Joe DiMaggio Painting - Sketch to Finished Piece

Painting of Joe DiMaggio by sports artist, Dave Choate, View more of Dave's art at http://www.sportspainter.com. The video shows the painting from it's initial pencil drawing through it's completion to the final painting.

Joseph Paul "Joe" DiMaggio (November 25, 1914 March 8, 1999), was an American baseball player for the New York Yankees. He was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955. He was the middle of three brothers who each became major league center fielders, the others being Vince and Dom.

DiMaggio was a 3-time MVP winner and 13-time All-Star (the only player to be selected for the All-Star Game in every season he played). At the time of his retirement, he had the fifth-most career home runs (361) and sixth-highest slugging percentage (.579) in history. He is perhaps best known for his 56-game hitting streak (May 15July 16, 1941), a record that still stands.[1] A 1969 poll conducted to coincide with the centennial of professional baseball voted him the sport's greatest living player

DiMaggio made his major league debut on May 3, 1936, batting ahead of Lou Gehrig. The Yankees had not been to the World Series since 1932, but they won the next four Fall Classics. In total, DiMaggio led the Yankees to nine titles in 13 years.

Hank Greenberg told SPORT magazine in its September 1949 issue that DiMaggio covered so much ground in center field that the only way to get a hit against the Yankees was "to hit 'em where Joe wasn't." DiMaggio had five steals of home, along with as many strikeouts as home runs in his career.

Through May 2009 DiMaggio was tied for third all-time with Mark McGwire in home runs over his first two calendar years in the major leagues (77), behind Phillies Hall of Famer Chuck Klein (83) and Milwaukee Brewers' Ryan Braun (79).[5]

On February 7, 1949, DiMaggio signed a record contract worth $100,000 ($70,000 plus bonuses), and became the first baseball player to break $100,000 in earnings. An underachieving 1951 season[weasel words] and a scouting report by the Brooklyn Dodgers that was turned over to the New York Giants and leaked to the press combined with his injuries, led to him announcing his retirement on December 11, 1951.[6] When remarking on his retirement to the Sporting News on December 19, 1951, he said

He became eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1953. DiMaggio told Baseball Digest in 1963 that the Brooklyn Dodgers had offered him their managerial job in 1953, but he turned it down. He was not elected to the Hall until 1955; the rules were revised in the interim, with DiMaggio and Ted Lyons excepted, extending the waiting period from one year to five.

He might have had better power-hitting statistics had his home park not been Yankee Stadium. As "The House That Ruth Built", its nearby right field favored the Babe's left-handed power. For right-handed hitters, its deep left and center fields were almost impossible to get a home run: Mickey Mantle recalled that he and Whitey Ford would count the blasts DiMaggio hit that would have been home runs anywhere else, but, at the Stadium, were merely long outs (Ruth himself fell victim to that problem, as he also hit many long fly outs to center). Bill James calculated that DiMaggio lost more home runs due to his home park than any other player in history. Left-center field went as far back as 457 ft, compared to ballparks today where left-center rarely reaches 380 ft. An illustration is the oft-replayed clip of Al Gionfriddo's catch in the 1947 World Series, which was close to the 415 foot mark in left-center. Had it happened in Ebbets Field, it would have been well into the seats for a home run. To illustrate, DiMaggio hit 148 home runs in 3,360 at-bats at home, and in contrast, he hit 213 home runs in 3,461 at-bats on the road. His slugging percentage at home was .546, and on the road, it was .610. His on-base percentage at Yankee Stadium was .391; away, it was .405. He drove in 720 RBI at home, and 817 on the road.

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