But I did it.Thanks to the baby, who took a 90-minute nap this morning, I did it.
So, you're wondering, why is she writing about baseball? Because the editor told me to, that's why. Actually, the piece is a "think piece" on heroes, reflecting on the warts-and-all portrayal of DiMaggio in the book, our changing sense of the heroic, how our media saturated celebrity culture warps our sense of the hero, and, of course, post 9/11 reflections.
It's a interesting book, the DiMaggio biography. It was a controversial piece of work, since it shatters any myths and leaves us with a cold, hard-shelled central figure (a portrayal not helped by the fact that the author wrote the book without any help from DiMaggio himself.) who was miserly, and pretty much totally focussed on how he could trade on his celebrity status to get other people to give him free stuff and lots of money. The portrait of his later years and his machinations with purveyors of baseball collectibles is pretty outrageous.
There's a hospital down in Hollywood, Florida named for him: The Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital. DiMaggio never gave the place a dime. Somehow, the naming of the hospital after him worked to help shelter him from some California taxes. He wouldn't even donate autographed memorabilia for fund-raising purposes. They had to buy it on the open market.
One of the most striking images is of DiMaggio, the year before he died, being driven around New York City in a friend's car, a friend whose car was his regular mode of transportation when he was in NYC - it was stocked with his favorite CD's, as well as "a copy of the book, the Old Man and the Sea, with the pages that mentioned the Great DiMaggio dog-eared at the corners, so Joe could find them.”
One thing I didn't know: That DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe were scheduled to be remarried (after being divorced for about 4 years) the Wednesday after the Saturday she ended up dead.
