Winter Auction 2016 Closing January 30th
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 1/31/2016
This lot documents Joe DiMaggio's very first season in the majors. The Yankees paid the San Francisco Seals $75,000 for DiMaggio, an unbelievable price but also a huge risk as he had injured himself just the year before and many big league teams passed on his contract. This lot dates from that uncertain period when DiMaggio was just another highly-touted rookie trying to prove he could live up to all the hype built up around him. The first part of this group is a 2 3/4" x 3 3/4" black and white snapshot taken at the Yankees St. Petersburg training camp showing a young Joe smiling warily into the camera. The reverse of the photo is stamped March 29, 1936 and is one of the earliest photos in existence of DiMaggio wearing a Yankees uniform. Along with this historically significant photograph is an 11" x 15" scrapbook documenting Joe's very first season in the majors. Lovingly assembled by DiMaggio's sister Marie from Bay Area newspapers, the album starts off with uncertainty as questions are raised about whether DiMaggio's unbelievable averages in the Coast League were just a "flash in the pan". Another article refers to the rookie by the nickname "Dead Pan Joe", given to him for the serious expression present on his face at all times. On each of the 100 pages we see how DiMaggio not only lives up to the expectations placed on him but surpasses them - one headline has no less than Lou Gehrig declaring the rookie "The Best Right Handed Hitter in the Game". Besides DiMaggio's rookie year, 1936 marked the Yankees return to the World Series. Facing the heavily favored Giants, DiMaggio again excelled. One of the headlines trumpets the view of NY Giants manager Bill Terry: "DiMag Best Player in Baseball". The scrapbook collects articles from the Yankees World Series victory and ends with headlines trumpeting DiMaggio's victorious return to San Francisco and his family. A photo of the young hero smiling titled "Dead Pan? Not When He Returns Home" creates the perfect bookend to the first pages of the scrapbook. The scrapbook pages are in a brittle state due to the paper used and the last 25 or so pages of the scrapbook have come loose from the binding. However the articles are still firmly glued in place and easily read making this a valuable document of Joe DiMaggio's first season as a big leaguer. Letter of Authenticity from Paula DiMaggio Hamra and Kathie DiMaggio Stein.