Scroll Down to Read Today’s Essay

Subscribe to Baseball History Comes Alive for automatic updates (sign-up block found in right side-bar)

As a Free Bonus for subscribing, you’ll get instant access to my two Special Reports: Memorable World Series Moments and Gary’s Handy Dandy World Series Reference Guide!

 Vince Dimaggio Photo Gallery
Click on any image below to see photos in full size and to start Photo Gallery:

(Ed. Note: This is the second essay in my three-part series on the DiMaggio brothers-GL)

“DiMaggio” Stars In the 1943 All-Star Game!

And no…I’m not talking about Joe!

“If I could hit like Joe and he could talk like me, we’d make a helluva guy.”- Vince DiMaggio

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the DiMaggio brothers. I happened to stumble onto details of the 1943 game which was won by the American League, 5-3. It was the first night game in All-Star history and was played at Shibe Park. As I

read more, I found I was in for a real surprise. The headline to the article stated that “DiMaggio” was the star of the game. I had assumed (as maybe you did, too) that the “DiMaggio” star had to be the great Joe DiMaggio.

But I was wrong…

It was his older brother, the often-overlooked Vince DiMaggio. In that game, Vince – playing for the Pirates – went 3-3, with a single, triple, and home run in the National League’s losing effort.

(In the featured photo above, we see a beautiful colorization by Don Stokes of Vince DiMaggio from 1938 when he was with the Boston Bees.)

I thought this would be a good time to say a few words about Vince. A few years ago, I wrote an essay about the DiMaggio brothers. Here’s some excerpts. At the end, I asked, “Which of the DiMaggio brothers ultimately was the most successful in life?”

See what you think…

Vince and Dom DiMaggio were largely overshadowed by their famous brother, the great Joe DiMaggio. That Joe was one of the most acclaimed ballplayers in the history of the game is hardly in dispute.

How many baseball fans even know that Joe had an older brother, Vince, who played in the major leagues, finishing in the Top-10 in home runs in the National League six times?

For many of the years when I first became a student of baseball history, I didn’t even know Vince existed. I recently learned that at one point early in life Vince had contemplated becoming an opera singer. If you read Part One of this series, you learned that Vince played a significant role in younger brother Joe’s entry into professional ball. 

More than 350 sets of brothers have played in the major leagues, but the only three brothers to all have been All-Stars are the DiMaggio’s, with a total of 18 selections: Vince (2); Joe (9); and Dom (7).

During a respectable ten-year career (1937-’46) Vince played for the Bees, Reds, Pirates, Phillies, and Giants. He was noted for his speed, occasional power, and outstanding defense. Vince batted .246 with 125 home runs and 584 RBIs. In 1941 he had a career-high 21 homers and 100 RBIs, and was a National League All-Star each of the next two seasons. The Phillies acquired him for the 1945 season and he responded with 19 homers and 84 RBIs at age 32. He still holds the Phillies record for grand slam home runs in a season with four.

Vince’s shortcoming was a penchant for striking out. Although low by today’s standards, he struck out 837 times in 3849 at-bats, an average of nearly 84 each of his ten seasons in the majors, leading the league six times in this category.  His 134 strikeouts in 1938 set a National League record for most strikeouts in one season, breaking Gus Williams‘ record of 120 set in 1914. However, his OPS+ of 108 indicates that, overall, he was an above-average player (100 being the average among his major league contemporaries).

After baseball, Vince was without the benefit of lucrative endorsements and appearances that came to his famous brother. Of necessity, he took on a number of odd jobs: bartender, liquor salesman, carpenter, and finally Fuller Brush salesman. He spent his spare time fishing, gardening, and studying the Bible. He was said to have found “inner peace” later in life, and his only disappointment was he had lost touch with his brother, Joe. According to Joe DiMaggio biographer Richard Ben Cramer, “the iconic younger brother didn’t deal with Vince at all, never maintaining any meaningful relationship with him.” Vince once said of Joe:

“Joe’s always been a loner and he always will be. When the folks were alive we were a lot closer. It’s only a shame that we have gone such different ways. That’s real sad. Family should stick together.”

Although surpassed on the playing field by their Hall-of-Fame brother, both Vince and Dom far outshined him in an area of much greater significance: family, with both enjoying long successful marriages with loving wives and children. Quite different from the post-baseball life of their reclusive brother Joe, with his life of Hollywood glitter, multiple broken marriages, and an estranged child.

So ultimately the question becomes: Which of the DiMaggio brothers was the most successful in life? I guess it depends on what your values are. Vince died at his home in 1986 at age 74, survived by Madelyne – his loving wife of more than fifty years – and his two children.

Gary Livacari

Photo Credits: Featured photo of Vince DiMaggio colorized by Don Stokes; All others found on Google Search

Information: Excerpts edited from the Vince DiMaggio Wikipedia page; Stats from Baseball-Reference.com