by Dr. Rock Positano and John Positano With the preface by Francis Ford Coppola Edited by Germana Valentini and translated by Giovanna Ciracì
The story of the American baseball legend arrives in Italy, with interventions by Lidia Bastianich, Fay T. Vincent and Paolo Masini (President of the National Museum of Italian Emigration Foundation)
New publication of international importance for Stefano Donno’s Quaderni del Bardo Edizioni, with the release of the book “Dinner with Joe DiMaggio – memoirs of an Italian American hero” by Dr. Rock Positano and John Positano, Italian transposition of the best seller ” Dinner with DiMaggio”, with a preface by Francis Ford Coppola, edited by Germana Valentini and translated by Giovanna Ciracì. The volume hosts an unpublished tribute to Joe DiMaggio by the artist Paola Scialpi
In addition to the famous American director, the text also mentions DiMaggio by Lidia Bastianich, Fay T. Vincent and Paolo Masini (President of the National Museum of Italian Emigration Foundation).
Joe DiMaggio isn’t just a baseball legend. He is an American icon, a figure who embodied the spirit of an era. But who was really the man behind the “Joltin’ Joe” myth? An extraordinary player, certainly, but also a man with desires, fears and moments of great vulnerability.
The detailed account of his private life emerges in the book written by the Positano brothers, of which Rock Positano is the doctor who formed an unusual and profound friendship with DiMaggio in the last ten years of the champion’s life. Having met in 1990, when DiMaggio turned to Dr. Positano for treatment of chronic heel pain due to an injury that had forced him to retire just under thirty years earlier, their doctor-patient relationship quickly transformed into a profound friendship. Thanks to this special bond, DiMaggio, the always impeccable, elegant and reserved man, began to reveal to his young friend fragments of his life that few had ever known.
The book is not just a biography of a sports champion, but a window into the man’s soul. DiMaggio was a complex person: sometimes demanding, but also generous and incredibly loyal. The myth that the public knew, always at the top and precise on the pitch, hid a much more human and fragile personality. His relationships with celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra and Woody Allen are only a small part of his life, but they are moments full of meaning, which show a man who constantly sought balance between the desire for a private life of his own and the demands of the public.
The bond between DiMaggio and Positano offers us an intimate and sincere portrait. You don’t need to be a baseball fan to appreciate what this book tells, because the stories deal with universal themes such as friendship, fame, old age and death. DiMaggio, in his truest essence, emerges as a man who had to navigate between the expectations of most and his need for authenticity, in a world that constantly demanded perfection beyond all limits. Not only that, the experience of the two protagonists and their relationship allows us to explore the world of Italian Americans, their history and their way of life.
His experiences with teammates like Lou Gehrig and Ted Williams, his friendships with legendary figures like Muhammad Ali and Sandy Koufax, his daily habits, and his reflections on his career offer an unprecedented glimpse into who Joe DiMaggio really was.
Joseph Paul DiMaggio therefore was not just a sporting champion, but a man who lived intensely, leaving an indelible mark on history. This intimate biography reminds us that even legends, behind the veneer of fame and success, are human beings, with worries and hopes, victories and failures. The figure of the great Italian American champion that emerges from this book is undoubtedly deeper and more complex than we could have imagined. Anyone who wants to know the champion, the legend, the sportsman, the man pursued by the media around the world, will find in these pages an inexhaustible source of inspiration, a human portrait that goes beyond sports statistics and records and broken hearts.
