1947 Joe DiMaggio Signed New York Yankees Contract....

Click the image to load the highest resolution version.

Sold for: Sign-in or Join (free & quick)

Claim Item:

Sign-in or Join (free & quick)

Share this lot

Sell One of These Currency Converter

Description

Auction Info

Guides & Info

Description

1947 Joe DiMaggio Signed New York Yankees Contract. The second DiMaggio contract in this auction, securing the center fielder's services for his second tour of duty after his return from the war, finds him earning the identical amount to his 1942 contract. DiMaggio's poorest production to date in 1946, the first time he dipped below a .300 average and 100 runs batted in during his career, limited his bargaining power apparently.

The 1947 season would find Joltin' Joe returning to his world-class ways, however, as he raised his average by twenty-five points over the previous season and slugged two home runs in the Subway Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers to help earn yet another World Championship for the Yanks. As such, he would earn his third and final American League MVP Award this year.

This standard Uniform Player's Contract is signed at the close with a full "Joseph DiMaggio" in 9+/10 black fountain pen ink, with Larry MacPhail signing as the club's general manager. Contract exhibits filing punch holes and original storage folds, otherwise no faults to note. Auction LOA from James Spence Authentication.

Though they stood as warring Generals, like U.S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, on opposing sides of baseball's greatest rivalry, Ted Williams once admitted, "DiMaggio was the greatest all-around player I ever saw. His career cannot be summed up in numbers and awards. It might sound corny, but he had a profound and lasting impact on the country." During the 1940's there was no greater baseball hero than the Yankee Clipper, and arguably no more famous celebrity in any field of endeavor. Few figures are quite so assured an enduring position in twentieth century American history and, as such, the documents that follow are as worthy of placement within the Smithsonian Museum in Washington as in the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown. Recently located in a forgotten archive of legal documents, the contracts presented in the lots that follow make their hobby debut here.