Dom DiMaggio (1917–2009)

Joe DiMaggio's brother Dom was a fine ballplayer in his own right for many years. In 1941 (and for his whole career), Dom was an outfielder for the Red Sox, so I was expecting this book to be a memoir about what life was like on the BoSox during that 1941 season. But this turns out not to be a memoir, really, as there are relatively few personal memories about playing ball that year. What we have, instead, is an overall history of the 1941 season and almost as much, what life was like in America in 1941 on the eve of World War Two.

1941 was the year that Dom's brother Joe compiled is possibly never to be equaled 56-game hitting streak. It is also the season that Dom's teammate Ted Williams hit over .400. No one since has cracked the .400 mark. So that, and the fact that the country, and the ballplayers, had the feeling that the U.S. would soon be in the war and that baseball would be strongly affected, is what makes the season "historic" in DiMaggio's point of view.

Part of the book's problem, though, is that the American League had no pennant race to speak of that year. The Yankees won the flag by 17 games. The NL had a tight race, but DiMaggio barely mentions it.

Dimaggio does give a good overview of the state and conditions of baseball in those days, including the joys of riding trains on road trips, the quality of the umpiring, the miserly ways of the owners, etc. He gives a description of the effects the war had on the major leagues after Pearl Harbor, as well as some nice brief profiles of some of the stars of the day. As a life-long baseball fan and someone with a decent grasp of American history, I found, say, 65-70% of this book to be a review of things I already. It's not that there are no personal reminiscences, just not as many as I was expecting/hoping for. For someone just learning about baseball history and/or not familiar with life in the U.S. during that time, this book might be well worthwhile.

Oh, and I should say that the writing is crisp and the book flows nicely.… (more)