The DiMaggios

by Tom Clavin

  The two had also shared difficulties with their only sons. But while Joe wrote off Joe Jr., Ted and John Henry kept trying. John Henry’s management of his father in the sports memorabilia business was a strong bond between them.

  “This was not necessarily the healthiest thing—a young man who had a difficult time finding his own way, and who was the son of a singularly famous and iconic father, making a living directly off his father’s fame,” wrote David Halberstam in The Teammates. “The world of baseball appearances and memorabilia is not a particularly genteel one, but even so a number of serious people in the world deeply disliked dealing with John Henry Williams, and in time some of Ted’s oldest friends felt they were being kept away from Ted because they had been critical of what they felt was John Henry’s growing exploitation of his father.”

  Maybe it was because he genuinely cared for his former rival’s well-being, or he felt a special kinship with him as the best players of their era, or he felt for Dominic losing the only brother he had left. Or maybe for all of these reasons, Ted kept calling Dominic asking for updates as his brother battled cancer. When Joe died, he felt the loss deeply.

  Ted’s own health deteriorated rapidly. When he had quadruple bypass surgery in 2000, Dominic flew to San Diego to visit him and encourage him to get better. By the time he turned 83 in August 2001, Ted had suffered two strokes, a valve in his heart leaked and doctors couldn’t fix it, the once-robust Splendid Splinter was down to 130 pounds, and he was confined to a wheelchair. Dominic called him every day and then relayed their conversation to Doerr and Pesky. “Dommie, you’re the only one I have left,” Ted would say when his spirits were low.

  “Ted realized what Joe did—that Dominic was a much more complete man than they were in terms of he had a successful family life, children, grandchildren around him,” says Flavin. “He had this whole business that he made. He didn’t trade on his name. He worked hard and made a go of it and became a captain of industry as well as a big donor to charity. He was a much more successful man than they were. The difference was, Ted honored and loved Dominic for it and Joe resented him for it.”

  There was no avoiding the fact that Ted had only months to live. In October 2001, Dominic said to his wife and Flavin during dinner that he had to go down to see him. Because of 9/11 the month before, he preferred driving. Emily was aghast that at age 84 he was proposing to drive from Marion, Massachusetts, to Hernando, Florida.

  “I was sipping my second—okay, maybe third—glass of wine when this came up,” recalls Flavin, who in addition to emceeing many Red Sox events—where he would often recite his composition “Teddy at the Bat”—was an Emmy-winning commentator on Channel 4 in Boston. “Suddenly, I found myself suggesting that I drive south with him. Emily felt better about that.”

  They tried to enlist Doerr from Oregon, but his wife, Monica, still hadn’t recovered from two strokes of her own two years earlier. However, Pesky, a spry 82, agreed to go along. Flavin, only 64 then, would share the driving with Dominic, with Pesky in the backseat. They set off on October 20. There was a stop along I-95 so Dominic could be the guest at a Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society event, then it was back on the road.

  Ted rallied when he saw his three friends and enjoyed reminiscing about the Red Sox days one more time. He laughed, with the old twinkle in his half-blind eyes. But at one point he became despondent and began to weep. Only Dominic could get him out of it. “You’re having a bad time, but you’ve got to play the hand that’s dealt you,” he told Ted. “All the other hands you’ve been played, you played them so well. You made yourself a hero, and you’re an American hero in two wars.” Ted calmed, and the visit that day turned fun again.

  On the second day of the visit Dominic, channeling his brother Vince, sang an Italian love song, which Ted so enjoyed that he asked Dominic to sing it again. He did, then Flavin sang, “I’ll Take You Home Again, Kathleen.” There could be no encores, as Ted was tiring.

  Ted weakened that winter. It was a surprise that he was still alive at all when the 2002 season began. Dominic called him every morning that spring to describe the previous day’s Red Sox game, “and it was hard for Dominic to tell whether he was still there at the end of the line, because sometimes he would slip out of consciousness in the middle of a call,” Halberstam writes. “There had been one final call when Dominic had called in and sensed a silence at the other end and he had asked, ‘Teddy, are you still there,’ and Josh, Ted’s attendant, had said, ‘No, he’s fallen asleep.’ ‘Well, please tell him I called,’ Dominic said, and the next day Ted died.”

  Dominic had one more funeral to attend in July 2002.

  As Dominic approached 90, he was reasonably healthy—though there were still pains from the Paget’s disease—and he remained active in charity work, sometimes in collaboration with his aging former teammates. In May 2004, he and Doerr and Pesky were honored by the North End Community Health Center and the North End/West End Neighborhood Service Center with a new award named for Dominic. The following year the three were honored again, this time for their 50 years of support (and Emily’s) for the Dana-Farber Institute, which treats and seeks a cure for pediatric cancers.

  In between, there had been a long-awaited triumph—a Boston Red Sox world championship, the first since 1918. In the 2004 World Series, the Sox swept the St. Louis Cardinals. “That first time the Red Sox won the World Series, President Bush invited all the players to the White House, and Dominic and I went with them,” Jimmy Piersall recalls. “And the president said, ‘I’m really glad to see DiMaggio and Piersall here.’ Dominic was thrilled by that. And I was thrilled to be sitting next to him. He was a wonderful man, and he had a tremendous wife.”

  He and his tremendous wife were “absolutely inseparable,” says Flavin.

  “It was rare for my parents to not go somewhere or do something together,” agrees Paul. “They were pretty much inseparable.”

  Dominic turned 90 in February 2007 and received birthday wishes not only from his three children and six grandchildren but from what had become a widely extended DiMaggio family. “I’m the last one of the 11 DiMaggios of Taylor Street,” he said in a radio interview. “We all must go. I luckily survived. I’ve had a truly fabulous life. I have no complaints.” He said that he played bridge, followed the stock market, and managed money for his grandchildren. “I’m having a problem moving around, and I’m trying to stay as close as I can to home. I have good days and bad days. After all, at 90 you can’t expect to feel good every day. After being so active, you feel it. You start slowing down. You’ve got to give in a little bit.”

  When asked if he was still contacted by people wanting information about Joe DiMaggio, Dominic replied, “Every once in a while.” He continued: “If I had to be the brother of somebody, I couldn’t think of a person I would like to be the brother of other than Joe.” Asked if he had any goals, Dominic said, “Reach 91.”

  Later that year the Red Sox won another world championship. Dominic did not get to Fenway Park much anymore, preferring to watch games on television from home. When he and Emily were in Florida, he went to spring training games when he felt up to it. The last one he attended was with his friend Dean Boylan in February 2009, when he turned 92.

  Later that month, his health faltered. He developed pneumonia. It was decided that he and Emily should head up to Marion to be near their children and his doctors in Boston. He couldn’t shake the congestion and felt weaker and weaker. Eventually, as with Joe, the doctors decided Dominic would be most comfortable at home, where he wanted to be. Emily was always there, as were nurses when he became too weak to get out of bed. Children and grandchildren visited, always bringing a smile to his face.

  On the night of May 7, 2009, a Thursday, Paul had just conducted a business seminar. Before heading home across the border in New Hampshire, he called his wife, who was with his parents at the house in Marion. She asked him to come down a
nd stay the night there. Dominic was in and out of consciousness, watching the Red Sox against the Cleveland Indians at Fenway Park.

  “I said, ‘Sure, I’ll be there as soon as I can,’ ” Paul remembers. “I wasn’t that tired, and I wanted to see all of them anyway.”

  When Paul arrived, Dominic was propped up in the bed in the den, with a view of Buzzards Bay. The game was over, a 13–3 thrashing by the home team, but a replay had just begun. Paul sat down to watch it with his father. He could hear Dominic acknowledge every Boston tally on their way to victory. As the game was drawing to a close, the nurse on duty that night checked on Dominic and said, “I think he stopped breathing.”

  “I went upstairs and got Mom,” Paul says. “We bent over and kissed him. He was gone.”

  The last of the DiMaggio brothers had died peacefully at home, with family.

  Index

  The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific passage, please use the search feature of your e-book reader.

  Aaron, Henry, 299

  All-Century team, 299

  Allen, Mel, 271

  All-Star Games: (1933), 67; (1936), 66–68, 80; (1937), 85; (1938), 97; (1939), 109; (1941), 132; (1942), 150–51; (1943), 162–63; (1944), 164; (1946), 172, 177–78; (1949), 219; (1950), 231; (1951), 238–39; (1999), 299

  Almada, Louis, 43, 55, 271

  American Dream, 9, 19, 92, 267, 294

  Anderson, Dave, 218, 222

  Andrews, Mike, 267

  Appling, Luke, 68

  Arizona-Texas League, 36

  Ashburn, Richie, 298

  Association of Professional Baseball Players of America, 22, 286

  Auker, Elden, 108

  Averill, Earl, 31, 85, 110–11

  Babe Ruth Story, The (film), 204

  Babich, Johnny, 131

  Baer, Arthur, 32

  Bagby, Jim, 134

  Baker, Frank “Home Run,” 268

  Baldassaro, Lawrence, Beyond DiMaggio: Italian Americans in Baseball, 105, 274

  Banks, Ernie, 165

  Barath, Steve, 55

  Barney, Rex, 197, 226

  Barrow, Ed, 53, 57, 86, 93, 94, 108, 109, 128–29, 146, 151, 154, 160

  Barsochinni, Reno, 256

  Baseball Hall of Fame, 268, 297–98

  Baseball Writers of America, 145, 151, 268

  Bassler, Johnny, 53

  Batts, Matt, 225

  Bauer, Hank, 221, 223, 231

  Baum, Spider, 31

  Beazley, Johnny, 152

  Bendix, William, 204

  Benedetti, Dante, 39

  Benswanger, Bill, 135

  Berg, Moe, 118

  Berra, Yogi, 171, 187, 197, 201, 214, 221, 233, 240

  and All-Star Games, 231, 299

  and Dom, 218, 297

  and Joe, 234

  and Old-Timers’ Day, 288

  Bevens, Bill, 196–97

  Bilko, Steve, 261

  Bodie, Ping, 31–32

  Bosox Club, 266, 275

  Boston Bees, 3, 77–79, 80–81, 85, 89–90, 99–100

  Boston Braves, 56, 77–78, 159, 206–7, 211

  Boston Patriots, 266, 267

  Boston Red Sox:

  American League championships (1946), 2; (1967), 268

  and Dom, see DiMaggio, Dominic Paolo

  Fenway Park, 119, 121, 201

  50th anniversary of, 236

  and Old-Timers’ Day (1986), 1–6, 279

  ownership of, 267–68, 275–76

  and player rights, 170

  postwar season of, 172–73, 186

  Red Sox Hall of Fame, 298

  trades, 199, 236

  and wartime games, 158

  and Williams, see Williams, Ted

  and World Series (1946), 179–81; (1967), 268; (2004), 302

  and Yankees, 96–97, 103, 111, 117, 121, 122, 127, 130, 137, 170–71, 185–86, 199–200, 209–11, 218, 221–22

  Boudreau, Lou, 134, 174, 205–6, 236, 246, 250, 251, 253–54

  Boylan, Dean Sr., 295, 296, 303

  Braddock, Jim, 91, 145

  Branca, Ralph, 1, 196, 225

  Brannan, Sam, 11

  Brecheen, Harry, 180

  Brillheart, Jim, 229

  Brooklyn Dodgers:

  move to Los Angeles, 261

  playoff game (1951), 2

  and Robinson, 161

  World Series (1941), 141–42, 197; (1947), 196–98; (1949), 225–26

  Brower, Frank “Turkeyfoot,” 34

  Brown, Bobby, 171, 187, 206, 211, 214, 219, 226, 248, 257, 288, 292, 295

  Brown, Les, and His Band of Renown, 139, 202

  Bundig, Gene, 292

  Burdette, Lew, 233

  Burr, Harold, 106

  Busch, Noel F., 104

  Bush, George W., 302

  Byrne, Tommy, 171, 233

  Cabrera, Miguel, 1

  California:

  baseball in, 21–23

  fishermen in, 12–13

  Governor’s Cups, 30, 71, 88, 98, 99, 175, 177, 198, 261

  history of, 11–12, 16

  California League, 22–23, 203–4

  California Ship Building Corporation, 163–64

  Camilli, Dolph, 31, 141

  Campanella, Roy, 219, 225

  Cancro, Larry, 5

  Cannon, Jimmy, 80–81, 145, 203, 209, 238

  Casey, Hugh, 141–42, 197

  Cataneo, David, 94, 282

  I Remember Joe DiMaggio, 25–26, 39, 44, 45, 55, 271

  Caveney, Ike, 41, 43

  Chadwick, Henry, 118–19

  Chandler, Happy, 231

  Chandler, Spud, 171, 187

  Chapman, Ben, 61, 62, 63, 95, 159

  Cincinnati Reds, 65, 85, 99, 114, 118, 120

  Cincinnati Red Stockings, 22

  Clinton, Bill, 291

  Cobb, Ty, 38, 55, 57, 60, 120, 268

  Coleman, Jerry, 214, 224, 226, 231

  Collins, Eddie, 103

  Conigliaro, Tony, 267

  Considine, Bob, 90–91, 145

  Cooper, Mort, 152

  Coscarart, Joe, 62

  Costner, Kevin, 299

  Cramer, Doc, 95, 120

  Cramer, Richard Ben, Joe DiMaggio: The Hero’s Life, 51, 56, 144, 171, 207, 269, 283, 286, 291

  Cronin, Joe:

  and All-Star Game, 132

  funeral of, 277

  as general manager, 199, 214, 232, 236, 251, 252

  as manager, 53, 113, 118, 121, 139–40, 150, 161, 163, 170, 173, 187

  as player-manager, 85, 95, 97, 130, 141, 148, 158

  and Red Sox Hall of Fame, 298

  resignation of, 195

  Crosetti, Frank, 38, 50, 59, 60, 63, 69, 83, 89, 187

  Culberson, Leon, 180

  Daley, Arthur, 162, 164, 168

  Daley, Bill, 133

  Daniel, Dan, 62, 108, 128, 144, 145, 165, 188

  Danning, Harry, 73

  Daresta, Louis, 26

  Deal, Cot, 200, 201

  Dean, Daffy, 137

  Dean, Dizzy, 67, 84, 85, 137

  Delaware Valley Corporation, 253, 295

  Delock, Ike, 245, 252

  Dempsey, Jack, 84

  Devine, Joe, 71, 107

  Dickey, Bill, 131, 160

  and All-Star Games, 85, 97, 109

  as catcher, 63, 97, 142, 153, 171, 214

  as hitter, 73, 98, 99

  as manager, 172, 179

  and World Series, 89, 142

  DiMaggio, Adrianella [Nelly] (sister), 15, 18, 277

  DiMaggio
, Dominic Paolo, 90, 250

  aging, 5, 237–38, 246, 302–4

  and All-Star Games, 132, 150, 172, 177–78, 219, 231, 239

  and baseball, 49–50, 64–66, 87

  birth and childhood, 15, 18, 26, 29

  and business, 253, 255, 260, 264, 267, 275, 277, 286, 295, 300

  career achievements of, 252–53

  as center fielder, 50, 69, 81, 87, 98, 102, 112, 123, 124–25, 168, 178, 187, 206, 207, 216–17, 252, 253, 297, 298

  compared with Joe, 2, 122, 128, 139, 145, 208, 216, 217, 252, 285, 298

  death of, 304

  determination of, 186, 207, 217

  Dominic DiMaggio Day, 123

  and Emily, see DiMaggio, Emily

  DiMaggio, Dominic Paolo (cont.)

  and family, 3, 6, 75, 86–87, 115, 126, 254–55, 260, 265, 276–77, 278, 285, 286, 288, 290–93, 294–95, 303

  final years of, 294–96, 302–4

  at Galileo High, 49–50, 119

  and hitting, 82, 99, 102–3, 112, 123, 129, 131, 137, 138, 159, 189, 194, 205, 207, 211, 219, 225, 231, 247, 252, 297

  and income, 170, 179, 214

  injuries to, 107, 119, 120, 180, 190, 250

  in Japan, 242–43

  and Joe, 3, 4, 57, 122–23, 124–25, 133–34, 137, 173, 201, 210, 219–20, 222, 239, 272, 274, 281, 285–86, 290–92, 303

  as the “Little Professor,” 120, 127, 159, 188, 194, 200, 217

  and media, 107, 113, 120, 122–23, 130–31, 137, 138, 252

  as mentor, 124, 188–89, 217, 233, 247

  and military service, 143, 149, 153, 157–59, 253

  and MVP awards, 115, 216, 233

  as newspaperboy, 27, 218

  and O’Doul, 82, 87, 98, 102, 112–13, 275

  and Old-Timers’ Day, 1, 2, 4–6, 277, 279

  and Paget’s disease, 266, 302

  and players’ rights, 4, 95, 169–70, 200, 251, 263, 286, 297

  popularity of, 2, 4, 130–31, 177, 178, 200, 252–54, 296