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Here we are at the Meadowlands Hilton yet again, for a card and
memorabilia show, only this time, DiMaggio is in attendance. He's seated
against the wall just to the right of that exit sign, roughly over the top of
DiMaggio's bat. He spent 4 hours there. All day long, as people were
in line to get their things signed, he was being told by folks, "...hey Joe,
there's a life size statue of you right around the corner". It was
literally 50 feet away. He never came over. And I refused to go over
to him to beg. Plenty of other attendees and even dealers were coming up
to me and telling me that they told Joe to come over or "why didn't I go and ask
him to come over?". I was having none of it. If he couldn't bother
to walk 50 feet to see a life size statue of himself, then that was going to be
his problem, not mine. My friend (seated) had a lot of nerve and decided
at the very end of the show to rush DiMaggio and make one final plea for him to
come over. I refused to participate. She came back breathless
saying, "...Joe DiMaggio picked me up!" It turned out that DiMaggio wanted
to leave so badly when he was done with his autograph hitch, that he literally
picked Cindy up and moved her out of his way so he could go out that door you
see behind us, and into the car park. She was amazed at the octogenarian's
strength. We were all kind of amazed at the octogenarian's stubbornness--a
stubbornness that I'm proud to have matched that day. As Cindy said so
eloquently later on, "...*&^# Joe DiMaggio"
Here I am waiting, I suppose, for the great DiMaggio to walk 50
feet. The statue makes a great footrest. I remember having a great
time at this show because the dealer next to us was the father of a couple of
famous jockeys: The Luzzi family. He was a nut and we had a lot of laughs
at that show. Some of those card shows are populated by some pretty
one-dimensional people. Luzzi was the exception.
We took the Joe DiMaggio statue down to Yankee Stadium several
times in 1998. Once for the last Joe DiMaggio Day (Shown here) and for
both home games in the 1998 World Series games. Here the MC is about to
introduce all the usual guests such as Whitey Ford and Yogi Berra. Few
knew it at the time, but Joe was dying by this point. I had borrowed a
press pass from one of our guys and went in to use the bathroom. As I went
in the press gate, I heard Bob Sheppard announce, "...Numbah Five, Jolting Joe,
DiMaggio..." and I have to admit that it was strange to hear that live,
particularly when you didn't expect it.
This is one of my favorite photos of the Yankee Stadium trips.
Freddy and I. Freddy is jusT one of dozens of characters who floated by in
those days to take a photo or talk to me or hang around. This was DiMaggio
Day and Freddy just told us that his doctor would kill him if he knew he was at
the game because he had just had a quintuple bypass on his heart. He said
he just HAD to come out and honor DiMag and you know, as nutty as the guy is you
just have to love him. He's part of the landscape there. He bangs on
that silly pot and turns up just about anywhere on gameday both inside and out
of the park. He's akin to the Mets' Cowbellman.
Freddy is missing an eye and that happened to him when he was
about 13 and playing stickball. A guy let go of the bat and it took out
his eye. I told him that I too, was hit in the head with a heavy stickball
bat (actually a post hole digger handle) and I took 46 stitches at the hairline
above my left eye. So I see Freddy there with the eye and I think, "there
but for the grace of God go I."
That red wagon that we're standing by is a 1914 vintage calliope.
It's in perfect, original running order. The thing plays player piano
rolls and is powered by a big air compressor and it is LOUD. I met the
fellow on the right and he invited me to bring the Joe DiMaggio statue in for
certain events and I'd set up under his auspices. Everything at Yankee
Stadium is approved and watched closely. Mr. Steinbrenner loves the
calliope and has had these guys setting it up to play before home games for
quite some time and it truly adds some atmosphere to the pregame. This
photo was before game 2 of the 1998 World Series and that's Yankee coach Billy
Conor stopping by to see Joe DiMaggio and have a photo made.
When I think of crowds of people that stopped and pointed and
laughed and took photos and just walked away smiling, I am amazed. It was
one of the most thrilling experiences of my life to see that and every time we
went out to Yankee Stadium, it was more of the same. I remember thinking
that the Yankee brass will see and notice this and make some kind of offer for
this piece, but it never happened. Even when someone who worked for the
team told me that someone would be down to look, it never materialized. I
don't think anyone could have stood there and watched the effect that this
statue had on the people and ignored it. They would have been amazed, as
we all were. It's a shame too, because that's where he belonged. And
when I think of how little I eventually got for him because of a bad auction
catalog writeup, I get even more angry. But I always want to remember
those faces, coming down off the subway platform and stopping dead and staring
and pointing and on and on.
Before a world series game, there are always oddities and these
guys were no different. Who were they? Why were they there? I
have no idea. But they did want to pose with the statue.
