Joe DiMaggio’s Streak, Game 9, May 23, 1941
This was going to be fun. It always was—and still is: the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. A weekend series in the Bronx, featuring Joe’s brother Dom and Teddy Ballgame.
“Ted, DiMaggio? You two ever trade places?” asked the media.
A photographer yells out: “Ted, Joe. Got a second for a picture?”
“Hey, Joe! I’d like to get a picture with you and your brother,” came another request from a photographer.
Flashbulbs popped, fans milled around the railings, excitement was always in the air, for when these two franchises met, something special always seemed to happen.
Dom DiMaggio, Joltin’ Joe’s younger brother, was playing All-Star-caliber centerfield for the Sox. Several scribes were comparing the bespectacled Dom’s fielding prowess with that of his brother.
Even though Dom was at this point hitting for a higher average (.339), no one dared hint that he was a better hitter than Joe.
Beneath threatening skies—holding the Friday afternoon crowd to only 8,584—the two archrivals had their hitting shoes on in a 9-9 game shortened by the elements and darkness.
The Bosox banged out 13 hits, including two by Dom. Williams drove in three runs with a single and a groundout.
Meanwhile, Joe went 1-for-5 as his average dipped to .319. The Streak, however, survived at nine straight.
Again, it was a day that DiMaggio, playing in another ballpark, might have been a one-man wrecking crew.
The year before, Joe gave then-rookie Dom advice: “I told him to play a little deeper here. Maybe 12 steps back.”
On May 23, 1941, the Yankee Clipper wished he’d kept his mouth shut.
“I came up twice in the game with the bases loaded, and both times I hit the ball into the alley. Four-hundred and fifty feet away,” the Baseball Almanac quotes DiMaggio. “Home runs in any other park.
“Well, with each time, my own brother robbed me by making catches on the warning track. Instead of a possible eight RBI, or at least five or six, I got nothing.
“That night Dom came over to my place for dinner. I remember letting him in the door and then not speaking to him until we were almost done eating. I was that mad.”
Speak Your Mind