Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio by Jonah Winter (review)

Winter has made several notable contributions to the baseball nonfiction shelf (such as You Never Heard of Willie Mays?, BCCB 2/13), and now here’s another on the Yankee Clipper. With the tone of one enthusiast addressing another, Winter digs back into DiMaggio’s childhood to provide a remarkably balanced bio; as, of course, he must, since Joe was just a kid of seventeen when he went pro (with a paycheck that changed dad’s opinion about the merits of the game), and nineteen when he became a Yankee, heir apparent to Babe Ruth. There’s a strong emphasis on Joe’s reluctance to natter to the press or for that matter even to engage much with his own teammates, a practice that, as Winter notes in his closing remarks, “only added to his mystique.” Winter displays keen judgment in what to include in the text, and what to add in the final notes. Therefore, Joe’s unbroken record of a fifty-six-game hitting streak is featured, with other stats relegated to the end matter; likewise, his marriage to Marilyn Monroe gets the glamorous double-page spread that the headline-making union demands, but his ritual of laying roses on his ex-wife’s grave is simply but touchingly saved for the end. Ransome’s artwork is an excellent match, comprising both day-in-the-life scenes and cleverly composed contrasts between Depression Era baseball glamor and Dust Bowl squalor. Visual allusions to the media feeding frenzy around Joltin’ Joe are deftly incorporated, tacitly reminding readers that celebrity is not a recent invention. Pair this with Mays and perhaps a hot dog or two for a baseball biography bonanza.