Joseph Paul DiMaggio was born 100 years ago this week, on November 25, 1914. Many have paid tribute to the sporting legend, including Life.com:
“For countless people, he’s a symbol of an era in American sports when baseball, boxing and horse racing — but especially baseball — reigned. He was so good at what he did, and he made even the most difficult aspects of a notoriously difficult game look so effortless, that even fans who hated the Yankees could appreciate how singular a ballplayer he really was.
Long before he married Marilyn; long before he was a pitchman for Mr. Coffee; long before he was so much a part of the cultural landscape that entertainers from Woody Guthrie and Simon & Garfunkel to Madonna and Demi Lovato name-checked him in songs, DiMaggio was turning heads with his skills.
Happy 100th, Yankee Clipper. We won’t see your like again.”