Quote:
Originally Posted by sports-rings
there were a hundred or two hundred pages in the diary. so instead of one person obtaining a diary, Steiner made a lot of great looking pieces that collectors can proudly display.
I do agree with you, it's awful when they cut down bats and Jerseys for those silly premium sports cards.
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Not sure we're going to find middle ground on this one. The diary was sold as "Joe DiMaggio's Diary," not a collection of "200 individual pages of Joe's musings." I really don't see it as that much different from cutting up a jersey or a bat so that 200 people can enjoy a sliver of the whole rather than one person owning the bat or jersey. If providing for the enjoyment of the masses was their paramount concern, Steiner would have scanned the diary and printed up copies of it. Steiner is certainly good at making "a lot of great looking pieces," but I don't for a second think that their motivation is sharing the diary with as many fans as possible.
I really should read up on these things before I start ranting:
"Unlike most people who begin diaries, DiMaggio did not buy a notebook; instead, he wrote on random pieces of paper, often loose sheets of paper with hotel logos. Approximately 2,500 sheets of paper (most held in a protective sleeve), filling 29 binders, have been collected and are now for sale by Steiner Sports."
So it appears that Joe was too cheap to even buy a notebook, let alone an actual diary, so the pages were already separated. I stand by my evaluation of Steiner's motivations ($), but the comparison to hacking up jerseys and bats doesn't fit in this case since the "diaries" really did start out as individual pages of Joe's musings.
I did like The Onion's story regarding the diaries though:
Joe DiMaggio's Diary Just A List Of Things, People He Hated
NEW YORK—Upon closer examination, a 2,400-page, 29-volume diary kept by New York Yankees centerfielder Joe DiMaggio from 1982 to 1993 is merely a listing of all the things and people the Hall of Famer hated, archivists charged with determining the diary's authenticity reported Monday. "Jukeboxes, dollar stores, Paul Simon, Washington, D.C., speaking, Garth Brooks, myself, and automobiles. Also sore throats, Yogi Berra, films, Lee Iacocca, coffeemakers, anyone who has ever referred to me as 'Joltin',' sandals, baseball," read the entry dated July 14, 1992. "I hate all of that. Plus my neighbor Janet, who is another one of those hateful attractive blondes." In an entry from Nov. 15, 1987, DiMaggio wrote that last names that include two capital letters were "frustrating" and "something I hate."