Nah.
But Dom DiMaggio, who died early today at the age of 92, was an awfully good player anyway.
He didn't much resemble his brother. He stood just 5'9 (Joe is listed at 6'2), and he hit just 87 HRs in his 10 year career. Joe had hit that many by the time he turned 23. Dominic was a leadoff hitter, and he was able to score more than 1000 runs in his brief career (1399 games). He was also a brilliant centre fielder - there are many people who think Dom was actually a better defender than Joe, which is saying quite a bit.
Dom is a longstanding member in good standing in the Hall of the Very Good, but he wasn't given much of break by the random vagaries of history. He lost three full seasons in the heart of his prime (age 26, 27, and 28) to World War II and he retired young - he was 35 during his last full season.
Anyway, here's the thing. Dom spent his entire career playing centre field for the Red Sox, and for all but one of those seasons (1952) his big brother was playing the same position for the Yankees.
Can you imagine if that was happening now? As if the press doesn't have enough Boston-New York stuff to work with... Makes you shudder.
So happy trails to the Little Professor.
Well, after a fair bit of time reading the baseball news of the day, most of which consists of self-righteous, self-satisfied, holier-than-thou responses to the Manny Ramirez news - and trust me, none of these guys said "boo" during McGwire-Sosa in 1998 - I resumed my exploration of Bill James' online site. I just paid up, shelled out my $3 (actually $9, because the billing is quarterly). And I'm working my way through the archived material, and came across this:
We have to admit that we’re not any better. I’m not any better than Bill Singer, and I’m not any better than Al Campanis, and I’m not any better than Marge Schott.
That, it seems to me, is what is missing from the Barry Bonds debate: Forgiveness. I’m not any better than Barry Bonds, and I’m not any better than Mark McGwire, and I’m not any better than Roger Clemens, and I’m not any better than Pete Rose, either. You give me the opportunity to earn $22 million a year by taking steroids, I’ll shoot the pharmacist if I have to. I’m not saying it’s right. I’m not saying I shouldn’t be punished for shooting the pharmacist. I am saying it is self-righteous to pretend that I don’t have the same human failings that these guys do, and further, if you are insisting that you don’t have them, I don’t believe you. When you fire Al Campanis to show us that his failings are not your failings, I don’t believe you.
Elsewhere - I was struck by the Johan Santana-Chan Ho Park pitching duel the other night.
I suppose it's always slightly surprising these days when Chan Ho gets involved in
a pitching duel. But here's what got my attention - his batting
line:
AB R H RBI BB SO LOB BAVG
C Park, p 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 .143
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20090508161805235