November 21, 1934: Joe DiMaggio Becomes a Yankee

November 21, 1934: The New York Yankees purchase the contract of Joe DiMaggio from the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League for $50,000, also sending the Seals 5 players.

The Seals played in the PCL from its founding in 1903 until 1957, when the New York Giants moved to San Francisco. They were named for Seal Rock, an island in San Francisco Bay where seals gathered. They won 14 Pennants: 1909, 1915, 1917, 1922, 1923, 1925, 1928, 1931, 1935, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1957. And they formed a rivalry across the Bay with the Oakland Oaks. From 1931 onward, they played at Seals Stadium, considered one of the best minor-league ballparks. The Giants used it in 1958 and 1959, before Candlestick Park opened.

A minor-league hockey team would also be named the San Francisco Seals. When the NHL expanded to the Bay Area, the team played in Oakland, and was known as the Oakland Seals, and then as the California Golden Seals, before moving.

Giuseppe DiMaggio was an immigrant from Sicily, who immigrated first to Martinez, California, in what's now called the East Bay, and then to San Francisco. He was a professional fisherman, and he expected his sons to fish with him. He forbid his boys to play the American game of baseball.

In 1932, his oldest son, Vince disobeyed him, and signed with the Seals. Giuseppe told him not to come back. A month later, he came back, and slammed a wad of cash down on the kitchen table. Seeing more money at once than he'd ever had in his life, Giuseppe welcomed Vince back, and also let sons Giuseppe Jr. (Joe) and Dominic (Dom) play pro ball.

They also signed with the Seals. In 1933, Joe became a star, putting together a 61-game hitting streak, foreshadowing the 56-game streak he would have with the Yankees in 1941. But a knee injury in 1934 had scared the Eastern major league teams away. The Yankees took a chance on him, wanting him so badly that they let the Seals keep him for one more season in 1935. (In international soccer, it would have been considered a "loan deal.") Joe led the Seals to the Pennant that year.

Joe debuted with the Yankees in 1936, just 21 years old, and was instantly a star. Babe Ruth had retired, but Lou Gehrig was still there, and took Joe under his wing. For 3 years, Gehrig and DiMaggio pounded American League pitching. In 1939, Gehrig fell to the illness that would kill him, but Joe, catcher Bill Dickey, and some great pitching carried the Yankees to a 106-win season and a World Series win. Joe won the AL's batting title, and the 1st of his 3 AL Most Valuable Player awards.

He only played 13 seasons, losing 3 in the middle due to serving in World War II, and more at the end because he retired at age 37 due to a heel injury that had bothered him for his last 4 seasons. In those 13 seasons, he made the All-Star Game every year, helping the Yankees win 10 Pennants and 9 World Series.

The Yankees of Ruth and Gehrig had been "Murderers' Row." It was the DiMaggio era, 1936 to 1951, that made them more than a single-generation great team. It was "The Yankee Clipper," with his stoic greatness and resistance to injury, that made them, as the saying went, "the lordly Yankees."

Vince, who played his best years with the Pittsburgh Pirates, was an All-Star in the 1943 and 1944 seasons. Dom, who played his entire career with the Boston Red Sox, was an All-Star 7 times: 1941, 1942, 1946, 1949, 1950, 1951 and 1952. There are still Red Sox fans who say he was a better center fielder than Joe. They also say he should join Joe in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The 1st claim is ridiculous: The number of men who have played center field on Joe's level is very small. The 2nd claim has some merit.

Vince died in 1986, Joe in 1999, Dom in 2009.

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November 21, 1934 was a Wednesday. This was also the day that American newspapers broke the story of the "Business Plot," a proposed military coup that would be backed by some of America's richest men to depose President Franklin D. Roosevelt and install a fascist government, a plan torpedoed when their intended commander, Marine General Smedley Butler, blew the whistle on it in a Congressional committee hearing. I have a separate entry for that event.

This was also the day the Cole Porter musical Anything Goes, starring Ethel Merman, debuted on Broadway. I have a separate entry for that event.

Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And while the NHL season began on November 8, there were no games scheduled for this day. So there were no scores.