I'm not liking certain DiMaggio stories I've read recently

It feels like when we talk about the biggest egos in MLB history, Joe D. doesn’t get talked about enough.

I understand he was deeply private, and discussions about Marilyn Monroe were off limits. Fair enough - even though DiMaggio had been inducted into Cooperstown decades before I was born, I used to think professional athletes, even the not-so-good ones, but especially the superstars, were larger than life. As I’ve grown older, I realize they’re human just like all of us, they’re real people just like all of us.

That said, some of these other stories I’ve read are ridiculous.

There’s the Mickey Mantle rivalry, as Joe D. didn’t like it the Mick was there to replace him, but an uncomfortable reality is we all get replaced in our jobs. This is especially the case for a professional athlete, and DiMaggio was going to get replaced, if not by Mick, then by somebody else. I know I’ll get replaced in my job someday, not that I’d be overly thrilled about it, but I know I won’t have my job forever.

I look at what he said as Mantle was dying, that never felt sorry for him, that he felt he did it to himself, etc.

I would say Mantle did, indeed, inflict damage on himself, but if his alcoholism and damage to his body was the worst thing he ever did in his life - that the main person he hurt was himself, not to say he didn’t hurt others by his decisions. However, I would feel sorry for someone like Mickey Mantle before I’d feel sorry for a host of other people on this planet. This wasn’t a saint, but I think quite a few people have perpetrated more evil onto the world.

Yet, DiMaggio didn’t like the way Mantle conducted himself as a Yankee, didn’t like Mantle replaced him 40+ years on (even though in my opinion, Mantle was the better player). Furthermore, Mantle owned his mistakes, told people not to be like him, and also inspired others at the end of his life. I’m not sure DiMaggio ever would’ve done such a thing.

Then there’s this:

Link to tweet

———Snip

No, what set Joe to seething was the special ball they used in that day's game.
It was a regulation Rawlings game-ready 'Mickey Mantle Commemorative Ball', authorized by Major League Baseball.
Right away the collectors and dealers in memorabilia bid those balls up to three hundred per.
That was twice as much as Joe was getting for his balls -- which he autographed!
That burned up the 'Clipper' good.
From that day forward, DiMaggio and to be precise, 'Yankee Clipper Enterprises', had angled for a 'DiMaggio Day' and a special 'DiMaggio ball', also by Rawlings, also regulation-made, game-ready, American League -- except , except . . . these could be signed by the 'Clipper' himself.
That would be a four-hundred-dollar ball, at least!
And for starters Joe would autograph the fifteen thousand balls that he was demanding, free, from the Rawlings Company, you know, for use of his name.
Fifteen thousand free balls, a few months to sign 'em . . . and even at wholesale that would be a cool three million, cash, in hundreds, please:
Joe's favorite."

———Snip

What really gets me is how DiMaggio wanted to always be introduced last and insisted on being called the greatest living player - to the point of the story that he punched Billy Crystal in the stomach for not introducing him as the greatest living player after a poll declared him as such in 1969.

I’m sorry, when was DiMaggio ever the greatest living player? While undoubtedly an all-time great, on what planet was DiMaggio a greater player than Williams and Musial, let alone Mays and Aaron? I would have given two of DiMaggio’s MVPs to Williams (1941 and 1947), while Mays is on the very short list for the greatest players of all time, period. I suppose DiMaggio for a few years could lay claim to being the greatest living Yankee after Gehrig died in 1941 and Ruth died in 1948, but there’s no doubt in my mind Mantle surpassed him.

And to punch Billy Crystal over it, I get the vibes he was a diva and doesn’t get talked enough about it. For someone who wanted this image of perfection, he sure conducted himself otherwise.