On November 25th 1914, Joseph Paul DiMaggio burst into the world. He was the eighth of Guiseppe and Rosalie’s nine children. While he did grow up in the Italian-American section of San Francisco known as North Beach, contrary to folk-legend DiMaggio spent little of his time playing baseball. He did not feel passionately for the game, and would rarely play unless money was involved. After dropping out of high school at the age of 16 because he was embarrassed about his poor school work, DiMaggio bounced around many occupations before following his elder brother Vince, the real baseball fanatic in the family, to play for his hometown Pacific Coast league club, the San Francisco Seals. During his first full season, 1933, DiMaggio put up impressive numbers, including a Pacific Coast League record 61 game hitting streak, a precursor of his famous 1941 major league record 56 game hitting streak. Although he mysteriously injured his knee in 1934, the New York Yankees were impressed enough to buy him while he was cheap. The San Francisco Seals sold DiMaggio for 25,000 dollars and five players.

In his first season with the Yankees, 1936, DiMaggio made the all-star game as a rookie and led the Yanks to a World Series Victory over the cross-town rival Giants by batting .346 in the series. In 1938, Joe held out for more than his $25,000 salary, the only scar in DiMaggio’s years with the Yankees. After his strike failed, he vowed never to strike again. The following year he married Dorothy Arnold, a young model he met on a commercial shoot. His baseball career continued to be spectacular, most notably when he hit safely in 56 games in 1941. Unfortunately, his marriage was in shambles. Two years after Joe Jr. was born, Dorothy filed for divorce. DiMaggio, serving comfortable army duty, was powerless to stop her. Though he was plagued by injury and bone spurs for the rest of his career, DiMaggio became known as the definition of class. His brief marriage to actress/icon Marilyn Monroe further cemented his role as a man’s man, the definition of class in America.