More than 350 sets of brothers have played in the Major Leagues since the 1870s. But few have had the skill, the charisma, and the success of the DiMaggio brothers. Joltin' Joe Dimaggio, "The Yankee Clipper" is an American icon and one of the greatest athletes of the 20th century; his meteoric career has been well-documented: three MVP awards, nine World Series rings, a 56-game hitting streak, 361 home runs and just 369 strikeouts, the marriage to Marilyn Monroe. Joltin' Joe did it all and he had it all. Ted Williams called him the greatest all-around player he ever saw.
But his two brothers weren't exactly slouches. Dominic was a seven-time All-Star who played centerfield for the Boston Red Sox from 1940 through 1953. He hit better than .300 five times in his career, finished with a .298 average, and like his big brother, he rarely struck out. And Vince DiMaggio, who was the oldest of the three, made two All-Star teams and in 1941, while playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates, smacked 21 home runs and drove in 100 RBI.
Now, in THE DIMAGGIOS, journalist Tom Clavin draws on a variety of source material, interviews, and reporting in order to show us how three kids from an immigrant family of twelve found their way to the upper most reaches of American sports and popular culture. A dynamic portrait of a family and the ways in which their shifting fortunes and status warped and determined their relationships, it is also a transporting portrait of an era and a culture-our national past time, baseball-and the lens through which it allows us to understand American society.
