March 24, 2025 • 20 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, here to tell the story of the DiMaggio brothers is the 4-times New York Times bestselling author, Tom Clavin—author of The DiMaggios.
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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 DiMaggio brothers, Joelton, Joe, dom and Vince. Here
to tell the story is the four time New York
Times bestseller author Tom Clavin. He'll be sharing stories from
his book The DiMaggio's Three Brothers, their passion for baseball
and their pursuit of the American dream.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Here's Clavin.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
The Demadjo'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 opportit t unity to write
the Demaggios twice.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
I was not interested.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I thought that Richard ben Kramer had done the book
on the Demaggio's because of his biography of Joe Demagio
in A Hero's Life. I'm not a big fan of
that book, but I figured it would be pretty thorough
and what else could I do?
Speaker 2 (01:19):
The third time that.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
My agent suggested that I do a book on the Demaggio's.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
All three brothers.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
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 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.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
And it is kind of remarkable.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
That you had three brothers playing at the same time,
not unheard of. I mean, we know about the Elu brothers,
for example, and we had other brothers who have played
at the same time with the Demaggio's. My first stop was,
after doing some initial researches, I made an appointment with
Dominic Demaggio Junior and went up to see him. He
had taken over his father's factory manufacturing business in the
(02:12):
Boston area, and I went up to see him and
spent the day with him talking about his father. And
I came away 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 Demaggio, which I was very glad for because
(02:33):
even though I was born and raised a Yankees fan,
my father's favorite player was Joe Demaggio. Again, a Joe
Demaggio biography didn't 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
(02:54):
a fisherman in the San Francisco area, raising nine children.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
The last three of home where Vincent.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Demaggio, Joe Demaggio and the baby Dominic Demaggio. And those
are the three that became baseball players. They weren't carbon
copies of each other. They all three loved baseball. It's
interesting that the Giuseppe and Rosalie had had six children
and then they had Vincent, and Vincent was passionate about baseball,
(03:21):
and he was talented. And the father, Giuseppe, forbade his
children to play baseball. And so when Joe was a teenager,
he couldn't play, or he had 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
(03:42):
he wanted to do with his life, and when Giuseppe
kept being oppotionate about it, but Vincent did as he
ran away. Some kids run away and joined the circus.
Vincent ran away 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
(04:08):
enjoyments for me of writing the book that Demaggio's was
that all three brothers played first the Pacific Coast League
before going onto the major leagues.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Anyway.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
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, or two of the
(04:38):
brothers anyway, And instead Vincent reached into his pocket and
put something like six thousand dollars cash on the table.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
That's why I earned playing baseball. And just set.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
He 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 for the Pacific Coast Leage League and he quickly
apt distance Vincent. Now we should really give credit to
Vencent here because he had the courage to follow his dream.
And it was because of that the door got cracked
(05:10):
open for Joe Dematio.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
If it had not been for Vincent, we would never
might never.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Know Joe Dematio, a Hall of Fame player, winner of
nine World Series titles. So Joe started to play in
the 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, the long hitting
streak he had major League Baseball, but he had his
(05:35):
longest one of his careers in the Pacific Coast League. Meanwhile,
Vincent does get called up to.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
The major leagues.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
I believe his first team he played for was the
Pittsburgh Pirates.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
He eventually played for the Philadelphia.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
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.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Best center fielder in the National League.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
And he was pretty decent hitter, and he made the
All Star team in a couple of years. Joe came
up with the Yankees in nineteen thirty six was his
rookie season, and he and Demaggio 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
(06:21):
right away got used to winning, and he was an
All Star every year. And then what about Dominic Demaggio,
the youngest one. He was also nicknamed the Professor. He
had these stick glasses. 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
Cohast League and then into Major League Baseball. He was
(06:41):
signed by the The Yankees had a chance to sig
Hi when they passed. I didn't think he was, you know,
anything like his brother, and he was not Joe Demago,
but he was Dominic Demaggio, and he was a darn
good ball player, and I happened to think should have
been given more consideration for the Hall of Fame. But
he was taken by the Boston Red Sox. And he
had had a nine All Star seasons. He played thirteen seasons,
(07:04):
played from about nineteen forty to fifty three fifty two,
I think, and he made the All Star Team nine
seven times.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Excuse me.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
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.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Their careers took different paths.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Now in Vincent's case, by the time World War Two ended,
he was done with baseball.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
He still played.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
He just kept playing in less accomplished than smaller leagues
and eventually ended up back on the West Coast.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
And he had a troubled post.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Baseball career alcoholism, was having a hard time holding a job.
So he's also kind of like a story of the
American dream, like the Demaggio family was that his dream
was to play baseball, 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.
(08:08):
He did miss three seasons because of World War Two.
I discussed in the books some of the controversy about
that because he get to be sort of dragged, kicking
and screaming into the military service. But he is a
guy who was about to make one hundred thousand dollars
and studies making two hundred and forty dollars a month
being in the army when he got out.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Of the service.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
When World War two ended, the Yankees again won the
pennant in forty seven forty nine, fifty to fifty one.
Joe with diminishing skills, and then he retired after the
fifty one season. But by this time Mickey Mannon was
on the Yankees and a new era began for the Yankees.
Joe had a pretty famous post baseball career. He was
(08:53):
always introduced as the greatest living ballplayer, much of the
detriment and of amusement of Ted Williams. When you look
at their respective statistics, Ted Williams far out distanced Joe DiMaggio.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
He just didn't have nine World Series titles.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
And you're listening to Tom Claven and he's sharing stories
from his book The DiMaggio's Three Brothers, their passion for
baseball and their pursuit of the American Dream. When we
come back, more of the story of the DiMaggio brothers
here on our American Stories. And we continue with the
(09:41):
story of the DiMaggio brothers here on our American Stories.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Let's return to Tom Claven.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
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 were both considered the best set
of avails in the American League. In the case of
how they loved each other, I think one example is
the nineteen forty one season. It also shows that Ted
Williams cared so much for Dominic and for Joe too,
(10:09):
even though they were very much rivals. But in 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 in center. And usually in those days games were
played in the daytime and it was hard for finding
out what was going on in the game that was
(10:31):
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 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
(10:52):
Dominic in center field. And Dominic paid attention very fiercely
to every moment that he could get its hands on
of the Joe.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Demajo hitting streak.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
I think one way that they were competitors is that
one illustration of this, in nineteen forty eight, the Yankees,
the Indians, and the Red Sox are all competing for
the American League Pennant Yankee. The Red Sox had won
it in forty six, the Yankees had won it in
forty seven, and now you had these upstart Indie Cleveland Indians.
And as it happened, Dominic had been dating a woman
(11:23):
named Emily, and they had made plans to marry, and
they planned to get married in October nineteen forty eight,
and Joe Demago 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, mom,
(11:44):
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
Cleveland Indians win the pennant and the Dominic is sent
home in time to get married well, of course Joe
as best man. I think another good example of their
(12:06):
competitiveness is that in nineteen forty nine, Dominic had a
hitting streak of his own going on. I mean, he
ended up. 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
(12:28):
to go.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
He'll at least tie his brother.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
And they're actually the Yankees are playing the Red Sox
of all places, of all teams, and Dominic is zero
for three and he gets up again. It's going to
be his last unless there's an amazing comeback. It'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
(12:52):
breaking his brother's fifty thirty seven game hitting streak. They
used to keep score too. 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,
(13:15):
and they did. It was a lifelong thing. The biggest
claim to fame for Joe after 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 Marilynd relationship that you won't find other places.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
And a big reason for that is because I had access.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
To members of the Demaggio family that quite a few
of them did not participate. And then Richard ben Kramer
Joe Demaggio biography, I think because they got 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
(13:59):
and Emily as well, they really liked Marilyn Monroe.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
They thought she was a wonderful girl.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
They thought she and Joe were wrong for each other,
but they could see that they were in love, and
they were fully supportive of Joe getting married to Marylynd
if 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
(14:23):
from Emily Demago, who again is the only one of
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. This was 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
(14:45):
the Dominic Emily house in the Boston area, so sometimes
they would have to Dominic would get into disguise as Joe,
would get into Joe's car and drive it around a
little while. Meanwhile Emily would and would get a cab
for Joe and Marilynd to take them to the train
stations to they get head back to New York. That
went on until Marilyn met Arthur Miller, and then all
(15:05):
a hanky panky with Joe ended.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
As far as we know.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
So, Joe had already a failed marriage, and as his
life went on, he became more and more disenchanted with
his fame at sea, with life in general. He had
a very difficult relationship with his only child, Joe Demaggio Junior.
You can imagine what that was like for him, being
Joe Demaggio junior and always being compared to his father.
He tried and did not become a baseball player. He
(15:31):
did become 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 in national headlines all over
the place, of course, because he was an icon. You know,
where have you gone, Joe Demajo. He was in songs,
(15:52):
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 Demagio, 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 the central character
(16:13):
or coming out of the book as my sort of hero.
But what happened was, I think, is I got to
know Dominic from talking to his children, and thankfully his widow.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Was still alive. She was ninety.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Ish, but I was able to visit with her several times,
have many conversations with her. She was the keeper of
the Demagio family history. She was the only one of
the nine demarg Yo 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.
(16:47):
Dominic joined the Red Sox in nineteen forty. He also
missed three seasons because he was in the navy, and
after World War Two he came back and he was
just getting into his prime. Like his brothers Joe and Vincent,
who were 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
(17:09):
mid to late forties. You know, you had Dominic Demacho,
who was considered a better set to fielder than his brother.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
He was not a power here like his brother.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
He was usually bagging in the first or second spot,
followed by people like Johnny Pesky and Bobby dor Verne 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.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
That was what was most important to me.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Loved baseball, but he always made sure that at the end,
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 in his career
(18:00):
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 Demaggio, 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.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
He became quite wealthy.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
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 word of the
(18:44):
book is family. That's what the book to me was
about the Demaggios. It was, you know, the subtitle is
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.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Pursuit of the American dream. It was the passion of those.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Three brothers for baseball, and it was their love and
sometimes disturbing relationship with each other. Joe being the superhero,
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
(19:23):
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
manufacturing company, his daughter becomes a writer and an accomplished persons.
Peter's other son becomes an accomplished person And so I
just found myself as I was writing the book more
(19:44):
and more gravitating towards Dominic's story. And I think that
if people want, even not baseball fans, I think that
they would enjoy the book because it's really a story
about the American dream, and it's a story about family.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
And great job as always to Greg Hangler for bringing
us this story. In a special thanks to Tom Craven
and by the way, get his book, The DiMaggio's three brothers,
their passion for baseball and their pursuit of the American dream.
The Dmaggio 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 DiMaggio brothers, Joelton, Joe, dom and Vince. Here
to tell the story is the four time New York
Times bestseller author Tom Clavin. He'll be sharing stories from
his book The DiMaggio's Three Brothers, their passion for baseball
and their pursuit of the American dream.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Here's Clavin.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
The Demadjo'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 opportit t unity to write
the Demaggios twice.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
I was not interested.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I thought that Richard ben Kramer had done the book
on the Demaggio's because of his biography of Joe Demagio
in A Hero's Life. I'm not a big fan of
that book, but I figured it would be pretty thorough
and what else could I do?
Speaker 2 (01:19):
The third time that.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
My agent suggested that I do a book on the Demaggio's.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
All three brothers.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
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 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.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
And it is kind of remarkable.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
That you had three brothers playing at the same time,
not unheard of. I mean, we know about the Elu brothers,
for example, and we had other brothers who have played
at the same time with the Demaggio's. My first stop was,
after doing some initial researches, I made an appointment with
Dominic Demaggio Junior and went up to see him. He
had taken over his father's factory manufacturing business in the
(02:12):
Boston area, and I went up to see him and
spent the day with him talking about his father. And
I came away 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 Demaggio, which I was very glad for because
(02:33):
even though I was born and raised a Yankees fan,
my father's favorite player was Joe Demaggio. Again, a Joe
Demaggio biography didn't 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
(02:54):
a fisherman in the San Francisco area, raising nine children.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
The last three of home where Vincent.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Demaggio, Joe Demaggio and the baby Dominic Demaggio. And those
are the three that became baseball players. They weren't carbon
copies of each other. They all three loved baseball. It's
interesting that the Giuseppe and Rosalie had had six children
and then they had Vincent, and Vincent was passionate about baseball,
(03:21):
and he was talented. And the father, Giuseppe, forbade his
children to play baseball. And so when Joe was a teenager,
he couldn't play, or he had 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
(03:42):
he wanted to do with his life, and when Giuseppe
kept being oppotionate about it, but Vincent did as he
ran away. Some kids run away and joined the circus.
Vincent ran away 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
(04:08):
enjoyments for me of writing the book that Demaggio's was
that all three brothers played first the Pacific Coast League
before going onto the major leagues.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Anyway.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
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, or two of the
(04:38):
brothers anyway, And instead Vincent reached into his pocket and
put something like six thousand dollars cash on the table.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
That's why I earned playing baseball. And just set.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
He 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 for the Pacific Coast Leage League and he quickly
apt distance Vincent. Now we should really give credit to
Vencent here because he had the courage to follow his dream.
And it was because of that the door got cracked
(05:10):
open for Joe Dematio.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
If it had not been for Vincent, we would never
might never.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Know Joe Dematio, a Hall of Fame player, winner of
nine World Series titles. So Joe started to play in
the 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, the long hitting
streak he had major League Baseball, but he had his
(05:35):
longest one of his careers in the Pacific Coast League. Meanwhile,
Vincent does get called up to.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
The major leagues.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
I believe his first team he played for was the
Pittsburgh Pirates.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
He eventually played for the Philadelphia.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
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.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Best center fielder in the National League.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
And he was pretty decent hitter, and he made the
All Star team in a couple of years. Joe came
up with the Yankees in nineteen thirty six was his
rookie season, and he and Demaggio 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
(06:21):
right away got used to winning, and he was an
All Star every year. And then what about Dominic Demaggio,
the youngest one. He was also nicknamed the Professor. He
had these stick glasses. 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
Cohast League and then into Major League Baseball. He was
(06:41):
signed by the The Yankees had a chance to sig
Hi when they passed. I didn't think he was, you know,
anything like his brother, and he was not Joe Demago,
but he was Dominic Demaggio, and he was a darn
good ball player, and I happened to think should have
been given more consideration for the Hall of Fame. But
he was taken by the Boston Red Sox. And he
had had a nine All Star seasons. He played thirteen seasons,
(07:04):
played from about nineteen forty to fifty three fifty two,
I think, and he made the All Star Team nine
seven times.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Excuse me.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
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.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Their careers took different paths.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Now in Vincent's case, by the time World War Two ended,
he was done with baseball.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
He still played.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
He just kept playing in less accomplished than smaller leagues
and eventually ended up back on the West Coast.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
And he had a troubled post.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Baseball career alcoholism, was having a hard time holding a job.
So he's also kind of like a story of the
American dream, like the Demaggio family was that his dream
was to play baseball, 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.
(08:08):
He did miss three seasons because of World War Two.
I discussed in the books some of the controversy about
that because he get to be sort of dragged, kicking
and screaming into the military service. But he is a
guy who was about to make one hundred thousand dollars
and studies making two hundred and forty dollars a month
being in the army when he got out.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Of the service.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
When World War two ended, the Yankees again won the
pennant in forty seven forty nine, fifty to fifty one.
Joe with diminishing skills, and then he retired after the
fifty one season. But by this time Mickey Mannon was
on the Yankees and a new era began for the Yankees.
Joe had a pretty famous post baseball career. He was
(08:53):
always introduced as the greatest living ballplayer, much of the
detriment and of amusement of Ted Williams. When you look
at their respective statistics, Ted Williams far out distanced Joe DiMaggio.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
He just didn't have nine World Series titles.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
And you're listening to Tom Claven and he's sharing stories
from his book The DiMaggio's Three Brothers, their passion for
baseball and their pursuit of the American Dream. When we
come back, more of the story of the DiMaggio brothers
here on our American Stories. And we continue with the
(09:41):
story of the DiMaggio brothers here on our American Stories.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Let's return to Tom Claven.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
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 were both considered the best set
of avails in the American League. In the case of
how they loved each other, I think one example is
the nineteen forty one season. It also shows that Ted
Williams cared so much for Dominic and for Joe too,
(10:09):
even though they were very much rivals. But in 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 in center. And usually in those days games were
played in the daytime and it was hard for finding
out what was going on in the game that was
(10:31):
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 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
(10:52):
Dominic in center field. And Dominic paid attention very fiercely
to every moment that he could get its hands on
of the Joe.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Demajo hitting streak.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
I think one way that they were competitors is that
one illustration of this, in nineteen forty eight, the Yankees,
the Indians, and the Red Sox are all competing for
the American League Pennant Yankee. The Red Sox had won
it in forty six, the Yankees had won it in
forty seven, and now you had these upstart Indie Cleveland Indians.
And as it happened, Dominic had been dating a woman
(11:23):
named Emily, and they had made plans to marry, and
they planned to get married in October nineteen forty eight,
and Joe Demago 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, mom,
(11:44):
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
Cleveland Indians win the pennant and the Dominic is sent
home in time to get married well, of course Joe
as best man. I think another good example of their
(12:06):
competitiveness is that in nineteen forty nine, Dominic had a
hitting streak of his own going on. I mean, he
ended up. 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
(12:28):
to go.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
He'll at least tie his brother.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
And they're actually the Yankees are playing the Red Sox
of all places, of all teams, and Dominic is zero
for three and he gets up again. It's going to
be his last unless there's an amazing comeback. It'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
(12:52):
breaking his brother's fifty thirty seven game hitting streak. They
used to keep score too. 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,
(13:15):
and they did. It was a lifelong thing. The biggest
claim to fame for Joe after 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 Marilynd relationship that you won't find other places.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
And a big reason for that is because I had access.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
To members of the Demaggio family that quite a few
of them did not participate. And then Richard ben Kramer
Joe Demaggio biography, I think because they got 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
(13:59):
and Emily as well, they really liked Marilyn Monroe.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
They thought she was a wonderful girl.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
They thought she and Joe were wrong for each other,
but they could see that they were in love, and
they were fully supportive of Joe getting married to Marylynd
if 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
(14:23):
from Emily Demago, who again is the only one of
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. This was 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
(14:45):
the Dominic Emily house in the Boston area, so sometimes
they would have to Dominic would get into disguise as Joe,
would get into Joe's car and drive it around a
little while. Meanwhile Emily would and would get a cab
for Joe and Marilynd to take them to the train
stations to they get head back to New York. That
went on until Marilyn met Arthur Miller, and then all
(15:05):
a hanky panky with Joe ended.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
As far as we know.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
So, Joe had already a failed marriage, and as his
life went on, he became more and more disenchanted with
his fame at sea, with life in general. He had
a very difficult relationship with his only child, Joe Demaggio Junior.
You can imagine what that was like for him, being
Joe Demaggio junior and always being compared to his father.
He tried and did not become a baseball player. He
(15:31):
did become 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 in national headlines all over
the place, of course, because he was an icon. You know,
where have you gone, Joe Demajo. He was in songs,
(15:52):
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 Demagio, 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 the central character
(16:13):
or coming out of the book as my sort of hero.
But what happened was, I think, is I got to
know Dominic from talking to his children, and thankfully his widow.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Was still alive. She was ninety.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Ish, but I was able to visit with her several times,
have many conversations with her. She was the keeper of
the Demagio family history. She was the only one of
the nine demarg Yo 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.
(16:47):
Dominic joined the Red Sox in nineteen forty. He also
missed three seasons because he was in the navy, and
after World War Two he came back and he was
just getting into his prime. Like his brothers Joe and Vincent,
who were 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
(17:09):
mid to late forties. You know, you had Dominic Demacho,
who was considered a better set to fielder than his brother.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
He was not a power here like his brother.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
He was usually bagging in the first or second spot,
followed by people like Johnny Pesky and Bobby dor Verne 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.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
That was what was most important to me.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Loved baseball, but he always made sure that at the end,
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 in his career
(18:00):
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 Demaggio, 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.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
He became quite wealthy.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
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 word of the
(18:44):
book is family. That's what the book to me was
about the Demaggios. It was, you know, the subtitle is
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.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Pursuit of the American dream. It was the passion of those.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Three brothers for baseball, and it was their love and
sometimes disturbing relationship with each other. Joe being the superhero,
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
(19:23):
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
manufacturing company, his daughter becomes a writer and an accomplished persons.
Peter's other son becomes an accomplished person And so I
just found myself as I was writing the book more
(19:44):
and more gravitating towards Dominic's story. And I think that
if people want, even not baseball fans, I think that
they would enjoy the book because it's really a story
about the American dream, and it's a story about family.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
And great job as always to Greg Hangler for bringing
us this story. In a special thanks to Tom Craven
and by the way, get his book, The DiMaggio's three brothers,
their passion for baseball and their pursuit of the American dream.
The Dmaggio brothers their story here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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