Rating: 
Summary: DiMaggio uncovered
Review: Be forewarned: If you are a DiMaggio fan, you will likely hate this book or, at least you'll despise Richard Ben Cramer. Cramer writes with a wonderful, personal style, a sense of being there that tests credulity, as he fleshes out conversations and events from sixty or seventy years ago, without the assistance of the primary subject. This lack of cooperation from DiMaggio is both the strength and the weakness of the book.Baseball in the late 1930's had truly wonderful moments, in a era when it was the national pasttime, when trains preceded airplanes, radio preceded television, and World Series winnings could double or triple a player's annual salary. DiMaggio arrived at the time Ruth exited and Joe was there to see the end of Gehrig's career. Cramer introduces Joe in 1930 and richly catalogs the rapid ascent from North Beach to New York. Cramer almost sounds a bit mean-spirited, to use a term overused by Democrats today. But Cramer is not one to sugar coat. And DiMaggio could be mean. Joe DiMaggio was a little-educated son of an immigrant who had greatness thrust upon him. Sure, he wanted it, but he wanted fame on his own terms. And that is not the deal the devil makes when he gives the athletic skills, the New York stage, and the Hollywood starlet-filled life that the Yankee Clipper received. You can simultaneously admire and feel sorry for DiMaggio. DiMaggio had his selfishness, his conceits, his self-imagined slights. But could he play ball! Enjoy the life story of a great athlete.
Rating: 
Summary: Hey Cramer---what'd Joe ever do to you?
Review: This man had no business writing a ''biography'' of someone he obviously hated so much. And I use the word ''biography'' loosely. Cramer wrote as fact what he couldn't possibly know---like what Mr. DiMaggio was thinking, for example---and of course wrote it in a negative light. Make no mistake folks, this is a GLARINGLY FICTIONALIZED biography. I can't believe it was excerpted in Newsweek. It should have been in Weekly World News next to the alien who gave birth to his own twin.
Rating:
Summary: As Yogi Would Say, You Don't Look So Hot Yourself
Review: I suspect most readers began this book because they're tremendous baseball fans and had heard some buzz about a book about one of the greatest ballplayers of all time, and became disillusioned over the details of his personal life after finishing it. What a swing! I never left ESPN during the week of his passing just to watch him swat that ball with that perfect, sublime swing. Even the way he dropped the bat and took off running had grace. In the book, he came out looking stingy in his dealings with promoters. But the book also portrays him taking out younger players, however infrequently, and feeling almost insulted if the upstart took out money to pay for the meal. "If you go out with the Dago, the Dago pays." The author writes more than we need to know--more, probably, than HE would know--about their, uhmm, pre-coital stance, utilizing the device of reading the mind of the main character. It is, to MY way of thinking, a thoroughly discredited device. One expects this in fiction, not a biography. Oddly, I believe that had Marilyn Monroe (and I had no illusions about HER personal life) lived to marry him the second time, as they were in the process of carrying out, she might have softened Joe just a little, made him more accessible to the public. Finally, only an author like Mark Twain should get away with having a cat and a cigar in the same photo.
Rating:
Summary: If you're a Yankee fan from way back...
Review: If you worship at the altar of the Yankees and all their glory, you'll hate this book. If you really believe that any darn ballplayer making millions, idolized by millions, can be a saint, you'll hate this book. If you think Joe DiMaggio was an elegant, graceful man, a man who represented all that was right with this country before, well, before it all started to go to heck, you'll hate this book. But if you heard all those quiet rumors about DiMaggio - demanding to be introduced as "the greatest living ballplayer" wherever he went, the money made from the card shows, the drinking alone in San Francisco bars - and you're curious about what the real DiMaggio was like, you'll love this book. The real DiMaggio enjoyed the worship, but didn't trust anyone, no one. He had pride, all right, fierce pride that caused him to forever turn his back on his closest friends without a word of explanation. The real DiMaggio was a cheap son-of-a-gun who stashed money under his mattress, never paid for anything, because he was the great Joe DiMaggio. The real DiMaggio drank like a fish, smoked like a chimney, fooled around like a tomcat. He was mean, petty, full of rage, hated his contemporaries (Ted Williams! He called Ted Williams a "meathead"!), hated anything not to do with him and his life. But the real DiMaggio was a hero, too. Boy, could he tattoo the ball. Since reading the book, I've dug up old footage of him hitting, and he has a sweet swing like you've never seen. The follow through! So elegant! All his energy - wham! - an explosion! But smooth. So smooth, you can't compare it, no one's got a swing like that. And he wanted to win. He carried his team. When DiMaggio was hot, the Yanks were hot. Nine World Series titles in 11 years. A 56-game hitting streak, an effort so phenomenal that Stephan Jay Gould claims it's the only feat of athleticism where human willpower rose above the laws of physics. And his fame created the mean, petty, penny-pinching, lecherous drunk. We did it to him. We idolized him, we followed him around, we asked him for his autograph, we bought him dinner, fer goodnessakes, it's Joe DiMaggio! Whaddya do? Let him pay for his own meal? We rose him above us. We elevated him to the status of a god. Immortals don't act according to earthly morals. Cramer catches the man clearly. Some critics have accused Cramer of ripping DiMaggio, of fabricating DiMaggio's feelings and thoughts and emotions. These critics bristle at Cramer's style of biography, this new style of inhabiting the subject's mind and writing a dialog for all to read. After all, how can you really tell what a guy was thinking? I admit Cramer goes overboard. For one, he's obviously obsessed with Marilyn Monroe. I mean, the guy literally hops into bed with her. Check this passage out: "...and there she was, his girl, so pale, past vanilla, it was white in her young skin - dairy milk - and perfect, tiny-boned, delicate, like a twelve-year-old virgin, childlike as her giggle when he grabbed her..." What the heck? Cramer goes way overboard like this mainly with Monroe. The guy describes her naked like a half dozen times in the book, lovingly follows her around even when DiMaggio was out of the scene. But Cramer believes, and depicts here, that Monroe was Joe's greatest emotional influence. Joe was crazy about Monroe. Joe was devastated when she died - they were supposed to remarry in a few weeks. She was the only other person who could understand what it was like to be as famous as Joe DiMaggio. So Cramer violates the traditional constraints of biography. So he sullies the image of a Great American Icon a tad, muddies his shoes. So what if Cramer looks like a total loser on the back cover of his book? He sparks interest in the Yankee Clipper. After all, if this lifelong Boston Red Sox fan suddenly starts looking up old DiMaggio footage just to see his swing, checks out the stats from his teams in the `30s and `40s, and takes an interest in the man because of this book, then it must be a worthwhile event and a work that honors the man that was DiMaggio.
Rating:
Summary: The good, the bad, and the ugly.
Review: In "Joe DiMaggio : The Hero's Life" by Richard Ben Cramer we find a book filled with information on one of America's most beloved heros--Joe DiMaggio. DiMaggio has always fascinated me. I am too young to have seen him play, but my father met him when Joe was doing a USO tour in Vietnam in the late 60's. Dad sent me an autographed picture which still hangs on my wall (along with those baseball legends Milt Pappas, Mudcat Grant and Ron Swoboda). Since then, I've always been interested in the life of DiMaggio. Read through the reviews, and you'll see EVERYTHING about this book. Some loved it, some hated it. Some loved Joe, some hated him. Is Cramer's account accurate? There's really only one person who would know, and Joe's gone now. Despite reviews to the contrary, the book is certainly well written. It's entertaining, and exciting to read. That's what a lot of people buy a book for--entertainment and excitement. Others buy biographies for the "real story". Personally, I think we got it here. Others may disagree. Cramer has his sources, quoting those who were closest to Joe when he played, and after he retired. I don't believe that Cramer just made this stuff up. he did his research as evidenced in his writing. If Cramer pops the bubble on a baseball legend, exposing him as a greedy and selfish man, then so be it. If you don't want to read of a greedy and selfish Joe, then don't buy this book. If you want insight and a different perspective, then by all means, read it. Hmmmm. A greedy and selfish professional baseball player. Just why is that so difficult to imagine? Joe was without doubt, a great ball player. He was also a human being, and as such, he was not perfect. Cramer's book will show you those perfect moments on the field, as well as those imperfect moments off the field. It's interesting, entertaining, and informative. In my eyes, that makes for a pretty decent read...
Rating:
Summary: Fact v. Fiction
Review: While The Hero's Life is an excellent book about one of the three best baseball players who have ever lived, you have to wonder how much is true. Mr Cramer does list many sources and is wonderful at telling the story of Joe DiMaggio's life. DiMaggio kept the people whom he did not want in his life out and probably for good reason. The question does linger however that since he is basing most of the book on second hand information how much is true. An excellent book that was hard to put down I have recomended it many people. Having never seen Joe DiMaggio play and him seemingly in secrecy for most of his life I found him to be an "interesting" person. He was, is and should always be an American Icon; bringing a country that was embattled in war together for a brief point in history. If you dont know anything about Joe DiMaggio but would like to, this book is a must.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent
Review: Richard Ben Cramer has written an informative, interesting, and well balanced account of one of the most interesting characters of the 20th Century. The reader will be riveted from page to page as the story of the Yankee Clipper unfolds. The research and attention to detail in this book are awesome. The author tells a side of DiMaggio that many are reading for the first time. This is a must read for baseball fans, especially New York Yankee followers. It would make a great motion picture project if handled by the right people.
Rating:
Summary: Joe is God spelled backward
Review: I finished this book at 2 a.m. last night. It is a penetrating page-turner with a cinematic scope and a shake you by the collar immediacy. It is not, on the other hand, a hatchet job. Joe was an incredible player, maybe the best to ever live, but he was just a baseball player. That is all. Just a man. And the public used him and he, in turn, used the public. Quid pro quo. If the fact that we need heroes and that people in turn give their lives to walk as gods among us doesn't bother anyone then you aren't paying attention. For the record, Cramer does list his sources--he's got six pages of sources.
Rating:
Summary: it's true 'cause i say so!
Review: When I met Cramer in January 1997, he said "I don't know whether I like [DiMaggio] or not." I was disturbed by that comment for when the biographer refuses to remain objective any research or revelations are suspect since he is prejudiced. This is not to say that icons should not be subject to critical treatments as long as there is balance, so what is written is consequential; not allowing the "flaws" to disproportionately submerge the "strengths" of the individual and vice versa. I loaned Cramer my research (I was working on a DiMaggio book for the University of Nebraska.) When he told The Sporting News he was going "to blow the lid off" The Legend, I knew he would not be the objective observer he led me to believe. I faxed him to express my concerns and asked for a copy of the book. Cramer called back and snorted: "I don't have to answer to anyone, least of all, you!" Space does not permit me to address the book's literally dozens of serious errors. Cramer provides only two footnotes, no page notes, and no apparatus of sourcing, aside from the Acknowledgments, making it impossible to verify his reportage. The men behind Cramer's so-called "hero machine" were not DiMaggio's toadies. "Sport" noted in 12/50 reporters continually "questioned DiMaggio's conduct," citing him for his "childish indifference," and "acting like a spoiled kid." Even pal Ben Epstein in the 8/2/50 New York Mirror wrote DiMaggio "has fallen victim of incredible national worship, and... has 'grown too big for his breeches.'" He says DiMaggio promised a dying boy he'd tie George Sisler's record and when he learned DiMaggio got the hit, he was cured. Cramer says the story was concocted by DiMaggio and the press. The fact is, the 7/1/41 Associated Press reported only DiMaggio and his teammates knew he had promised the boy the he would BREAK - not tie - Sisler's record and the boy had died before the game started. He speculates he sold or traded his World Series rings for "services" without offering any proof. DiMaggio's 1951 World Series ring was auctioned at Sotheby's in 10/99, but it came to Barry Halper via the friend DiMaggio gave it to. The fates of the other rings beside his 1936 ring remain a mystery. I asked Cramer where his Pulitzer Prize was; I was stunned when he said he didn't know. Who's to say he didn't trade it for a gem-mint Mickey Mantle 1952 Topps rookie? I can't prove he did. But, since his Pulitzer is AWOL, he can't disprove it, either. What was the name and number of this "Mob trust fund"? What branch of the Bowery Bank it was at? Are any records of withdrawals? Did the IRS know? Was DiMaggio asked to throw games? Cramer never tells us. He also doesn't tell us DiMaggio told the FBI he declined to front a Mob-run Havana casino in 1957 -- even as he uses excepts from that interview! DiMaggio is shown carrying $600,000 in cash out of his home after the 1989 San Francisco earthquake, money Cramer says belonged to mobster Abner Zwillman. The 10/25/89 NY Times reported DiMaggio was not allowed home until ONE WEEK later. But let's assume he's right. How long had it been there? Was $600,000 the sum Zwillman left? He doesn't tell us nor how he knew there was $600,000 and it was Zwillman's. Cramer says DiMaggio didn't attend "Lefty" Gomez's and "Lefty" O' Doul's funerals without mentioning he met with both families before their services. He says he discarded pal Reno Barsocchini and didn't attend his funeral. Ron Fimrite in his 11/6/00 review in Sports Illustrated: "I can personally testify that Cramer is wrong. Reno was a friend of mine, and he was one of the constants in DiMaggio's life. Far from eschewing Reno's funeral, Joe was, with his brother Dom, a weeping pallbearer. I know because I was there." He told the 11/15/00 NY Times Dom DiMaggio cooperated. If he did - and there are charges/stories only he can supply, confirm or deny - that would explain why he is the real hero of "The Hero's Life." Yet with the story of DiMaggio leaving his mother to die alone - a "story" he probably got from Dom or his family - Cramer demonstrates how he is so easily had. Newspapers reported 8 of Mrs. DiMaggio's 9 children were at her beside before she died. The one who wasn't -- Dom! In his describing DiMaggio's relationship with Marilyn Monroe, he relies heavily on Maury Allen's biography on DiMaggio and Donald Spoto's biography on Monroe, each of which have numerous errors. He repeats Allen's story how their first date took place at the Villa Nova (in Monroe's autobiography, which he quotes, it was a dinner party at Chasen's) and how Mickey Rooney crashed it. In Rooney's autobiography, he never mentions his "role" on that fateful night. And how could've not known Monroe and Rooney did 1950's "The Fireball?" This kind of sloppiness sows seeds of doubt: if he's going to slack off on the little things, why should we believe him on the big ones? He reports DiMaggio hit Monroe so hard, she had to see her plastic surgeon to see if her nose was broken. This is taken from Spoto's biography, but in Spoto's version, the culprit was Monroe's psychiatrist, Ralph Greenson. Both versions are impossible to verify; like Cramer, Spoto doesn't cite the sources of his allegations. "Vince (Joe's older brother) was cut off from the family when he ran away to play baseball, met a girl, and got married against his father's wishes," Cramer told a 10/25/00 USA Today chat. "Joe never stuck up for Vince, though it was Vince who got him his first job in baseball." This is flat-out wrong. Vince (who died in 1986) told Jack Moore in "Joe DiMaggio: A Bio-Bibliography" when his parents wouldn't sign a baseball contract, he left home. He returned 3 months later with $1,500 in cash, proving there was money in baseball. Vince later got his manager to let Joe - who was playing semi-pro ball - play in the last 3 games of the SF Seals' 1932 season. He never hinted to Moore Joe was involved, much less, if he "stuck up" for him. Nor does he mention a marriage. On the 11/14/00 "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel," Cramer responded to DiMaggio's lawyer's comments on the book with a tirade too disgusting to put here. Marilyn Monroe once said she felt those who wrote about her were saying more about themselves than about her. Now you exactly what she meant.
Rating:
Summary: Life vs. Joltin' Joe.
Review: The private life of the man behind the public image can be a stark contrast. Regardless of Joe DiMaggio's wholesome image of grace, style, and manly courage, doubts and fears plagued him. He needed constant reassurance that he was the best. Author Richard Ben Cramer quickly gets on a first name basis with his subject, and writes as if he knows exactly what went on in Joe's head. Cramer's description of Joe's career as the Yankee Clipper is great baseball history. Cramer also writes honestly of Joe's dark side. To DiMaggio, money was the ultimate yardstick of success. His great fear was that someone was unfairly trying to make a buck by exploiting him, both on and off the field. Frequently, Joe's fears were right on target. These inner demons made DiMaggio personally unapproachable, and even downright hateful. But, heck, that didn't bother Joe. That was exactly the way he wanted it, as long as he was paid top dollar. Cramer's narrative includes juicy insider details and wry humor. Beyond baseball, the book examines DiMaggio's relationship with friends, family, and wives, most particularly Marilyn Monroe. Joe's need to be controlling doomed his marriage to Marilyn. Ironically, they were well on the road to reconciliation when she died. After Marilyn is gone, the narrative fast-forwards from her funeral in 1962 to 1989. This unexplained gap is the only weakness of this otherwise fascinating book. The last ten years of DiMaggio's life are presented as the final decade of a miserly crank who profits from baseball memorabilia events, for which he insisted on his own unforgiving rules and regulations. Considering the walls Joe DiMaggio built around himself the author's ability to dig out details is impressive. Cramer handles a difficult subject very well. This is highly recommended reading. ;-)
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