Joe DiMaggio - A Legends Life - New York Yankees - 2000

From his debut at Yankee Stadium in 1936 until his death in 1999, Joe DiMaggio made Americans feel good. "People used to pile around him like he was God Almighty. And everybody loved him and it was Joe DiMaggio and that was it," says Spec Shea, a former pitcher for the New York Yankees. At his prime, the elegant DiMaggio thrilled the nation with an unprecedented 56-game hitting streak and a starlet wife. But there was a dark side to life in the limelight: in the middle of it all, Joe was tightly wound, ulcerated, coffee-jangled, sleepless, and lonely. He had millions of fans, thousands of acquaintances, hundreds of pals — and not one friend in whom he could confide.