contract to $39,000. DiMaggio, not impressed, continues his holdout.
April 20: DiMaggio agrees to the Yankees’ original offer of $25,000 and heads to New York from San Francisco by train.
April 30: Yankee fans boo DiMaggio in his season debut. While chasing a pop fly in the third inning, DiMaggio collides with teammate Joe Gordon. Both are knocked unconscious. DiMaggio returns to the lineup the next day, Gordon is sidelined for 10 games.
Oct. 8: The Yankees finish a sweep of the Chicago Cubs and win their third consecutive World Series title.
‘38 SEASON: .324 batting average, 32 homers, 140 RBIs, 145 games
1939
April 29: While racing to catch a fly ball in the third inning of a game against Washington, DiMaggio catches his spikes in the Yankee Stadium grass and suffers a severely torn calf muscle. He is out for six weeks.
June 6: DiMaggio returns from his injury and hits a single, double and homer in a 7-2 victory over the White Sox.
Sept. 3: DiMaggio’s 18-game hitting streak, the longest in baseball that season, ends when he wrenches his knee running out a grounder against the Red Sox in his first at-bat.
Sept. 4: Over the final three weeks of the season, he hits .263, and his average falls from .410 to end up at .381.
Oct. 9: DiMaggio singles in the 10th inning to drive in the go-ahead run in a 7-4 victory over the Reds. The Series sweep gives the Yankees a major league record fourth consecutive World Series title.
November: DiMaggio is elected American League most valuable player.
Nov. 19: DiMaggio marries chorus girl Dorothy Arnold in San Francisco. The church seats 2,000, but word of the wedding leaks and an estimated 10,000 crowd around the church to hear the ceremony.
‘39 SEASON: .381 batting average, 30 homers, 126 RBIs, 120 games
1940
March 5: DiMaggio signs for $32,000.
April 14: In the Yankees’ final exhibition game, DiMaggio tries to stretch a single into a double and tears ligaments in his right knee sliding into second. He misses the first three weeks of the season.
October: DiMaggio hits .352 (winning his second batting title) with 31 homers and 133 RBIs. The Yankees finish third, two games behind the Detroit Tigers. It is the first time the Yankees have not won the pennant with DiMaggio on the team.
‘40 SEASON: .352 batting average, 31 homers, 133 RBIs, 132 games
1941
March 6: DiMaggio signs for $35,000.
April 22-May 14: DiMaggio goes through his worst slump. In 20 games, he bats only .194.
May 15: DiMaggio singles in the first inning of a 13-1 loss to the White Sox. It is the beginning of his 56-game hitting streak.
June 17: DiMaggio’s streak reaches 30 when he is credited with a hit on a bad-hop grounder that glances off shortstop Luke Appling’s shoulder. He breaks the team record of 29 held by Roger Peckinpaugh and Earle Combs.
June 23: Bandleader Les Brown records the song ‘Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio.”
June 26: With the streak at 37, DiMaggio goes hitless in his first four at-bats against the St. Louis Browns. With the Yankees leading, 3-1, DiMaggio is due up fourth in the top of the ninth inning. With one on and one out, Tommy Henrich, afraid he might ground into a double play, asks Yankee Manager Joe McCarthy for permission to bunt. McCarthy agrees. Henrich sacrifices and DiMaggio follows with a double to left.
July 2: In the fifth inning against Boston, DiMaggio homers off Dick Newsom to break Willie Keeler’s record of 44 games set in 1896.
July 17: In front of 67,468 in Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium, DiMaggio grounds out in his first at-bat after stumbling out of the batter’s box. After a walk and another groundout, he comes up in the eighth with the bases loaded. DiMaggio grounds into an inning-ending double play against right-hander Jim Bagby Jr. The streak is over.
July 18: DiMaggio goes two for four and starts a new streak, which reaches 16 games.
Aug. 20: DiMaggio suffers a badly sprained right ankle against Detroit and sits out three weeks.
Sept. 4: The Yankees clinch the pennant, the earliest clinching in baseball history.
Oct. 6: The Yankees defeat the Dodgers, 3-1, in Game 5 of the World Series, giving them another World Series title.
Oct. 23: DiMaggio’s wife gives birth to a son, Joe DiMaggio Jr.
November: DiMaggio is elected American League most valuable player.
‘41 SEASON: .357 batting average, 30 homers, 125 RBIs, 139 games
1942-1947
1942
March 14: DiMaggio signs a $42,000 contract with the Yankees.
April 22: In an 11-5 victory over Philadelphia, DiMaggio hits his 200th homer.
June 3-13: DiMaggio hits .172 during a eight-game trip against Cleveland and Detroit, dropping his season average to .253. When the Yankees return home, DiMaggio hears boos from the crowd. Some in the crowd question his loyalty since he is of Italian heritage and the U.S is at war with Italy.
June 30-Sept. 14: DiMaggio hits .350 over this stretch and the Yankees clinch the pennant on Sept. 14.
Oct. 5: The Yankees lose to the Cardinals, 4-2, and St. Louis wins the World Series in five games.
Dec. 3: Dorothy Arnold, DiMaggio’s wife, takes Joe Jr. and moves to Reno, where she files for divorce. Arnold, who lives in San Francisco, is upset that her husband is away from home during the season and wants him to enlist in the Army, figuring he will be used for public relations and be stationed somewhere in the U.S. where she can be with him daily.
‘42 SEASON: .305 batting average, 21 homers, 113 RBIs, 154 games
1943
Jan. 13: DiMaggio and Arnold say they have reconciled.
Feb. 17: DiMaggio enlists in the Army and is stationed at Santa Ana Air Base in California. He plays for the camp baseball team, which plays against nearby college and semipro teams. His wife and son move to Los Angeles to be near him.
Oct. 11: Dorothy Arnold files for divorce again citing “cruelty.” On the same day, the Yankees defeat the St. Louis Cardinals, 2-0, to win the World Series in five games.
1944
January: Divorce is granted. Arnold receives $500 a month in alimony, $150 a month in child support and custody of Joe Jr.
June: Sensitive to charges of favoritism, the Army transfers DiMaggio and major leaguers Red Ruffing, Johnny Beazley and Joe Gordon to Hawaii. The Navy, not wanting the Army to build a powerhouse baseball team, transfers Phil Rizzuto, Pee Wee Reese, Johnny Mize and Dom DiMaggio to Hawaii. The two clubs meet 10 times, the Navy winning eight.
October: Because of ulcers, DiMaggio is transferred to San Francisco and spends three weeks in an Army hospital.
1945
February: DiMaggio is assigned to Special Services in Atlantic City.
March: DiMaggio develops another ulcer.
August: DiMaggio is sent to an Army hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Sept. 14: DiMaggio is discharged, but not in time to help the Yankees, who have already been eliminated from pennant contention.
1946
April 16: Playing in his first major league game since 1942, DiMaggio hits a two-run homer in a 5-0 victory over Philadelphia.
July 2: In a game against Philadelphia, DiMaggio tears cartilage in his left knee and sprains his left ankle while sliding into second base and misses a month. He is hitting only .266 at the time.
Nov. 3: The Yankees offer DiMaggio to the Washington Senators for 1946 batting champion Mickey Vernon. The Senators reject the deal.
‘46 SEASON: .90 batting average, 25 homers, 95 RBIs, 132 games
1947
Jan. 7: DiMaggio undergoes surgery to remove a bone spur from his left heel.
Feb. 15: DiMaggio reports to spring training, but his heel is still swollen and he can barely walk. He is sent to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, where it’s determined he has an infected, open wound from surgery. The massive swelling has prevented DiMaggio from seeing the open wound.
March 11: DiMaggio undergoes a skin graft.
April 3: Yankee owner Dan Topping and Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey agree to blockbuster trade, DiMaggio for Ted Williams.
April 4: Yawkey awakens and tells Topping the deal’s off.
April 21: DiMaggio plays his first game and hits a three-run homer against Philadelphia.
May 23: Yankee President Larry MacPhail fines DiMaggio $100 for refusing to appear in a newsreel shoot set up by MacPhail for the Army Signal Corps.
Sept. 15: The Yankees clinch the pennant.
Oct. 5: Game 6 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium. Trailing, 8-6, in the sixth inning and with two on, DiMaggio hits a drive down the left-field line, but Dodger left fielder Al Gionfriddo races in from seemingly nowhere to make a lunging catch. DiMaggio kicks the dirt near second base.
Oct. 6: The Yankees defeat the Dodgers, 5-2, in the seventh game of the World Series.
Oct. 10: It is revealed that DiMaggio played most of the season with bone chips in his right elbow, which limited him to one good throw a game. DiMaggio had thrown out only two baserunners in the season, when he usually led the league.
November: DiMaggio is named AL MVP for the third time. Boston’s Ted Williams, despite having won the triple crown with a .343 average, 32 homers and 114 RBIs, finishes second in the voting by one point when Boston sportswriter Mel Webb leaves Williams off his ballot.
‘47 SEASON: .315 batting average, 20 homers, 97 RBIs, 141 games
1948-1950
1948
Jan. 5: DiMaggio signs for $65,000, his first raise since 1942. Only Ted Williams and Bob Feller make more.
May 20: In a 13-2 victory over Chicago, DiMaggio hits for the cycle, including two home runs, and drives in six runs.
May 22: In a 6-5 victory over Cleveland, DiMaggio hits three homers, two against Feller, and drives in all six runs.
Aug. 19: DiMaggio misses a game against Washington to serve as honorary pallbearer at Babe Ruth’s funeral.
Aug. 20-Sept. 15: Despite increasing pain in his right heel, DiMaggio hits .380 and the Yankees win 20 of 23 games. Teammate Spec Shea says, “I’ve never seen anyone in such pain. But as soon as he set foot on the field he blocked it out.”
Sept. 16: The New York Times prints a story that says DiMaggio needs heel surgery and plans to hold out for $125,000 in 1949. DiMaggio is furious.
Sept. 30: The Yankees are eliminated from the pennant race on the last day of the season, although DiMaggio goes four for four.
Nov. 12: DiMaggio enters Johns Hopkins for surgery on his right heel.
‘48 SEASON: .320 batting average, 39 homers, 156 RBIs, 153 games
1949
Feb. 7: DiMaggio signs for $100,000, the largest salary in baseball history.
March-April: DiMaggio is sent back to Johns Hopkins twice for stabbing pain in his heel and calcium deposits are discovered.
May 3: DiMaggio’s father dies in San Francisco.
June 15: DiMaggio wakes up and has no pain in his heel. He begins working out to rejoin the Yankees.
June 28-30: In his debut after missing almost three months of the regular season, DiMaggio singles in his first at-bat, homers in his second at-bat, and the Yankees beat the Red Sox, 5- 4. He hits three homers in the next two games to give the Yankees a sweep and drop the Red Sox to fifth place.
July 12: DiMaggio is named the starting center fielder for the All-Star game. He drives in four runs with a single and double in an 11-7 AL victory.
Sept. 19: The Yankees lead the Red Sox by 2 1/2 games with 13 to play, but DiMaggio develops a high temperature, gets pneumonia and is later hospitalized.
Oct. 1: The Yankees, without DiMaggio in the lineup and now a game behind Boston, designate this “Joe DiMaggio Day.” DiMaggio uncharacteristically breaks down when the Yankee Stadium crowd of more than 70,000 gives him an eight-minute standing ovation before the game. The Yankees present DiMaggio with two cars, a boat, three watches, 300 quarts of ice cream and a college scholarship for his son. DiMaggio plays and singles and doubles in a 5-4 victory.
Oct. 2: With the Yankees leading, 5-1, and two men on for the Red Sox, Bobby Doerr drives a ball to deep center. DiMaggio gives chase but his right leg buckles and he falls. Doerr gets a two-run triple. and DiMaggio asks to be removed from the game. The Yankees hold on for a 5-4 victory and win the pennant.
Oct. 9: In Game 5 of the World Series, DiMaggio homers in a 10-6, Series-clinching win over the Dodgers.
Nov. 1: DiMaggio tells Yankee owner Dan Topping that he plans to retire, but Topping talks him out of it.
‘49 SEASON: .346 batting average; 14 homers, 67 RBIs, 76 games
1950
Jan. 27: DiMaggio signs for $100,000.
Feb. 5: The Sporting News conducts a survey of 500 baseball players, asking them to name the baseball player they most admire and 85% name DiMaggio.
June 20: In an 8-2 victory over Cleveland, DiMaggio gets his 2,000th hit.
July 2: Yankee Manager Casey Stengel asks owner Dan Topping to ask DiMaggio to play first base, figuring DiMaggio won’t refuse the owner. DiMaggio agrees, but tells Topping, “I wish Casey had the guts to ask me himself.”
July 3: DiMaggio plays first base and makes no errors, but fails to get to several ground balls. The Yankees lose to Washington, 7-2.
July 4: DiMaggio returns to the outfield.
Aug. 11: DiMaggio, slumping, is benched by Stengel for six games.
Aug. 18-28: DiMaggio, back in the lineup because of an injury to Hank Bauer, bats .400 in 11 games.
Sept. 10: DiMaggio hits three home runs in Washington’s Griffith Stadium. He is the only player to ever hit three homers in the mammoth park, which measures 405 feet down the left-field line.
Sept. 29: The Yankees clinch the pennant. Since returning to the lineup, DiMaggio is hitting .376 with nine homers and 30 RBIs.
Oct. 8: The Yankees finish a World Series sweep of Philadelphia.
‘50 SEASON: .301 batting average, 32 homers, 122 RBIs, 139 games
1951-1999
1951
Feb. 15: DiMaggio signs again with the Yankees for $100,000.
March 2: DiMaggio says, “This year might be my last. I want to end my career before I am too far past my peak.”
March 30: DiMaggio is hitting only .215 in spring training and headlines in New York are dominated by a rookie in camp--Mickey Mantle.
June 18: DiMaggio’s mother lapses into a coma and dies 10 days later.
Sept. 28: DiMaggio homers off Boston’s Chuck Stobbs. It is the 361st and last regular-season homer of his career. The Yankees win the game, 11-3, and clinch the American League pennant. It is the 10th time the Yankees have won the pennant in the 13 years DiMaggio played for them.
Oct. 10: In Game 4 of the Series, DiMaggio hits a two-run home off Sal Maglie to give the Yankees a 4-1 lead. It is the last homer of his career.
Oct. 11: Game 6 of the World Series. It is DiMaggio’s 51st Series game, breaking the record held by Frankie Frisch. In his final World Series at-bat, DiMaggio doubles in the eighth inning. The Yankees win the game and the Series. It is DiMaggio’s ninth World Series title.
Dec. 11: DiMaggio announces his retirement, saying the mounting injuries have taken their toll and that he can no longer perform to the standards he had established.
Dec. 12: The Yankees sign DiMaggio to a $100,000 contract to serve as host of pregame and postgame shows on Yankee broadcasts. He quits after one season.
‘51 SEASON: .263 batting average, 12 homers, 71 RBIs, 116 games
1952
March 27: DiMaggio, after contacting the film star’s agent, goes to dinner at the Brown Derby in Hollywood with Marilyn Monroe. She is unimpressed by his fame. Mickey Rooney passes by their table and can’t believe that DiMaggio is there. He sits down and spends the next hour talking to DiMaggio, ignoring Monroe.
March 28-April 2: DiMaggio calls Monroe daily, asking for a date. She finally agrees. They go out the rest of the year and into 1953.
1953
January: DiMaggio appears on the Hall of Fame ballot (the rule requiring a five-year waiting period wasn’t yet in effect). Needing 198 votes for entry, DiMaggio receives 117. He was elected in 1955.
1954
January: DiMaggio and Monroe are married in a small ceremony in San Francisco.
July: Monroe travels to Korea to entertain American troops. Upon her return she tells DiMaggio: “Joe, you’ve never heard such cheering.” DiMaggio responds: “Yes, I have.” The marriage begins to deteriorate. DiMaggio dislikes Hollywood, Monroe doesn’t want to be a stay-at-home wife.
Oct. 27: DiMaggio and Monroe divorce.
December: A friend tells DiMaggio that Monroe is spending the night with another friend. With Frank Sinatra accompanying him, DiMaggio kicks down the door of the man’s apartment where he thinks Monroe is staying. It is the wrong apartment and he barges in on a woman living alone.
1962
Aug. 4: Monroe overdoses on barbiturates, an apparent suicide. DiMaggio arranges for the funeral and bars most of Monroe’s Hollywood friends. He has roses placed on her grave twice a week until 1982, when he stops after the custom became too public.
1967
June: The movie ‘The Graduate” is released and features the song ‘Mrs. Robinson,” which includes the lyrics: ‘Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.” DiMaggio doesn’t understand the song, telling friends he hasn’t gone anywhere.
October: DiMaggio surprises many by agreeing to serve as executive vice president for Oakland A’s owner Charlie Finley. His primary duty is to act as batting coach. He spends two years as Oakland’s batting coach. Later in their careers, Sal Bando, Joe Rudi, Rick Monday and Reggie Jackson all credit DiMaggio with making them better hitters.
1969
July 21: In honor of baseball’s 100th anniversary, fans select DiMaggio as ‘baseball’s greatest living player.”
1972
February: DiMaggio appears in commercials for a New York bank, Bowery Savings. In the week the commercials first air, new accounts at the bank increase 250%.
June: DiMaggio sings a three-year, $1-million contract to appear in the commercials for Mr. Coffee. He makes more money in this contract than all of his playing career.
1989
October: Baseball writer Peter Gammons and Oakland pitcher Bob Welch spot DiMaggio waiting in line to receive an occupancy permit to return to his home in the Marina District in San Francisco a few days after the earthquake that interrupted the World Series. No one else in line seems to recognize him.
1991
June: In honor of the 50th anniversary of his 56-game hitting streak, DiMaggio receives the Medal of Freedom from President George Bush.
1999
March 8: DiMaggio dies.
