On the 75th anniversary of the famed 56-game hitting streak, the New York Yankees had planned to honor Joe DiMaggio. The Bronx Bombers wanted to mark the anniversary of the Yankee legend’s greatest career accomplishment with a bobblehead.
Unfortunately, that will not happen. The team and DiMaggio’s lawyer, Morris Engelberg, could not agree on arrangements.
Engelberg denied that his demands were unreasonable.
“Engelberg said he only had two requests after the Yankees approached DiMaggio’s grandchildren about a day honoring Joltin’ Joe’s hitting streak,” per Christian New York Daily News. “He wanted former Mayor Rudy Giuliani to throw out the first pitch and he wanted the Yankees to make a donation to the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood, Fla.”
Engelberg was also quoted saying “I asked for $50,000 for the hospital, $25,000 would have been fine.”
If that’s true, then the Yankees are in the wrong. That’s not a lot of money for any MLB team, let alone the Yankees. Additionally, the cause is certainly worthy.
Requesting who throws out the first pitch might seem a bit odd. Still, there would be nothing about Rudy Giuliani throwing out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium that would seem out of place.
The problem is that Engelberg’s history doesn’t give him the benefit of the doubt.
Red and O’Keeffe detailed that members of DiMaggio’s family had accused Engelberg of cheating the Yankee Clipper out of money. They also detailed how he fought against a park in San Francisco being named after DiMaggio and didn’t want a Bronx highway named after Joltin’ Joe.
In relation to the bobblehead night, Engelberg’s worst argument is that “In the words of Joe DiMaggio, the Yankees are nothing without George Steinbrenner. If George was still here, we’d have this event.”
Neither DiMaggio or Steinbrenner are here to speak for themselves. We can never know if any of that is true. Making a claim like that is pointless.
Regardless of who’s wrong and right, this is unfortunate. The Yankees’ history is unmatched. DiMaggio and his hitting streak are a huge part of that history. A bobblehead night would have been a tremendous way to honor the streak and show the younger fans just how great DiMaggio was.