October 10, 1951: Joe DiMaggio's Last Game

October 10, 1951: The Yankees defeat the New York Giants, 4-3 in Game 6 at Yankee Stadium, and win their 3rd straight World Series, their 14th World Championship. The Giants had taken 2 of the 1st 3 games in this Series, but the Yanks took 3 straight to win.

Joe DiMaggio goes 1-for-2 with 2 walks. In the bottom of the 8th, he laces a double to left-center off Larry Jansen. It turns out to be the last at-bat of his career, as he announces his retirement 2 months later.

His intended center field successor, Mickey Mantle, had gotten hurt in right field in Game 2, and missed the rest of the Series, and the knee he injured would never be the same again, the beginning of a cloud over his career that would only grow. The "other" great rookie center fielder, Willie Mays of the Giants, had a poor Series, and would spend most of the next 2 seasons in the Army in the Korean War. But both Mantle and Mays would be back, and would resume building their legends.

This game is significant for another reason: It is the Yankees' 14th World Series win, making them, officially, the greatest franchise in baseball history. While the team known, at this point, as the Boston Braves had won only 1 World Series, in 1914, they had previously won 9 National League Pennants, and, before that, 4 Pennants in the National Association, making them, effectively, the world champions of baseball 13 times. The Yankees had now exceeded that.

On December 12, 1951, DiMaggio announced his retirement at Yankee Stadium: "I have played my last game of ball." He later explained it this way: "You start chasing a ball, and your brain immediately commands your body to 'Run forward, bend, scoop up the ball, peg it to the infield!' Then your body says, 'Who, me?'"

He had reached his 37th birthday between that last game and his retirement announcement. And 37 has been a troublesome age for the Yankees: Mantle would also retire at 37, Lou Gehrig died at that age, Yogi Berra began his last season, Don Mattingly had been retired for 3 years, and Thurman Munson had been dead for 5.

By 1968, a year of turmoil, and the last season for Mantle, DiMaggio was already seen as a relic of an earlier age. In their Number 1 hit song "Mrs. Robinson," Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel sang:

Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?
A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.
Woo woo woo.
What’s that you say, Mrs. Robinson?
Joltin’ Joe has left and gone away?
Hey hey hey.
Hey hey hey. 

At one point, DiMaggio and Simon met, and DiMaggio asked him, "What do you mean, where have I gone? I haven't gone anywhere." DiMaggio didn't understand. 

Of course, being just 9 years old when the 1951 transition was made, Simon's hero was Mantle, and Mantle asked why he wasn't mentioned. Simon had to tell him that his name didn't fit the rhythm of the song. In 1988, Simon made it up to Mantle, putting him in a video he made for his 1972 solo hit "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard," filming it in a Manhattan schoolyard, even though the song takes place in Corona, one neighborhood over from the Mets' Shea Stadium. 

DiMaggio died in 1999. At a ceremony for the Monument that replaced his plaque in Yankee Stadium's Monument Park, Simon sang "Mrs. Robinson" while standing in DiMaggio's old position of center field.

Bobby Brown was the last surviving member of the 1951 Yankees, living until 2021.

UPDATE: Among the Yankees' many traditions is Monument Park at Yankee Stadium. From the 1949-53 team that won 5 straight World Series, they have honored center fielders Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle with Monuments; and given Plaques to catcher Lawrence "Yogi" Berra, shortstop Phil Rizzuto, pitchers Allie Reynolds and Edward "Whitey" Ford, manager Charles "Casey" Stengel, public address announcer Bob Sheppard, and broadcaster Mel Allen.

Billy Martin played 2nd base in this period, but that's not why he's in Monument Park, or why his uniform Number 1 has been retired. The Yankees have also retired 5 for DiMaggio, 7 for Mantle, 8 for Berra, 10 for Rizzuto, 16 for Ford and 37 for Stengel. Although 1st baseman Johnny Mize and general manager George Weiss are in the Baseball Hall of Fame, they are not honored in Monument Park. Neither are team owners Dan Topping and Del Webb, who are also not in the Hall of Fame.

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October 10, 1951 was a Wednesday. This was the only baseball game played that day. Football was in midweek. The NHL season started the next day. And the NBA season didn't start until November 1. So there were no other scores on this historic day.