For an older generation of fans, the golden days of the Red Sox was the era when the great DiMaggio patrolled center field at Fenway Park.
You didn’t read that wrong. At the same time that Joe DiMaggio manned center for the New York Yankees, his brother Dom DiMaggio was a constant in center for Boston. And Dom, like Joe, owns the longest consecutive-game hit streak in his team’s history, set in 1949 at 34 games.
Everything the youngest DiMaggio did — not merely his hitting streak — was overshadowed by a more famous brother, mythic teammates, and a face and stature that suggested less “professional athlete” and more “high school science teacher.” But “The Little Professor” was one of the best outfielders of his time and among the most underrated players in MLB history.
“Dad had a lot of respect for Uncle Joe and what he did,” son Paul DiMaggio told The Palm Beach Post after his father died in 2009. “But he never felt inferior.”
Without DiMaggio setting the table, Ted Williams’ RBI totals would have been less gaudy. And, man, did DiMaggio ever set the table.
Seldom missing a game (aside from his three years lost due to military service) DiMaggio was as steady a presence in the Red Sox lineup as Williams was. During his time as a regular player, spanning 1940-1952, no American League outfielder had more hits than DiMaggio — not even Williams or older brother Joe.
!function(e,i,n,s){var t=”InfogramEmbeds”,d=e.getElementsByTagName(“script”)[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement(“script”);o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src=”https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js”,d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,”infogram-async”);Yet while he looked unassuming, DiMaggio possessed a quiet confidence that came through in his interviews at the time and in later years.
Perhaps the most famous player DiMaggio’s associated with is one for which he wasn’t on the field. In Game 7 of the 1946 World Series, DiMaggio tweaked his hamstring rounding first and had to be replaced in center field in the bottom of the eighth inning. St. Louis Cardinals baserunner Enos Slaughter would go on to race home from first base to break a 3-3 tie, but DiMaggio defiantly insisted, “Slaughter never would have scored if I’d been in centerfield,” as noted in his 2009 obituary in The New York Times.
Google “Dom DiMaggio,” though, and you’re likely to see the message, “Did you mean Joe DiMaggio?” Although he was among the best centerfielders in an era of all-time great centerfielders, Dom DiMaggio was glossed over in his own time and largely forgotten in ours.
