“Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Joe DiMaggio!”
In the summer of 1974, between my junior and senior years at Cornell University, I freelanced for the Ithaca New Times, a weekly newspaper in Ithaca, NY.
My editor suggested I write a feature story about the Oneonta Yankees, a New York Yankees farm team in the New York-Penn League. The NY-P, founded in 1939 as a Class D League as the PONY (Pennsylvania-Ontario-New York) League, became a Class A league in 1963. The NY-P was the oldest continuously operated Class A league in professional baseball until its demise after the 2019 season.
Oneonta is about a two-hour drive from Ithaca. My only problem was that I didn’t have a car. But back then, many young people hitchhiked. It was not yet considered very dangerous (although in 1973, the FBI did put out a poster warning drivers that a hitcher might be a “sex maniac” or a “vicious murderer”!). I didn’t look like either, so I managed to hitch a ride to Oneonta.
Oneonta is a small town (around 16,000 people then, 14,000 now) nestled in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains. In the 1940s and 1950s, the city supported the Oneonta Red Sox, a Boston farm team in the now-defunct Canadian-American League. Frank Malzone, the Golden Glove third baseman for Boston in the fifties and sixties, played at Oneonta in 1949.
The Yankees took over the franchise in 1967. Notable Oneonta Yankees alumni include Don Mattingly (1979), Bernie Williams (1987), and Jorge Posada (1991). During my visit in 1974, the roster included Dennis Werth, a catcher who played in the big leagues for four seasons and whose stepson is Jayson Werth, the retired All-Star outfielder. Also on the squad was Mike Heath, then a shortstop, who spent 14 seasons in the Major Leagues, mainly as a catcher. The team’s president was Sam Nader, cousin of the famous consumer advocate Ralph Nader.
The team played at the well-groomed Damaschke Field, where attendance averaged around 1,000 a game. Admission was $1.25 for adults and 60 cents for children.
I intended to spend the day doing my interviews and hitch a ride back home. However, General Manager Nick Lambros informed me that I had arrived the day before Famous Yankee Night, an annual promotional event in which the team brings in a former Yankee star.
I’m the guy with the curly hair on the right (personal photo)
Well, the star that year was Joe DiMaggio! The next evening, 3,000 people jammed into Damaschke Field to see Joltin’ Joe before the game. He signed autographs, talked with the fans, and took a few swings for old times’ sake. I couldn’t stay that late, but Mr. Lambros invited me to a small press conference on his backyard patio the following afternoon. So, after sleeping the night on the floor of an apartment shared by some players (one of them was Lou Turco, a pitcher I had played summer baseball in New Jersey), I headed to the press conference.
As we sat on the patio sipping lemonade, Mr. Lambros emerged through the screen door of his home and announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Joe DiMaggio!” And behind him came the dapper, dignified Yankee Clipper himself.
As a 21-year-old cub reporter, I was in awe as DiMaggio sat in a lawn chair beside me. He would turn 60 in November, but apart from the silver hair, he could still play center field for the Bronx Bombers.
As I wrote in my August 24, 1974, article for the Ithaca New Times, “Even if he can no longer hit that high inside fastball, the grace and dignity that characterized him on and off the field still shine through.” What impressed me most was how unassuming, approachable, and congenial he was. Here was the great Joe DiMaggio in a tiny town with just a few folks out on the patio, and he treated me and the others with the utmost respect, taking time to answer all our questions thoroughly.”
Joe DiMaggio: I think I played in one of the most beautiful eras in baseball. At that time, you had a different type of fan and a different type of ballplayer. We used to sit in the hotel lobbies and talk baseball for hours. Nowadays, all the players have business interests and other things on the side to think about. But I don’t blame them for that. As far as ability, that’s hard to say. There were only eight teams in each league when I was playing. Today, you have 12, and I believe that’s diluted the talent a bit. Also, they’re bringing young ballplayers too quickly, so they come out of the minor leagues unrefined. I remember when I was coaching for Oakland, Reggie Jackson first arrived. He couldn’t catch a fly ball. We’d hit it to him, he’d pound the glove a few times, and the ball would drop 20 feet behind him. I’m not kidding.
Since then, Jackson has come a long way, and DiMaggio says it’s because he’s a hard worker. He feels that natural ability goes only so far.
“There’s no perfect ballplayer,” said the man who may have been the closest to it. “We all strive for it, but no one ever gets there. I worked for hours and hours in practice just charging ground balls.”
After talking a little about his famous 56-game hitting streak, his daffy roommate Lefty Gomez, and the great Yankee manager Joe McCarthy, DiMaggio was goaded into answering one of the most frequently asked questions: “What was your greatest thrill in baseball?” “I’ll tell you one of them,” he replied. “Putting on the New York Yankees pinstripes in spring training for the first time.”
It was such a thrill to interview the Yankee Clipper that day. Who knew that 44 years later, I would move to Martinez, California (Joltin’ Joe’s hometown)?
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Matt Sieger, now retired sports reporter/columnist who worked for New York State and California newspapers, did his undergraduate work at Cornell University and received a master’s in journalism from Syracuse University. This article first appeared in The Vacaville Reporter.
