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The Joe D " greatest living ball player" started in 1969 when Joe was named to the greatest living ball player team as part of baseball's centennial celebration . He was named to the team as an outfielder along with Mays and Williams. Now that part is fact and here comes the part that has been conjecture for a long time( I first heard this in the late 1980s at Hofstra and heard versions of this story several times from different sources over the years) so who knows if this is true or not but here it goes. Since Joe was a Yankee and had won all those World Championships , more than the others on the greatest living team, and had the ego to go with it he took up the self-appointed label of " greatest living ball player" yet there is no true record of him being formally announced as " the greatest living ball player" only that he was on the team . There are very few records concerning this announcement. He kept this self- appointed title his whole life from 1969 until his death, but it did not become a big deal to fans or even other ball players until the card show / autograph business began in the 1980s and he wanted to be introduced as " the greatest living ball player". This nickname was not only propagated by Joe but also by The National Pastime card shows in the 80s when promoting their shows at The Armenian Church and continuing throughout their relationship and then being carried over to all the shows Joe did the remainder of his life. He started it , the promoters promoted it, MLB did nothing to change it, and the public bought into it.
In fact to my knowledge Joe never signed ANY item as " the greatest living ball player" , even though there are items with inscriptions , which Joe did reluctantly there are supposedly NO authentic items with that inscription. Basically Joe anointed himself as royalty and assumed that persona because everyone accepted it.
This is not meant to bash Joe but to shed light on his nickname. I dealt with Joe directly about 6 times and only had an issue with him once. He was cordial but always distant , and maybe he was just born that way.
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