Joe Dimaggio: The Hero's Life [Hardcover]

The book also shined when describing not only Joe's relationship with Marilyn Monroe (brutal by today's standards) and what Hollywood and stardom was like.

Dimaggio's dysfunctional personality and apparent avarice are well-presented, as is the power he had to make men give up all dignity and self-respect simply to be his friend. While we can't simply assume everything said here about DiMaggio's attorney and "close personal friend", Morris Engelberg, is 100% accurate, it isn't hard to believe either. We had a very real taste of this man's character here in San Francisco with how he handled the whole affair of our city wanting to name the playground in North Beach for DiMaggio.

The only gap in the book for me was the leap it made from Marilyn Monroe's death all the way to the 1989 SF earthquake. I thought Cramer went pretty far in depicting the Kennedy/Sinatra involvement with Monroe and why Joe so despised them after her death. But he stopped there quite abruptly. There probably was more that could have been written to show Joe's scorn for them (like the snub of Bobby Kennedy at Yankee Stadium during an Old Timers Game introductions...Joe refused to shake his hand). Baseball-wise, I think more could have also been written about Joe's feelings for---or against---Mickey Mantle and how he felt about THAT center fielder's so completely winning the hearts of Yankee fans. If the author's intended audience was people like me and older, who are familiar with Joe's life and career, then I'm off-base. If he was hoping to have the 20-30 crowd know more about this myth, I think he could have written a little more.

Joe DiMaggio was not a good man necessarily, many people knew that before even reading this book. In today's world he would have been mauled by the press and fans and would likely not be perceived as such a heroic figure as he now is. Look at Barry Bonds, perhaps a better player overall (hard to say for those of us who never saw Joe actually play...hard to argue against 9 world championships in 13 years...versus Barry's ZERO), yet his personality is probably not too different from Joe's in his search for privacy and aloofness from his teammates. However, he is vilified by most and has precious few friends. In another day, he would have been up in the pantheon with the Babe and Joltin' Joe.

Rating and reviewing this book is fairly straightforward. It is an excellent book, beutifully written, clear, well researched with many insights and tidbits about his life. It is an excellent biography and a joy to read. You get a nice appreciation of where he came from and what he did after baseball. He is sorely missed now.

I am a baseball fan but do not profess to be an expert. However from what I know, DiMaggio was probably the greatest player that ever played. That is a hard statement to make with any precision and there are about five players one can put in that catagory like the Babe, Williams, and a few others. Off the field he is subject to many pressures some of which he can handle and others from this book he could not. To me this book seems to indicate that he was good on balance. He was not perfect, but who in this world ever is and that does not detract from his performance on the field and our memories of Joltin Joe throwing out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium with that big smile.

Its a good book: Four or Five Stars. Since it is Joe, make it 5.

Jack in Toronto