Joe DiMaggio’s Last Game
A .271 hitter in his fifty one World Series contests, Joe DiMaggio was voted to the All-Star team every year he played in the big leagues. At the age of thirty six in 1951, Joe DiMaggio was clearly in decline as his physical ailments limited his mobility. His right shoulder bothered him greatly, and he had a painful heel spur in his left foot removed in 1947; a bone spur in his right foot caused him awful discomfort. As Joe DiMaggio slowed down, balls that he once would pull with authority to left field were now going to center and right, as his swing was not as quick. Before the 1951 season began, Joe DiMaggio told the reporters at spring training that he would not play beyond ’51. As the season wore on, Joe DiMaggio played in 116 of his teams 154 contests, accumulating 71 runs batted in and 12 home runs. New York caught the Indians in September and won the pennant going away by five games, and prepared to face the Giants in the Series.
These were the giants of “the shot heard “round the world” fame, getting into the Series on the strength of Bobby Thomson’s home run in the bottom of the ninth against the Dodgers. Joe DiMaggio had a new partner in the outfield, a nineteen year old rookie named Mickey Mantle. Mantle had played in 96 games that season and had knocked in 65 runs; Yogi Berra’s 88 led the very balanced Yankee offense. When the Series began on October 4th at Yankee Stadium, the Giants were forced to throw their fourth starter at the mighty Bronx Bombers and Joe DiMaggio because of the playoff with Brooklyn. But, as luck would have it, Dave Koslo, who had gone 10-9 for Leo Durocher’s New York squad during the season, shut the Yankees down on seven hits, allowing just one run and holding Joe DiMaggio hitless in four at-bats. The Giants won 5-1 and took a 1-0 lead in the World Series.
Joe DiMaggio again went without a base hit the next day, but Eddie Lopat pitched a complete game 3-1 victory to even things up. Mantle bunted his way on in the bottom of the first and scored the first run, but disaster struck for the young Oklahoman in the top of the fourth. Manager Casey Stengel had told Mantle to catch anything he could reach from his right field position, as Joe DiMaggio had slowed considerably because of his foot problems. When Willie Mays hit a short fly ball to right center, Mantle was sure DiMaggio could not get to it. He took off at full speed, only to have to pull up when he saw, to his disbelief, Joe DiMaggio settling under the ball. When he went to stop, Mantle caught his cleat in one of the receded sprinkler heads that was used to water the outfield and tore up his right knee. As he lay on the ground squirming in agony, Joe DiMaggio told him that it would be okay, a stretcher was being brought out to him. Mickey Mantle remembered those as being about the only words Joe DiMaggio said to him all year.
With Mantle out until next spring, the Yankees put ex-marine Hank Bauer out in right. Bauer had a face that has been described as a “clenched fist”, but he was no slouch. In Game Three at the Polo Grounds though it did not matter who the Yankees had in the field, as the Giants’ Jim Hearn and Sheldon Jones limited them to just five hits, winning 6-2. Joe DiMaggio again failed to hit, and now his World Series totals were an ignominious 0 for 11 in three tilts. That dry spell ran to 0 for 12 when Joe DiMaggio, who struck out only 369 times in thirteen years, was called out on strikes to end the first inning of Game Four. Then the baseball gods awoke.
In the third inning of the 1-1 game, Joe DiMaggio singled to left against Sal Maglie. Joe DiMaggio then hit the last home run of his career, in the fifth with Yogi Berra on first, to give the Yanks a 4-1 lead in a game they would go on to win 6-2. The home run came against Maglie, who would lose the perfect game pitched by Don Larsen five years down the road. It was the eighth post-season homer of Joe DiMaggio’s baseball life. Game Five saw Joe DiMaggio again contribute to the New York cause. Joe DiMaggio went three for five with two singles and a double, knocking in three of the Yankees’ thirteen runs in a 13-1 rout of five Giants’ hurlers. Lopat went the distance for his second win of the series, and the New York Yankees were on the brink of their third straight title. Joe DiMaggio was also about to play his last game.
On October 10th, 1951, Joe DiMaggio trotted out to play centerfield for the last time. Koslo took the hill for the Giants, hoping to duplicate his Game One performance, but immediately gave up a run in the first. A single by Jerry Coleman and a Berra double brought up Joe DiMaggio with one out, but Koslo walked the “Yankee Clipper” on purpose, then surrendered a sacrifice fly to Gil McDougald. The lead stood until the fifth, when Eddie Stanky lifted a fly ball to left that scored Willie Mays with the tying run. Joe DiMaggio, who had flied out to center in the fourth, came up in the sixth with Berra at second and was promptly issued his second intentional walk of the afternoon by Koslo. After the base were loaded, Hank Bauer got one of the biggest hits of his career, a triple to deep left that scored all three runs and made it 4-1 Yanks.
The score was still 4-1 when Joe DiMaggio strode to the plate for his final time in the bottom of inning eight. Right-hander Larry Jansen was now pitching for the Giants, and Joe DiMaggio greeted him with a lead-off double to right. McDougald tried to sacrifice Joe DiMaggio over, but Jansen fielded the ball cleanly and threw to third to get Joe DiMaggio sliding in. The top of the ninth saw the Giants load the bases on three singles against Johnny Sain, but Bob Kuzava came on to allow a pair of sacrifice flies and got the last out on a line drive to Bauer in right, preserving a 4-3 Yankee win and Joe DiMaggio’s ninth World Series title.
In the jubilant clubhouse, Joe DiMaggio told his teammates, “I’ve played my last game.”
The Yankee brass tried to change his mind, to the point where they even offered Joe DiMaggio the option of playing only in home games for his full $100,000 salary. Joe DiMaggio refused, and on December 11th held a news conference where he stated, “I told you fellows last spring I thought this would be my last year. I only wish I could have had a better year. But even if I hit .350, this would have been the last year for me. I feel I have reached the stage where I can no longer produce for my ball club, my manager, my teammates, and my fans the sort of baseball their loyalty to me deserves.”
Joe DiMaggio was too proud to ever play the game he loved simply for the money. If he could not give his best, then he would not play and risk embarrassing himself. Once, during his prime, Joe DiMaggio was playing in the second game of a sweltering double header. After exerting himself on the field, he came off, and a teammate asked him why he played so hard every game. To this the greatest player who ever lived replied, “Because some kid might be seeing me play for the first time.”
