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Joe DiMaggio
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Beautiful signed photo of the Yankee Clipper
reading the 1939 Sporting News proclamation
declaring him to be the “perfect player”
Joseph Paul DiMaggio, nicknamed “Joltin’ Joe” and “The Yankee Clipper,” 1914–1999. American baseball player; member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. 8” x 10” framed photograph signed Joe DiMaggio.
This is a beautiful photograph of DiMaggio reading the 1939 award from The Sporting News declaring him to be “the perfect player.” In 1939, at age 25, DiMaggio hit .381, winning his first batting title, and had 30 home runs and 126 RBIs to lead the New York Yankees to a four-game sweep over the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series. He was so fleet afoot in center field that that year Yankees broadcaster Arch McDonald dubbed him the “Yankee Clipper,” comparing his speed and range to those of the airplanes in Pan American Airways’ Clipper service. DiMaggio received the American League’s 1939 Most Valuable Player Award and The Sporting News’ awards for Most Valuable Player and Major League Player of the Year.
The year DiMaggio began his career with the Yankees, 1936, the Yankees won the first of four consecutive World Series victories. Over the course of DiMaggio’s 13-year tenure, the Yankees won the World Series nine times. Despite having a three-year interruption in his career for military service during World War II, DiMaggio was a 13-time All Star and finished his career with a lifetime major league batting average of .325. He was the American League Most Valuable Player three times.
DiMaggio’s greatest feat on the field—certainly the one for which he is best known—was his 56-game hitting streak in 1941. DiMaggio batted a whopping .408 during the string of consecutive games with at least one hit from May 15 to July 16, 1941. The streak surpassed the then-record held by Willie Keeler of the Baltimore Orioles in the old National League, who hit in 45 straight games during 1896–1897. In 1978, Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds hit in 44 straight games, still 12 shy of DiMaggio’s mark, to set the modern National League record. Two historical tidbits that many may not know are that DiMaggio had an even longer hitting streak, 61 games, while playing for the minor league San Francisco Seals in 1933 and that his brother, Dom DiMaggio, had his own 34-game hitting streak for the Boston Red Sox in 1949.
DiMaggio has signed this photo in blue felt tip across his Yankee pinstripe jersey. The photo is attractively double matted in light and dark gray and framed in a black-and-gilt frame to an overall size of 13” x 15”. The matting appears to be acid free, but we did not frame the photo and cannot say whether the framing is archival.
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