The DiMaggios: Three Brothers, Their Passion for Baseball, Their Pursuit of the American Dream
Just a few years after the death of the last surviving brother, Dominic, at age 92, Clavin offers a collective biography of the best known of all sports siblings, with the emphasis, of course, on the iconic Joe (Giuseppe Junior). The story is a familiar one to baseball fans: sons of Italian immigrant parents and discouraged from sports as youngsters by their San Francisco fisherman father, the three brothers—Vince, Joe, and Dominic—all went on to Major League careers, in Joe’s case also to the Hall of Fame and celebrity well beyond the baseball diamond, notably Joe’s enduring love of Marilyn Monroe. Clavin’s treatment of their baseball lives is heavily statistical, almost encyclopedic (he’s gone through all the Yankee clippings), and, regrettably—like the brothers’ personalities (Vince possibly excepted)—it lacks panache. Oddly, the book is at its best in dealing with their later years: Vince’s personal struggles, Joe’s loneliness, Dom’s business success. Though often sad, the account achieves, toward the end of the story, its drama and real poignancy. The DiMaggios is, ultimately, the family story its title implies. --Mark Levine