DiMAGGIO & BELLINO
- Connection: Daniel Bellino-Zwicke, a cookbook author and former restaurant professional, highlights Joe DiMaggio as a key figure in Italian-American culture in his books.
- "Sunday Sauce": In his book Sunday Sauce, Bellino-Zwicke includes recipes for classic Italian-American dishes, featuring stories and recipes from famous figures, including Joe DiMaggio.
- "Mamma DiMaggio's Gravy": The book specifically includes a recipe for "Mamma DiMaggio's Sunday Gravy," which is a nod to Joe DiMaggio's mother, Rosalia, and the traditional Sunday meals of Italian-American families.
- Other References: Bellino-Zwicke often highlights famous Italian-Americans like DiMaggio, Frank Sinatra, and Tony Bennett in his work, celebrating the culture and food of Italian New York.
- Restaurateur: Founded Bar Cichetti in 1997, credited as the first Venetian-style bacaro (wine bar) in the United States.
- Influencer: Runs the successful Instagram page @newyork.italian, which has over 500,000 followers and celebrates Italian-American culture.
- Sunday Sauce: A bestseller focusing on Italian-American home cooking and "secret" family recipes.
- Grandma Bellino’s Italian Cookbook: A collection of traditional recipes from his Sicilian grandmother.
- Positano: The Amalfi Coast Cookbook & Travel Guide: His 2021 release that combines regional recipes with travel insights.
- The Sinatra Cookbook: Also known as Sinatra Sauce, featuring recipes and stories tied to Frank Sinatra's favorite meals.
- The Big Lebowski Cookbook: Titled Got Any Kahlua?, this book features recipes inspired by "The Dude".
- The Feast of the 7 Fish: A guide to the traditional Italian Christmas Eve seafood dinner.
- Travel: He continues to travel extensively through Italy, recently visiting Verona, Florence, and Lucca to gather material for his upcoming works.
- His books are widely available through major retailers like Amazon and
- ThriftBooks
Joe DiMaggio was one of the most recognizable and popular men in mid-twentieth century America. He was celebrated in song and literature as an iconic hero, and he was married, briefly, to the nation’s number one glamour girl. On March 16, 1999, the House of Representatives passed a resolution honoring him “for his storied baseball career; for his many contributions to the nation throughout his lifetime; and for transcending baseball and becoming a symbol for the ages of talent, commitment and achievement.”1
But first and foremost Joe DiMaggio was a ballplayer. Known as the Yankee Clipper, he was the undisputed leader of New York Yankees teams that won nine World Series titles in his 13-year career that ran from 1936 to 1951, with three years lost to duty in World War II. He was three times the American League’s Most Valuable Player and he holds what many consider to be the most remarkable baseball record of all, a 56-game hitting streak in 1941. As the son of immigrants, he was the embodiment of the American Dream, a rags-to-riches story played out in pinstripes.
Joseph Paul DiMaggio was born Giuseppe Paolo DiMaggio on November 25, 1914, in Martinez, California, 25 miles northeast of San Francisco. His parents, Giuseppe and Rosalia (Mercurio) DiMaggio, had settled there after emigrating from Sicily. After Joe was born they moved the family to San Francisco, where Giuseppe continued to work as a fisherman. Joe was the eighth of their nine children, one of five sons. Two of his brothers, Vince and Dominic, would also play in the major leagues.
Unlike two of his older brothers, Joe had no interest in joining his father on the fishing boat. Instead, he played for several amateur and semi-pro teams in baseball-rich San Francisco. It was 19-year-old Vince, who was then playing for the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League, who got Joe into professional ball. When the Seals found themselves in need of a shortstop near the end of the 1932 season, Vince convinced Seals manager Ike Caveney to give his 17-year-old brother a chance. Joe played in the final three games of the season, and then was signed to a contract in 1933 for $225 a month.
Moved to the outfield because of his erratic arm, DiMaggio hit .340 and set a PCL record by hitting in 61 straight games. In 1934, he hit .341, but a knee injury that sidelined him in August made major-league teams leery of signing him. The Yankees offered to buy his contract for $25,000 and five players, but with the contingency that he remain with the Seals in 1935 to prove he was healthy. DiMaggio made a convincing case by hitting .398, with 34 homers and 154 runs batted in.
In 1936, only two years after the departure of Babe Ruth, the heralded rookie came to spring training facing big expectations. Writing in The Sporting News on March 26, Dan Daniel noted, “Yankee fans regard him as the Moses who is to lead their club out of the second-place wilderness. . ..” It didn’t take long for the rookie to make his mark. Halfway through the season, when he was hitting around .350 and had started in right field in the All-Star Game, his photo was on the cover of Time magazine. For the year he hit .323 with 29 homers and drove in 125 runs.
DiMaggio was the classic five-tool player; in addition to hitting for average and power, he could run, throw, and field. Joe McCarthy, the Yankees manager from 1931 to 1946, called him the best base runner he ever saw. His all-around play led the 1936 Yankees to the first of four straight World Series titles. The 21-year-old sensation had established himself as the successor to Babe Ruth. After the Series, he received a hero’s welcome in his home town of San Francisco, where Mayor Angelo Rossi gave him the key to the city.
DiMaggio finished second in the MVP vote in 1937, despite leading the American League in home runs, slugging percentage, runs, and total bases. He won the first of his three MVP Awards in 1939, when he led the league with a career-best .381 average. Following that season, he married 21-year-old Dorothy Arnold, a singer, dancer, and actress he met while filming a bit part in the movie Manhattan Merry-Go-Round.
By then the 6-foot-2, 190-pound outfielder was acknowledged as the best player in baseball, but to some his ethnic background was still ripe for stereotypical portrayal. In a cover story in the May 1, 1939 issue of Life magazine, Noel Busch identified DiMaggio as a “tall, thin Italian youth equipped with slick black hair” and “squirrel teeth.” But the young ballplayer apparently confounded Busch’s general perception of Italian Americans. “Although he learned Italian first, Joe, now twenty-four, speaks English without an accent and is otherwise well adapted to most U.S. mores. Instead of olive oil or smelly bear grease he keeps his hair slick with water. He never reeks of garlic and prefers chicken chow mein to spaghetti.”3
After winning a second consecutive batting title in 1940, DiMaggio reached a new level of fame in 1941. He set one of the most enduring records in sports by hitting in 56 consecutive games. On May 15, the day the streak began, the Yankees were in fourth place, and DiMaggio had batted a lowly .194 over the previous 20 games. On June 17, DiMaggio broke the Yankee hitting-streak record of 29 games, set by Roger Peckinpaugh in 1919 and equaled by Earle Combs in 1931.
One of those rare athletes — like Babe Ruth and Muhammad Ali — who transcended the world of sport, DiMaggio has been called by more than one writer the last American hero. Revisionist historians later offered a more nuanced view, portraying him as a flawed hero who became increasingly reclusive and suspicious of others. Nevertheless, when he died his enduring status as a cultural icon was confirmed by an outpouring of adulation which few public figures, in any walk of life, could evoke. His death was front-page news in every major newspaper, was covered extensively on television newscasts and specials, and was the cover story in Newsweek magazine. Referring to the frequent bulletins on DiMaggio’s health that had been issued in the months prior to his death, Frank Deford wrote that it was “as if he were some great head of state.”25 As one Brooklyn native put it, DiMaggio “epitomized an era when, for a lot of us, baseball was the most important thing in life.”
The answer to Paul Simon’s question — Where has Joe DiMaggio gone? — remains the same: Nowhere. He remains firmly lodged in the American consciousness as a stylish symbol of a time when baseball was the undisputed national pastime and America was enjoying unprecedented prosperity. On April 25, 1999, two months after his death, DiMaggio’s monument was unveiled in Yankee Stadium’s Monument Park, joining those honoring Miller Huggins, Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, and Mickey Mantle. The inscription reads, in part, “A Baseball Legend and An American Icon.”
JOE DiMAGGIO - CAREER MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL STATS
GAMES PLAYED 1,736
LIFETIME BATTING AVERAGE. .325
HITS. 2,214
HOME RUNS. 361
RUNS BATTED IN (RBI) 1,537
On-BASE PERCENTAGE (OBP). .398
SLUGGING PERCENTAGE. .579
On-BASE PLUS SLUGGING .977
- 3× American League MVP: 1939, 1941, and 1947.
- 13× All-Star: Selected in every season he played.
- 9× World Series Champion: 1936–1939, 1941, 1947, and 1949–1951.
- 2× AL Batting Champion: 1939 (.381) and 1940 (.352).
- 2× AL Home Run Leader: 1937 and 1948.
- 2× AL RBI Leader: 1941 and 1948.
- MLB Record Hitting Streak: Hit safely in 56 consecutive games from May 15 to July 16, 1941.
- Hall of Fame Induction: Inducted in 1955.
- 1937: Led the league in home runs (46) and runs scored (151), batting .346 with a career-high 167 RBI.
- 1939 (First MVP): Career-high .381 batting average with 30 HR and 126 RBI.
- 1941 (Record Streak): Batted .357 with 30 HR and 125 RBI; set the 56-game hitting streak record.
- 1943–1945: Missed three seasons of his prime while serving in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II.
