The DiMaggios: Three Brothers, Their Passion for Baseball, Their Pursuit of the American Dream
Just a few years after the death of the last surviving brother, Dominic, at age 92, Clavin offers a collective biography of the best known of all sports siblings, with the emphasis, of course, on the iconic Joe (Giuseppe Junior). The story is a familiar one to baseball fans: sons of Italian immigrant parents and discouraged from sports as youngsters by their San Francisco fisherman father, the three brothers&#x2014;Vince, Joe, and Dominic&#x2014;all went on to Major League careers, in Joe&#x2019;s case also to the Hall of Fame and celebrity well beyond the baseball diamond, notably Joe&#x2019;s enduring love of Marilyn Monroe. Clavin&#x2019;s treatment of their baseball lives is heavily statistical, almost encyclopedic (he&#x2019;s gone through all the Yankee clippings), and, regrettably&#x2014;like the brothers&#x2019; personalities (Vince possibly excepted)&#x2014;it lacks panache. Oddly, the book is at its best in dealing with their later years: Vince&#x2019;s personal struggles, Joe&#x2019;s loneliness, Dom&#x2019;s business success. Though often sad, the account achieves, toward the end of the story, its drama and real poignancy. The DiMaggios is, ultimately, the family story its title implies. --Mark Levine