Dinner with DiMaggio

March 13, 2017
Unassuming Manhattan podiatrist Rock Positano considers his close friendship with baseball icon Joe DiMaggio (1914–1999), which lasted through the Yankee’s last decade. Positano notes that the relationship started with his treatment of DiMaggio’s damaged right heel, an injury that benched him for 65 games in 1949 and forced his retirement two years later. He falls short of hero worship as he sums up the tale of “the Yankee Clipper,” the son of a San Francisco fisherman, who became one of the greatest players in baseball. There’s never any doubt about the doctor’s admiration for DiMaggio as a man of honor, who spoke frankly to his pal about people such as Lou Gehrig, Joe Louis, Mickey Mantle, Frank Sinatra, and the Kennedys, Hollywood, as well as topics such as women and faith. The narrative provides wonderful glimpses of DiMaggio’s integrity, kindness, and sensitivity, portraying him as a complicated man who jealously guarded his image.

March 1, 2017
A remembrance of the baseball great's final decade, from his friend and doctor.The relationship between Joe DiMaggio (1914-1999) and podiatrist Rock Positano--a professor at Weill Cornell Medical Center and director of the Joe DiMaggio Sports Medicine Foot and Ankle Center--began in 1990 with a medical referral. As a star outfielder with the New York Yankees and during later decades as a global celebrity, DiMaggio experienced constant pain from a bone spur in his heel. Positano got drafted to treat the ailment when he was 32 and DiMaggio was 76. A friendship seemed unlikely, partly because doctors and patients rarely bond socially but mainly because DiMaggio was famously private about his personal life--with good reason given the countless celebrity seekers who worshipped professional baseball players, not to mention the former husband of Marilyn Monroe. However, as the author writes, he became one of DiMaggio's few confidants regarding his two failed marriages, his troubled son from his first marriage, the baseball people he respected and disrespected, his political beliefs, his distress at individuals who failed to dress properly or show old-fashioned courtesy, and much more. For readers who already admire DiMaggio, Positano's overly celebratory memoir will have much to offer. For others, the presentation may be grating, as the author's name-dropping never ceases, and the sections that explore DiMaggio's mean streak and inflexibility are diluted by Positano's interjections of the great man's virtues. "Accompanying him to all sorts of events," writes the author, "I saw a stunning array of famous, rich, powerful people who were in awe of him and wanted to get close to him. The intensity of their admiration surprised me." Baseball fans will savor DiMaggio's views about Ted Williams, Pete Rose, and many other famous players; Marilyn Monroe fans will find less of interest. As for other potential readers, the appeal will be limited.

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Starred review from April 1, 2017

Positano, (director, Non-Surgical Foot & Ankle Svc., Hosp. for Special Surgery) treated Joe DiMaggio (1914-99) for the heel injury that prematurely ended his career with the New York Yankees in 1951. Despite their more than 40-year age difference, the two became best friends. Here, the author shares funny and poignant stories about their lives, including DiMaggio's personal codes of la bella figura (cutting a beautiful figure) and being a stand-up guy. However, this is no hagiography, as DiMaggio's moodiness, temper, and judgmental arrogance are displayed. Yet, those qualities are balanced by a softer side, which shows his loyalty and devotion to family. Memorable tales include DiMaggio lamenting his loss of sexual prowess, awing a crowd, in his 80s slashing line drives to the outfield, and the bittersweet final dinner the men shared a few months before DiMaggio died from lung cancer. VERDICT Readers do not have to be baseball fans to be captivated by this memoir, which explores such universal themes as friendship, celebrity, aging, and mortality, and will appeal to admirers of Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie. [See Prepub Alert, 12/5/16.]--Karl Helicher, formerly with Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2017
Rock Positano's unlikely friendship with Joe DiMaggio began in 1990, when the 32-year-old podiatrist successfully treated, without surgery, DiMaggio's famously damaged right heelan injury that sidelined the Yankee legend for some 65 games in 1949 and led, in no small part, to DiMaggio's early retirement in 1951 at age 36. Positano would soon earn DiMaggio's confidence, then love and respect, becoming his frequent New York dinner companion, wingman, go-between, and, ultimately, biographer until DiMaggio's death in 1999. If DiMaggio was publicly discreet on pretty much every subjectand Positano maintained that discretion throughout their friendshiphe's positively loquacious here in confiding to Positano his thoughts on everything from his split with Marilyn Monroe (he wanted kids, and she couldn't have them) to Bill Clinton (not a fan), Frank Sinatra (friend turned enemy), Mickey Mantle (DiMaggio decried his successor's wasted talent), how to play the game right, even al dente pasta (not a fan of that, either). Positano, helped by his brother John, renders a wholly human portrait of an American icon navigating his way through an adoring yet relentlessly demanding public. Turns out DiMaggio had a sense of humor, too, as when he remarked to Positano, upon passing a large Manhattan billboard of Monroe clad in tight jeans: I've got to tell you she looked a helluva lot better with the jeans off than she did with the jeans on. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)