Joe D thoughts

[jimjim]

Looks good to me

[shelly]

Steve.I was in Anaheim at the National. Scott DeStefano gets a call from the police that Joe is being arrested.
He goes to a restaurant called the White House very expensive and very good. He is there with three people. The check comes and he says to the owner I am not paying this I will sign some pictures for you. The owner says are you out of your mind. Joe then reply,s I am Joe Dimaggio the greatest living ball player in the world.. The owner of the place tells him I don,t care if you Jesus you pay the bill or I call the police.
He called the police.
I met him at least a 3 dozen times and at no time was he anything but an ass. You must of had a lucky day.

By the way the ball

[bigtrain]

I also had the misfortune of meeting Joe DiMaggio on a couple of occasions. The comments by David are generous in my opinion. To say that he was a "malignant narcissist" is an insult to those jerks who are merely "malignant narcissists". BTW it always got me that he insisted on being introduced as "the greatest living ballplayer". When was that ever true? Ty Cobb lived until 1961. By the mid 60s, in my opinion, Willie Mays had established himself as the greatest living ballplayer (or Hank Aaron if you prefer). DiMaggio was the greatest in his own mind.

[dapro]

Looks good to me as well.

[Klrdds]

Your baseball looks great.
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.

[Scott Garner]

Interesting story about Joe D.

A bit OT, but...

In 1969 for the Centennial of MLB Bob Feller was actually voted "The Greatest Living Right Handed Pitcher" (he didn't create this title himself- LOL). I had Rapid Robert sign these 1969 MLB commemorative stamps with that inscription about 2 years before he passed away.

RIP Mr. Feller

[w7imel]

Damn I just wanted to know if ball looked good but now you guys got me disliking the guy. I never knew he was such a dick. haha dont even think I am going to bid on the ball now. I never knew that he was so difficult as a person. But thinking of it my wife would probably have similar things to say about me......

[shelly]

As far as the worlds greatest living ball player. Mickey Mantle would tell people that he would play with his balls better than anyone living.

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by shelly

Steve.I was in Anaheim at the National. Scott DeStefano gets a call from the police that Joe is being arrested.
He goes to a restaurant called the White House very expensive and very good. He is there with three people. The check comes and he says to the owner I am not paying this I will sign some pictures for you. The owner says are you out of your mind. Joe then reply,s I am Joe Dimaggio the greatest living ball player in the world.. The owner of the place tells him I don,t care if you Jesus you pay the bill or I call the police.
He called the police.
I met him at least a 3 dozen times and at no time was he anything but an ass. You must of had a lucky day.

By the way the ball

Shelly,
I know the owner of the White House restaurant (Bruno S.). How funny!
I had never heard this story before. What a classic!!