December 12, 2022 • 20 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Tom Clavin shares some great stories of Joltin' Joe, Dom, and Vince from his book, The DiMaggios: Three Brothers, Their Passion for Baseball, Their Pursuit of the American Dream.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is our American Stories, and we tell stories about
everything here on this show. One of our favorite subjects
is the subject of sports. More than three hundred and
fifty sets of brothers have played in the major leagues
since the eighteen seventies, and we're talking about baseball. But
few have had the skill, the charisma, or the success
(00:31):
of the Demaggio brothers, Jolton, Joe, dom and Vince. Here
to tell the story is the four time New York
Times bestseller author Tom Cleveland. He'll be sharing stories from
his book The Demaggio's Three Brothers, their passion for baseball
and their pursuit of the American dream. Here's Cleveland. The
(00:52):
Demagio's is about family. That's the reason why I wrote
the book. It's dedicated to my own family. I had
actually turned down the oppunity to write the Demaggios twice.
I was not interested. I thought that Richard ben Kramer
had done the book on the Demaggio's because of his
biography of Joe Demajo in A Hero's Life. I'm not
(01:13):
a big fan of that book, but I figured it
would be pretty thorough and what else could I do.
The third time that my agent suggested that I do
a book on the Demago's, all three brothers. I agreed
to look into it, mostly just so I could get
him off my back and he could stop suggesting that.
And I started to do some research. I mean, like
(01:36):
most people, I maybe didn't even know there were two
other Demaggio brothers, or I knew that there was Dominic
in Boston, but I didn't know about Vince at all.
And it is kind of remarkable that you had three
brothers playing at the same time, not unheard of. I mean,
we know about the Alue brothers, for example, and we
had other brothers who have played at the same time
(01:58):
with the Demaggio's. My first stop was, after doing some
initial researches, I made an appointment with Dominic Dmazo Junior
and went up to see him. He had taken over
his father's factory manufacturing business in the Boston area, and
I went up to see him and spent the day
with him talking about his father. And I came away
(02:19):
realizing that and many writers would not want to say
something like this, my agent was right. There was a
terrific story here and it went way beyond Joe Damagio,
which I was very glad for. Because even though I
was born and raised the Yankees fan, my father's favorite
player was Joe Damaco. Again, a Joe Dmazo biography didn't
(02:42):
interest me, so I wrote a book that really is
from the viewpoint of family. Giuseppe and Rosalie coming over
from Italy barely could speak English, becoming a fisherman in
the San Francisco area, raising nine children. The last of
home where Vincent DiMaggio, Joe DiMaggio and the baby Dominic DiMaggio,
(03:05):
and those are the three that became baseball players. They
were in carbon copies of each other. They all three
loved baseball. It's interesting that the Giseppi and Rosalie and
had six children and then they had Vincent, and Vincent
was passionate about baseball, and he was talented, and he
the father, Giuseppe forbade his children to play baseball. And
(03:31):
so when Joe was a teenager, he couldn't play, or
he would have to play in secret. When Dominic was
very young, he couldn't play, or the mother would sometimes
cover for them. But Vincent was very blatant about it.
He wanted to play baseball. That's what he wanted to
do with his life. And when Giuseppe kept being optioned
about it, but Vincent did as he ran away. Some
kids run away and joined the circus. Vincent ran away
(03:52):
to join a baseball team, and he started playing in
leagues up and down the up and down California, up
and down the West Coast into Oregon and Washington. Eventually
made it to the Pacific Coast League, which was almost
a Major league caliber. One of the enjoyments for me
of writing the book The Damajo's was that all three
brothers played first the Pacific Coast League before going onto
(04:16):
the major leagues. Anyway. Vincent went off to play baseball,
and he was gone for about two years, and he
came back to the family home in the San Francisco area,
and his father basically had his arms crossed and said,
so you come back. You probably have no money and
you've been a big failure, and now you're ready to
be a fisherman, just like your father, just like your brothers,
(04:38):
well two of the brothers anyway, And instead Vincent reached
into his pocket and put something like, you know, six
thousand dollars cash on the table. That's what I earned
playing baseball, and gi Seppi took a look at that,
and he went to Joe and he said, what are
you going to start playing baseball? Well, Joe is ready,
willing and able to jump right in. And he also
started playing for local teams and for the Pacific Coast League,
(05:00):
and he quickly apt distance Vincent. Now we should really
give credit defence in here, because he had the courage
to follow his dream. And it was because of that
the door got cracked open for Joe Domaco. If it
had not been for Vincent, we would never might never
know Joe Dimaco, a Hall of Fame player, winner of
nine World Series titles. So Joe started to play the
(05:22):
Pacific Coast League and it was in the Pacific Coast
League that he had a sixty one game hitting streak.
I mean, we know about the longer than the long
hitting streak he had Major League Baseball, but he had
his longest one of his careers in the Pacific Coast League. Meanwhile,
Vincent does get called up to the major leagues. I
believe his first team he played for was the Pittsburgh Pirates.
(05:45):
He eventually played for the Philadelphia Phillies, but it was
with the Pirates that he had a couple of all
Star seasons. He was a very good defensive outfielder, probably
during his years in the National League, the best center
fielder in the National League. And he was a pretty
decent hitter, and he made the All Star team into
a couple of years. Joe came up with the Yankees
in nineteen thirty six, was his rookie season, and he
(06:09):
and Dimajo were on great Yankee teams that won the
Pennant in thirty six, thirty seven, thirty eight, thirty nine,
you know, four straight Pennants, four straight World Series. As
it turned out too, so Joe right away got used
to winning, and he was an All Star every year.
And then what about Dominic DiMaggio, the youngest one. He
was also nicknamed the Professor. He had these stick glasses.
(06:30):
Nobody thought of him as a baseball player. He had
to really go against a lot of stereotypes to eventually
work his way through the Pacific Coast League and then
into Major League Baseball, where he was signed by the Yankees.
Had a chance to sign him and they passed. I
didn't think he was, you know, anything like his brother,
and he was not Joe Dimajo, but he was Dominic
Dimajo when he was a darn good ball player, and
(06:51):
I happen to think I should have been given more
consideration for the Hall of Fame. But he was taken
by the Boston Red Sox and he had nine All
Star seasons. He played thirteen seasons, played from about nineteen
forty to fifty three fifty two, I think, and he
(07:11):
made the All Star Team nine seven times. Excuse me.
Joe had made the All Star Team thirteen times and
Vincent twice, so he had the three brothers between the
three of them made twenty two All Star teams. That's
a remarkable level of achievement for any family, and their
careers took different paths. Now in Vincent's case, by the
(07:31):
time World War Two ended, he was done with baseball.
He still played. He just kept playing in less accomplished
in smaller leagues, and eventually ended up back on the
West Coast. And he had a troubled post baseball career alcoholism,
couldn't having a hard time holding a job. So he's
(07:53):
also kind of like a story of the American dream.
Like the Demajo family was that his dream was to
play baseball, and the accomplished it. It was outside of
baseball that he had trouble, you know, dealing with life. Joe,
as we know, was a great leader of the Yankees.
He did miss three seasons because of World War Two.
I discussed in the books some of the controversy about
(08:15):
that because he yet to be sort of dragged kicking
and screaming into the military service. But he's a guy
who was about to make one hundred thousand dollars and
studies making two hundred forty dollars a month being in
the army when he got out of the service. When
World War Two ended, the Yankees again won the pennant
in forty seven, forty nine, fifty fifty one. Joe with
(08:37):
diminishing skills, and then he retired after the fifty one season.
By this time, Mickey Manner was on the Yankees and
a new era began for the Yankees. Joe had a
pretty famous post baseball career. He was always introduced as
the greatest living ballplayer. Much of the detriment and lot
(09:00):
of amusement of Ted Williams. When you look at their
respective statistics, Ted Williams far out distanced Joe DiMaggio. He
just didn't have nine World Series titles. And you're listening
to Tom Cleveland, and he's sharing stories from his book
The Demaggio's Three Brothers, their passion for baseball and their
pursuit of the American dream. When we come back more
(09:21):
of the story of the Demaggio brothers here on our
American Stories. And we continue with the story of the
(09:42):
Demaggio brothers here on our American Stories. Let's return to
Tom Cleveland. Joe and Dominic were very close brothers. They
really loved each other. They were also very fierce competitors,
and it didn't help that they would both considered the
best set of fails of the American League. In the
case of how they loved each other, I think one
(10:02):
example as the nineteen forty one season. It also shows
that Ted Williams cared so much for Dominic and for
Joe too, even though they were very much rivals. But
in the nineteen forty one season, Joe was doing his
fifty six game hitting streak and out in the outfield
when they were at Fenway Park, you had Ted Williams
and left and Dominic and center. And usually in those
(10:23):
days games were played, you know, in the daytime, and
it was hard for finding out, you know, what was
going on in the game that was being played at
the exact same time. So Ted basically bribed the scorekeeper
who was behind the green wall and Fenway Park to
listen to radio or some kind of way to get
(10:46):
information from the New York game. And whenever Joe got
a hit, he would yell it out to Ted, who
in turn would yell it over to Dominic in center field.
And Dominic paid attention very fiercely to every moment that
he could get his hands on Joe dimago hitting streak.
I think one way that they were competitors is that
one illustration of this in nineteen forty eight, the Yankees,
(11:08):
the Indians, and the Red Sox are all competing for
the American League Pennant Yankee. The Red Sox had one
in forty six, the Yankees had one in forty seven.
And now you had these upstart into Cleveland Indians. And
as it happened, Dominic had been dating a woman named Emily,
and they had made plans to marry, and they planned
to get married in October nineteen forty eight, and Joe
(11:33):
dimag Joe calls his mother and his mother is expressing
some concern that what happens if the Red Sox win
the pennant and Dominic won't be able to get married
when he's supposed to, and Joe says, don't worry, mama,
I'll personally take care of it, make sure Dominic's available
for his wedding. And sure enough, on the last weekend
of the season, Joe demolishes the Red Sox and the
(11:54):
Cleveland Indians win the pennant, and the Dominic is sent
home in time to get married, with of course Joe
as his best man. I think another good example of
their competitiveness is that in nineteen forty nine, Dominic had
a hitting streak of his own going on. I mean,
(12:14):
he ended up all of all the people in all
of baseball. Joe's own brother is the one coming the
closest to his fifty six game hitting streak, and it's
up to thirty seven games, so Dominic only has another
nineteen games to go. He'll at least tie his brother.
And they're actually the Yankees are playing the Red Sox
of all places, of all teams, and Dominic is over
(12:38):
three and he gets up again, it's it'll be his last.
Unless there's an amazing comeback, there's going to be his
last at bat of the game, and he sends a
screamer to the left center field gap and in a
brilliant play, who chases it down but Joe DiMaggio, robbing
his brother of a base hit and breaking his brother's
thirty seven game hitting streak. They used to keep score too.
(12:59):
I should mention this how many times one robbed a
hit from the other. And by the end of their careers,
Dominic actually by an easy margin, had out scored his
brother Joe and who stole a hit from the other
one by their play in center field. So they loved
each other very much that they did. It was a
lifelong thing. The biggest claim to fame for Joe after
(13:22):
his career as a baseball player was marrying Marilyn Monroe.
That marriage lasted only nine months. And there's I think
information in my book about the Joe Marilyn relationship that
you won't find other places. And a big reason for
that is because I had access to members of the
Demaggio family. They're quite a few of them did not participate.
(13:43):
And then Richard ben Kramer Joe Demaco biography, I think
because they got and I a sense from him that
I was going to be rather critical. My book is
not pro Demajo anti Demajo. It's the story about the family,
even to the point where Dominic and Emily as if
they really liked Marilyn Monroe. They thought she was a
wonderful girl. They thought she and Joe were wrong for
(14:04):
each other, but they can see that they were in love,
and they were fully supportive of Joe getting married to Maryland.
That's what he wanted. Now we know that the marriage
lasted only nine months, I think in nineteen fifty four,
and they broke up and went their separate ways. But
apparently they still had a strong attraction to each other.
Because what most people don't know, and I learned this
from Emily Demajo, who again is the only one of
(14:26):
that generations still alive. She's in her nineties now, that
Marilyn and Joe used to have these secret rendezvous up
at Dominic and Emily's place up in the Boston area
in Massachusetts, sisters in the nineteen fifties, and every so
often somebody would somebody from the press would wonder was
at a Demago sighting, and they would stake out the
(14:46):
Emily house in the Boston area. So sometimes they would
have to Dominic would get into disguise. This Joe would
get into Joe's car and drive it a rod a
little while. Meanwhile, Emily would and would get a cab
for Joe and Marilyn to take them to the train
stations that they could head back to New York. That
went on until Marilyn met Arthur Miller and then at
the all the hanky panky, which Joe ended. As far
(15:07):
as we know so, Joe had already a failed marriage,
and as his life went on, he became more and
more disenchanted with his fame, it seemed, with life in general.
He had a very difficult relationship with his only child,
Joe Dimago Junior. You can imagine what that was like
for him, being Joe Dimajo junior and always being compared
(15:28):
to his father. He tried and did not become a
baseball player. He did become a join the Marine Corps,
but he also drifted a lot. He was more like
his brother Vince. Couldn't quite get traction on the rest
of his life. And when Joe died, it was a
national headlines all over the place, of course, because he
was an icon. You know, where have you gone, Joe Dimajo?
(15:50):
He was in songs. He was lionized in the press.
He always got good press, even though in a lot
of ways he couldn't stand the press. But what about Dominic. Now,
in a case of Dominic Domajo, I believe it's fair
for me to say that I did not start this
book with the idea that he would become really more
(16:11):
of the central character or coming out of the book
as my sort of hero. But what happened was, I
think as I got to know Dominic from talking to
his children, and thankfully his widow was still alive. She
was ninety ish, but I was able to visit with
her several times, at many conversations with her. She was
the keeper of the Domaggio family history. She was the
(16:33):
only one of the nine Demargio children and their spouses.
She was the only one of that generation still alive.
She had married Dominic in nineteen forty eight, so she
was there while Dominic was still at the prime of
his career. Dominic joined the Red Sox in nineteen forty
He also missed three seasons because he was in the navy,
(16:55):
and after World War Two he came back and he
was just getting into his prime. Like his brothers. Joe
and Vincent, who was starting to get past their prime
after the war. He was just getting into his prime
as a ballplayer. I mean, the Red Sox had great
teams in the mid to late forties. You know you
had you had Dominic Demacho, who was considered a better
set to field than his brother. He was not a
(17:16):
power here like his brother. He was usually bagging in
the first or second spot, followed by people like Johnny
Pesky and Bobby Doore, Vern Stevens, Jimmy Fox. There were
a lot of really good Red Sox players alongside Dominic.
Dominic right from the beginning after his marriage, emphasized family.
(17:38):
That was what was most important to me. Loved baseball,
but he always made sure that at the end of
after every game, he came home and came home to
his family. He and his wife had three children, a
Dominic and Peter were the boys, and Emily Junior was
the girl. And when Dominic when it was time for him,
when the writing was on the wall and his career
(18:00):
was winding down, he walked away and he bought a
manufacturing company and became an extremely successful businessman. And to me,
that's an important part of the book too, is the
post baseball career of Dominic DiMaggio because he knew he
was always going to be in the shadow of his
brother as a ballplayer, but he was not in the
shadow of his brother as a man or as a
family man, as a husband or a father. He became
(18:23):
quite wealthy, and he and his wife were very, very
involved in Charity's philanthropic work in the Boston area. He
remained a legendary figure in Boston, and he lived until
he was I believe ninety two, when Dominic died, surrounded
by family. And it's no coincidence that the very last
(18:44):
word of the book is family. That's what the book,
to me was about. The Domaggio's It was, you know,
the subtitle as three brothers, their passion for baseball, their
pursuit of the American Dream. I think it sums it
up the subtitle because it was the families pursuit of
the American dream. It was the passion of those three
brothers for baseball, and it was their love and sometimes
(19:10):
disturbing relationship with each other. Joe being the superhero of
Vincent being viewed as a lot of ways as a failure,
but Dominic not the hall of favor though I think
he should have gotten more consideration, but probably most successful
as a human being than the brothers, because he had
this long enduring marriage of well over sixty years with
his wife, the three children. His son takes over the
(19:32):
manufacturing company, his daughter becomes a writer and an accomplished person.
Peter's other Sun becomes an accomplished person. And so I
just found myself as I was writing the book more
and more gravitating towards Dominic's story. And I think that
if people want, even not baseball fans, I think that
(19:53):
they would enjoy the book because it's really a story
about the American dream, and it's the story about family
and great jobs. Away to Greg Hangler for bringing us
this story, and a special thanks to Tom cleaven by
the way, get his book The Demaggio's three brothers, their
passion for baseball and their pursuit of the American dream.
The Demaggio Brothers their story here on our American Stories
This is our American Stories, and we tell stories about
everything here on this show. One of our favorite subjects
is the subject of sports. More than three hundred and
fifty sets of brothers have played in the major leagues
since the eighteen seventies, and we're talking about baseball. But
few have had the skill, the charisma, or the success
(00:31):
of the Demaggio brothers, Jolton, Joe, dom and Vince. Here
to tell the story is the four time New York
Times bestseller author Tom Cleveland. He'll be sharing stories from
his book The Demaggio's Three Brothers, their passion for baseball
and their pursuit of the American dream. Here's Cleveland. The
(00:52):
Demagio's is about family. That's the reason why I wrote
the book. It's dedicated to my own family. I had
actually turned down the oppunity to write the Demaggios twice.
I was not interested. I thought that Richard ben Kramer
had done the book on the Demaggio's because of his
biography of Joe Demajo in A Hero's Life. I'm not
(01:13):
a big fan of that book, but I figured it
would be pretty thorough and what else could I do.
The third time that my agent suggested that I do
a book on the Demago's, all three brothers. I agreed
to look into it, mostly just so I could get
him off my back and he could stop suggesting that.
And I started to do some research. I mean, like
(01:36):
most people, I maybe didn't even know there were two
other Demaggio brothers, or I knew that there was Dominic
in Boston, but I didn't know about Vince at all.
And it is kind of remarkable that you had three
brothers playing at the same time, not unheard of. I mean,
we know about the Alue brothers, for example, and we
had other brothers who have played at the same time
(01:58):
with the Demaggio's. My first stop was, after doing some
initial researches, I made an appointment with Dominic Dmazo Junior
and went up to see him. He had taken over
his father's factory manufacturing business in the Boston area, and
I went up to see him and spent the day
with him talking about his father. And I came away
(02:19):
realizing that and many writers would not want to say
something like this, my agent was right. There was a
terrific story here and it went way beyond Joe Damagio,
which I was very glad for. Because even though I
was born and raised the Yankees fan, my father's favorite
player was Joe Damaco. Again, a Joe Dmazo biography didn't
(02:42):
interest me, so I wrote a book that really is
from the viewpoint of family. Giuseppe and Rosalie coming over
from Italy barely could speak English, becoming a fisherman in
the San Francisco area, raising nine children. The last of
home where Vincent DiMaggio, Joe DiMaggio and the baby Dominic DiMaggio,
(03:05):
and those are the three that became baseball players. They
were in carbon copies of each other. They all three
loved baseball. It's interesting that the Giseppi and Rosalie and
had six children and then they had Vincent, and Vincent
was passionate about baseball, and he was talented, and he
the father, Giuseppe forbade his children to play baseball. And
(03:31):
so when Joe was a teenager, he couldn't play, or
he would have to play in secret. When Dominic was
very young, he couldn't play, or the mother would sometimes
cover for them. But Vincent was very blatant about it.
He wanted to play baseball. That's what he wanted to
do with his life. And when Giuseppe kept being optioned
about it, but Vincent did as he ran away. Some
kids run away and joined the circus. Vincent ran away
(03:52):
to join a baseball team, and he started playing in
leagues up and down the up and down California, up
and down the West Coast into Oregon and Washington. Eventually
made it to the Pacific Coast League, which was almost
a Major league caliber. One of the enjoyments for me
of writing the book The Damajo's was that all three
brothers played first the Pacific Coast League before going onto
(04:16):
the major leagues. Anyway. Vincent went off to play baseball,
and he was gone for about two years, and he
came back to the family home in the San Francisco area,
and his father basically had his arms crossed and said,
so you come back. You probably have no money and
you've been a big failure, and now you're ready to
be a fisherman, just like your father, just like your brothers,
(04:38):
well two of the brothers anyway, And instead Vincent reached
into his pocket and put something like, you know, six
thousand dollars cash on the table. That's what I earned
playing baseball, and gi Seppi took a look at that,
and he went to Joe and he said, what are
you going to start playing baseball? Well, Joe is ready,
willing and able to jump right in. And he also
started playing for local teams and for the Pacific Coast League,
(05:00):
and he quickly apt distance Vincent. Now we should really
give credit defence in here, because he had the courage
to follow his dream. And it was because of that
the door got cracked open for Joe Domaco. If it
had not been for Vincent, we would never might never
know Joe Dimaco, a Hall of Fame player, winner of
nine World Series titles. So Joe started to play the
(05:22):
Pacific Coast League and it was in the Pacific Coast
League that he had a sixty one game hitting streak.
I mean, we know about the longer than the long
hitting streak he had Major League Baseball, but he had
his longest one of his careers in the Pacific Coast League. Meanwhile,
Vincent does get called up to the major leagues. I
believe his first team he played for was the Pittsburgh Pirates.
(05:45):
He eventually played for the Philadelphia Phillies, but it was
with the Pirates that he had a couple of all
Star seasons. He was a very good defensive outfielder, probably
during his years in the National League, the best center
fielder in the National League. And he was a pretty
decent hitter, and he made the All Star team into
a couple of years. Joe came up with the Yankees
in nineteen thirty six, was his rookie season, and he
(06:09):
and Dimajo were on great Yankee teams that won the
Pennant in thirty six, thirty seven, thirty eight, thirty nine,
you know, four straight Pennants, four straight World Series. As
it turned out too, so Joe right away got used
to winning, and he was an All Star every year.
And then what about Dominic DiMaggio, the youngest one. He
was also nicknamed the Professor. He had these stick glasses.
(06:30):
Nobody thought of him as a baseball player. He had
to really go against a lot of stereotypes to eventually
work his way through the Pacific Coast League and then
into Major League Baseball, where he was signed by the Yankees.
Had a chance to sign him and they passed. I
didn't think he was, you know, anything like his brother,
and he was not Joe Dimajo, but he was Dominic
Dimajo when he was a darn good ball player, and
(06:51):
I happen to think I should have been given more
consideration for the Hall of Fame. But he was taken
by the Boston Red Sox and he had nine All
Star seasons. He played thirteen seasons, played from about nineteen
forty to fifty three fifty two, I think, and he
(07:11):
made the All Star Team nine seven times. Excuse me.
Joe had made the All Star Team thirteen times and
Vincent twice, so he had the three brothers between the
three of them made twenty two All Star teams. That's
a remarkable level of achievement for any family, and their
careers took different paths. Now in Vincent's case, by the
(07:31):
time World War Two ended, he was done with baseball.
He still played. He just kept playing in less accomplished
in smaller leagues, and eventually ended up back on the
West Coast. And he had a troubled post baseball career alcoholism,
couldn't having a hard time holding a job. So he's
(07:53):
also kind of like a story of the American dream.
Like the Demajo family was that his dream was to
play baseball, and the accomplished it. It was outside of
baseball that he had trouble, you know, dealing with life. Joe,
as we know, was a great leader of the Yankees.
He did miss three seasons because of World War Two.
I discussed in the books some of the controversy about
(08:15):
that because he yet to be sort of dragged kicking
and screaming into the military service. But he's a guy
who was about to make one hundred thousand dollars and
studies making two hundred forty dollars a month being in
the army when he got out of the service. When
World War Two ended, the Yankees again won the pennant
in forty seven, forty nine, fifty fifty one. Joe with
(08:37):
diminishing skills, and then he retired after the fifty one season.
By this time, Mickey Manner was on the Yankees and
a new era began for the Yankees. Joe had a
pretty famous post baseball career. He was always introduced as
the greatest living ballplayer. Much of the detriment and lot
(09:00):
of amusement of Ted Williams. When you look at their
respective statistics, Ted Williams far out distanced Joe DiMaggio. He
just didn't have nine World Series titles. And you're listening
to Tom Cleveland, and he's sharing stories from his book
The Demaggio's Three Brothers, their passion for baseball and their
pursuit of the American dream. When we come back more
(09:21):
of the story of the Demaggio brothers here on our
American Stories. And we continue with the story of the
(09:42):
Demaggio brothers here on our American Stories. Let's return to
Tom Cleveland. Joe and Dominic were very close brothers. They
really loved each other. They were also very fierce competitors,
and it didn't help that they would both considered the
best set of fails of the American League. In the
case of how they loved each other, I think one
(10:02):
example as the nineteen forty one season. It also shows
that Ted Williams cared so much for Dominic and for
Joe too, even though they were very much rivals. But
in the nineteen forty one season, Joe was doing his
fifty six game hitting streak and out in the outfield
when they were at Fenway Park, you had Ted Williams
and left and Dominic and center. And usually in those
(10:23):
days games were played, you know, in the daytime, and
it was hard for finding out, you know, what was
going on in the game that was being played at
the exact same time. So Ted basically bribed the scorekeeper
who was behind the green wall and Fenway Park to
listen to radio or some kind of way to get
(10:46):
information from the New York game. And whenever Joe got
a hit, he would yell it out to Ted, who
in turn would yell it over to Dominic in center field.
And Dominic paid attention very fiercely to every moment that
he could get his hands on Joe dimago hitting streak.
I think one way that they were competitors is that
one illustration of this in nineteen forty eight, the Yankees,
(11:08):
the Indians, and the Red Sox are all competing for
the American League Pennant Yankee. The Red Sox had one
in forty six, the Yankees had one in forty seven.
And now you had these upstart into Cleveland Indians. And
as it happened, Dominic had been dating a woman named Emily,
and they had made plans to marry, and they planned
to get married in October nineteen forty eight, and Joe
(11:33):
dimag Joe calls his mother and his mother is expressing
some concern that what happens if the Red Sox win
the pennant and Dominic won't be able to get married
when he's supposed to, and Joe says, don't worry, mama,
I'll personally take care of it, make sure Dominic's available
for his wedding. And sure enough, on the last weekend
of the season, Joe demolishes the Red Sox and the
(11:54):
Cleveland Indians win the pennant, and the Dominic is sent
home in time to get married, with of course Joe
as his best man. I think another good example of
their competitiveness is that in nineteen forty nine, Dominic had
a hitting streak of his own going on. I mean,
(12:14):
he ended up all of all the people in all
of baseball. Joe's own brother is the one coming the
closest to his fifty six game hitting streak, and it's
up to thirty seven games, so Dominic only has another
nineteen games to go. He'll at least tie his brother.
And they're actually the Yankees are playing the Red Sox
of all places, of all teams, and Dominic is over
(12:38):
three and he gets up again, it's it'll be his last.
Unless there's an amazing comeback, there's going to be his
last at bat of the game, and he sends a
screamer to the left center field gap and in a
brilliant play, who chases it down but Joe DiMaggio, robbing
his brother of a base hit and breaking his brother's
thirty seven game hitting streak. They used to keep score too.
(12:59):
I should mention this how many times one robbed a
hit from the other. And by the end of their careers,
Dominic actually by an easy margin, had out scored his
brother Joe and who stole a hit from the other
one by their play in center field. So they loved
each other very much that they did. It was a
lifelong thing. The biggest claim to fame for Joe after
(13:22):
his career as a baseball player was marrying Marilyn Monroe.
That marriage lasted only nine months. And there's I think
information in my book about the Joe Marilyn relationship that
you won't find other places. And a big reason for
that is because I had access to members of the
Demaggio family. They're quite a few of them did not participate.
(13:43):
And then Richard ben Kramer Joe Demaco biography, I think
because they got and I a sense from him that
I was going to be rather critical. My book is
not pro Demajo anti Demajo. It's the story about the family,
even to the point where Dominic and Emily as if
they really liked Marilyn Monroe. They thought she was a
wonderful girl. They thought she and Joe were wrong for
(14:04):
each other, but they can see that they were in love,
and they were fully supportive of Joe getting married to Maryland.
That's what he wanted. Now we know that the marriage
lasted only nine months, I think in nineteen fifty four,
and they broke up and went their separate ways. But
apparently they still had a strong attraction to each other.
Because what most people don't know, and I learned this
from Emily Demajo, who again is the only one of
(14:26):
that generations still alive. She's in her nineties now, that
Marilyn and Joe used to have these secret rendezvous up
at Dominic and Emily's place up in the Boston area
in Massachusetts, sisters in the nineteen fifties, and every so
often somebody would somebody from the press would wonder was
at a Demago sighting, and they would stake out the
(14:46):
Emily house in the Boston area. So sometimes they would
have to Dominic would get into disguise. This Joe would
get into Joe's car and drive it a rod a
little while. Meanwhile, Emily would and would get a cab
for Joe and Marilyn to take them to the train
stations that they could head back to New York. That
went on until Marilyn met Arthur Miller and then at
the all the hanky panky, which Joe ended. As far
(15:07):
as we know so, Joe had already a failed marriage,
and as his life went on, he became more and
more disenchanted with his fame, it seemed, with life in general.
He had a very difficult relationship with his only child,
Joe Dimago Junior. You can imagine what that was like
for him, being Joe Dimajo junior and always being compared
(15:28):
to his father. He tried and did not become a
baseball player. He did become a join the Marine Corps,
but he also drifted a lot. He was more like
his brother Vince. Couldn't quite get traction on the rest
of his life. And when Joe died, it was a
national headlines all over the place, of course, because he
was an icon. You know, where have you gone, Joe Dimajo?
(15:50):
He was in songs. He was lionized in the press.
He always got good press, even though in a lot
of ways he couldn't stand the press. But what about Dominic. Now,
in a case of Dominic Domajo, I believe it's fair
for me to say that I did not start this
book with the idea that he would become really more
(16:11):
of the central character or coming out of the book
as my sort of hero. But what happened was, I
think as I got to know Dominic from talking to
his children, and thankfully his widow was still alive. She
was ninety ish, but I was able to visit with
her several times, at many conversations with her. She was
the keeper of the Domaggio family history. She was the
(16:33):
only one of the nine Demargio children and their spouses.
She was the only one of that generation still alive.
She had married Dominic in nineteen forty eight, so she
was there while Dominic was still at the prime of
his career. Dominic joined the Red Sox in nineteen forty
He also missed three seasons because he was in the navy,
(16:55):
and after World War Two he came back and he
was just getting into his prime. Like his brothers. Joe
and Vincent, who was starting to get past their prime
after the war. He was just getting into his prime
as a ballplayer. I mean, the Red Sox had great
teams in the mid to late forties. You know you
had you had Dominic Demacho, who was considered a better
set to field than his brother. He was not a
(17:16):
power here like his brother. He was usually bagging in
the first or second spot, followed by people like Johnny
Pesky and Bobby Doore, Vern Stevens, Jimmy Fox. There were
a lot of really good Red Sox players alongside Dominic.
Dominic right from the beginning after his marriage, emphasized family.
(17:38):
That was what was most important to me. Loved baseball,
but he always made sure that at the end of
after every game, he came home and came home to
his family. He and his wife had three children, a
Dominic and Peter were the boys, and Emily Junior was
the girl. And when Dominic when it was time for him,
when the writing was on the wall and his career
(18:00):
was winding down, he walked away and he bought a
manufacturing company and became an extremely successful businessman. And to me,
that's an important part of the book too, is the
post baseball career of Dominic DiMaggio because he knew he
was always going to be in the shadow of his
brother as a ballplayer, but he was not in the
shadow of his brother as a man or as a
family man, as a husband or a father. He became
(18:23):
quite wealthy, and he and his wife were very, very
involved in Charity's philanthropic work in the Boston area. He
remained a legendary figure in Boston, and he lived until
he was I believe ninety two, when Dominic died, surrounded
by family. And it's no coincidence that the very last
(18:44):
word of the book is family. That's what the book,
to me was about. The Domaggio's It was, you know,
the subtitle as three brothers, their passion for baseball, their
pursuit of the American Dream. I think it sums it
up the subtitle because it was the families pursuit of
the American dream. It was the passion of those three
brothers for baseball, and it was their love and sometimes
(19:10):
disturbing relationship with each other. Joe being the superhero of
Vincent being viewed as a lot of ways as a failure,
but Dominic not the hall of favor though I think
he should have gotten more consideration, but probably most successful
as a human being than the brothers, because he had
this long enduring marriage of well over sixty years with
his wife, the three children. His son takes over the
(19:32):
manufacturing company, his daughter becomes a writer and an accomplished person.
Peter's other Sun becomes an accomplished person. And so I
just found myself as I was writing the book more
and more gravitating towards Dominic's story. And I think that
if people want, even not baseball fans, I think that
(19:53):
they would enjoy the book because it's really a story
about the American dream, and it's the story about family
and great jobs. Away to Greg Hangler for bringing us
this story, and a special thanks to Tom cleaven by
the way, get his book The Demaggio's three brothers, their
passion for baseball and their pursuit of the American dream.
The Demaggio Brothers their story here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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