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Our guest on this episode of Cover the Bases is David Cataneo, author of I Remember Joe Di Maggio: Personal Memories of the Yankee Clipper by the People Who Knew Him Best 
David describes the format of the book as an oral history which he has collected by interviewing players, manager & coaches, sports writers and many others who were direct witnesses to the life of Joe DiMaggio.
The books starts out with a direct anecdote from David and his encounter with DiMaggio as a 13 year old autograph hound, on a mission to get a response from The Yankee Clipper. One has to wonder what might have happened if the encounter had concluded differently!
Since DiMaggio was such a complex person, this oral history will provide numerous insights into his life from the ones who knew him personally. David felt that some of the participants in the book came to DiMaggio’s defense in response to the biography Joe DiMaggio : The Hero’s Life
Image, especially a “regal image”, was something that DiMaggio understood and protected mightily throughout the years. He felt that it was important as a player and a Yankee. David equates it today to Derek Jeter’s reputation.
Some of the more interesting conversations in the book came from those that had not really shared their stories before. As David describes them, his subjects are the 25th man on the roster who might not have received much attention from DiMaggio, or the woman in a story he relates who was an assistant at a card show who saw another side of the man.
We move off into a great conversation about the motivation behind Baseballisms.com, and the fact that we now have the digital storage space to capture essential and valuable stories from people who one day will no longer be with us. David believes this is an essential mission because once the person is gone, that story is gone forever. David lost his chance to speak to Johnny Sylvester, the legendary sick boy in 1926 who received the gift of a promised Babe Ruth home run. Sylvester passed away before they could meet. To this day, David thinks about the fact he could not chronicle Johnny’s perspective on the story as an adult.
DiMaggio was an important person in the Cataneo household as the first great Italian-American hero, and was the player David’s father idolized. Years later as a newspaper reporter, David was assigned to interview DiMaggio. David was terrified that something might happen in a negative way and he would have to go back to his father with a sad tale. Fortunately it went great and a photo of the interview was a present for the senior Cataneo to cherish.
The best DiMaggio quote of all time is … “There is always some kid who may be seeing me for the first or last time, I owe him my best”. He had an innate understanding about what it meant to be a ballplayer, the responsibilities that went along with that, and specifically a Yankee ballplayer.
I Remember Joe DiMaggio covers ground in his life after leaving the ball field, and his job of being Joe DiMaggio. Taking it at face value, he lived the dream life of every mid twentieth century American male .. he played centerfield for the Yankees and married Marilyn Monroe. However, he was a loner and really enjoyed being in his own company. So he was a man of serious contradictions.
This book is one of a series of “I Remember” books, and it includes among others the great rival and perhaps the antithesis of Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams. The book is called I Remember Ted Williams: Anecdotes and Memories of Baseball’s Splendid Splinter by the Players and People Who Knew Him
We extend our sincere thanks to David Cataneo for spending time with us and sharing his personal insights into Joe DiMaggio and the stories that he captured from those who knew him. We’ll hope to have David back on in the future to talk about his book about Red Sox legend Tony Conigliaro.
If you like hearing about the baseball books we profile on Cover the Bases, it might be time for you to pick up a Kindle from Amazon, so that you can take all the best Baseball Books with you no matter which stadiums you visit.
Let us know in the comments what you think about the Cover the Bases podcast. We would love to hear from you. Send a Tweet to @baseballisms with a quick message, send us an email or visit our Upload page with a video message. We look forward to growing a community of fans interested in the poetry of the game of baseball!
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