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T A B L E+T A L K
Should cannabis be legalized for the critically ill? Enter the fray in the Social Issues area of Table Talk

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Read more about the amazing life and times of joltin' Joe DiMaggio at barnesandnoble.com
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R E C E N T L Y
$400 million and a mule?
By Jeff Stein
$400 million and a mule? Black farmers say settlement won't end racism at the Department of Agriculture
(03/08/99)
Genocide, and drug-trafficking too
By Frank Smyth
The Guatemalan military's war against the Mayans has finally been documented, but the story of its role in the cocaine trade has yet to be fully told
(03/05/99)
Let the sexual healing begin
By James Poniewozik
With impeachment over -- and Juanita Broaddrick making her seem like an innocent memory -- Monica gives us the soap opera we wanted all along
(03/04/99)
The war at home
By Andrew Lam
While Vietnamese in California battle over Ho Chi Minh's photo, and legacy, a younger generation on both sides of the Pacific manages to live in two worlds
(03/04/99)
Burn, baby, burn
Congress returns to the nation's business by reintroducing the divisive, perennial flag burning amendment -- but this time it just might pass the Senate. By Jake Tapper
(03/03/99)
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WHERE HAVE WE GONE? | PAGE 1, 2
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DiMaggio is a name with no place in the current sports landscape, a vacuum Simon and Garfunkel acknowledged in the song. The name, the photographs of the long, hangdog face, the legendary 56-game hitting streak -- all of it summons up his emotional presence. Precisely because DiMaggio did not throw himself at his public -- in fact, he held back as much as he could -- there was a sense with DiMaggio that we knew little about him, but the little we knew was fundamentally true. He could not have been faking the sadness that mixed with the quiet dignity. Or the way that, in his final appearances up in the Bronx, he always seemed to be blinking back genuine bewilderment at all that had changed since the years he owned Yankee Stadium. That was real, I can report, since I was there to see it.
"He brought an elegance and grace and dignity and class even just to watching a game," said Wally Haas, the former owner of the Oakland A's, who watched many games with DiMaggio in his father's box at the Oakland Coliseum. "He was a player who transcended being a player. He was Joe DiMaggio. When you were in his presence, you felt that. He had a star power thing that was just different."
There's a tendency to award figures from the recent past with a halo they do not deserve as the memory fills in the blanks. But with DiMaggio, loving the hero, or loving the man, was always about filling in the blanks. It was Hemingway who said that what you leave out of a piece of writing matters more than what you include. DiMaggio authored his own life story like a man who understood the truth of this and understood it well.
That sense of mystery, and longing, was what Paul Simon had to explain to a worried DiMaggio, who thought the famous song lyric in "Mrs. Robinson" might be "derogatory." It also shows up in Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea," the book that won him the Nobel Prize, when his Cuban fisherman says: "I would like to take the great DiMaggio fishing. They say his father was a fisherman. Maybe he was as poor as we are and would understand."
That same identification came through in the statement released by President Clinton.
"This son of Italian immigrants gave every American something to believe in," he said. "He became the very symbol of American grace, power and skill. I have no doubt that when future generations look back at the best of America in the 20th century, they will think of the Yankee Clipper and all that he achieved."
Let's hope that goes for the players of today, too -- that they think about Joltin' Joe's legacy, and tell their own kids about him, the way all real fans will, sooner or later.
"He was to people all over the world what a baseball player was supposed to be like," said former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda. "If you said to God, 'Create someone who was what a baseball player should be,' God would have created Joe DiMaggio. And he did."
SALON | March 9, 1999
Steve Kettmann covered the 1998 World Series for Salon.

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T A B L E+T A L K Should cannabis be legalized for the critically ill? Enter the fray in the Social Issues area of Table Talk ___________________ Read more about the amazing life and times of joltin' Joe DiMaggio at barnesandnoble.com ___________________ R E C E N T L Y $400 million and a mule? By Jeff Stein $400 million and a mule? Black farmers say settlement won't end racism at the Department of Agriculture (03/08/99) Genocide, and drug-trafficking too By Frank Smyth The Guatemalan military's war against the Mayans has finally been documented, but the story of its role in the cocaine trade has yet to be fully told (03/05/99) Let the sexual healing begin By James Poniewozik With impeachment over -- and Juanita Broaddrick making her seem like an innocent memory -- Monica gives us the soap opera we wanted all along (03/04/99) The war at home By Andrew Lam While Vietnamese in California battle over Ho Chi Minh's photo, and legacy, a younger generation on both sides of the Pacific manages to live in two worlds (03/04/99) Burn, baby, burn Congress returns to the nation's business by reintroducing the divisive, perennial flag burning amendment -- but this time it just might pass the Senate. By Jake Tapper (03/03/99) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Newsreal Archives - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
		WHERE HAVE WE GONE? \| PAGE 1, 2 - - - - - - - - - - DiMaggio is a name with no place in the current sports landscape, a vacuum Simon and Garfunkel acknowledged in the song. The name, the photographs of the long, hangdog face, the legendary 56-game hitting streak -- all of it summons up his emotional presence. Precisely because DiMaggio did not throw himself at his public -- in fact, he held back as much as he could -- there was a sense with DiMaggio that we knew little about him, but the little we knew was fundamentally true. He could not have been faking the sadness that mixed with the quiet dignity. Or the way that, in his final appearances up in the Bronx, he always seemed to be blinking back genuine bewilderment at all that had changed since the years he owned Yankee Stadium. That was real, I can report, since I was there to see it. "He brought an elegance and grace and dignity and class even just to watching a game," said Wally Haas, the former owner of the Oakland A's, who watched many games with DiMaggio in his father's box at the Oakland Coliseum. "He was a player who transcended being a player. He was Joe DiMaggio. When you were in his presence, you felt that. He had a star power thing that was just different." There's a tendency to award figures from the recent past with a halo they do not deserve as the memory fills in the blanks. But with DiMaggio, loving the hero, or loving the man, was always about filling in the blanks. It was Hemingway who said that what you leave out of a piece of writing matters more than what you include. DiMaggio authored his own life story like a man who understood the truth of this and understood it well. That sense of mystery, and longing, was what Paul Simon had to explain to a worried DiMaggio, who thought the famous song lyric in "Mrs. Robinson" might be "derogatory." It also shows up in Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea," the book that won him the Nobel Prize, when his Cuban fisherman says: "I would like to take the great DiMaggio fishing. They say his father was a fisherman. Maybe he was as poor as we are and would understand." That same identification came through in the statement released by President Clinton. "This son of Italian immigrants gave every American something to believe in," he said. "He became the very symbol of American grace, power and skill. I have no doubt that when future generations look back at the best of America in the 20th century, they will think of the Yankee Clipper and all that he achieved." Let's hope that goes for the players of today, too -- that they think about Joltin' Joe's legacy, and tell their own kids about him, the way all real fans will, sooner or later. "He was to people all over the world what a baseball player was supposed to be like," said former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda. "If you said to God, 'Create someone who was what a baseball player should be,' God would have created Joe DiMaggio. And he did." SALON \| March 9, 1999 Steve Kettmann covered the 1998 World Series for Salon. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Become a Salon member. Click here.