Dr. Rock Positano

An engrossing book, full of vignettes of a look at the great Joe DiMaggio, famed Yankee center fielder, through the eyes of one of his latest friends. Dr. Rock Positano was a new, young podiatrist in New York City who believed in non-surgical treatments for foot problems. Joe DiMaggio had his Major League career cut short from a botched operation to remove a heel spur. They met, and over a period of a few years became good friends. And then great friends.

They dined whenever DiMaggio was in NYC, and Dr. Positano's growing knowledge of this famous man is captured around Italian restaurant tables in New York. Of course, these dinners did not come about without sacrifice: Dr. Positano had to put his life and his practice on hold when he got that call, but he learned about the many secrets and twists that made this man known and beloved by millions.

For fans of baseball, or New York City, or even those who wonder how fame changes one (and how to cope when it does), this is a must-read book. The chapters start with a bit out of DiMaggio's personal journals and while they are not necessarily in chronological order, the dinners do grow in depth and understanding of how these two men formed a strong and worthwhile friendship.… (mehr)

Dr. Positano's memories of the ten years during which he became a close confidante of the greatest Yankee centerfielder who ever played the game, Joe Dimaggo, is one of the best baseball books I've ever read - even though it is not really about baseball. Rather, "Dinners with Dimaggio" is all about Joe Dimaggio, the man, and what made him the glorious human being that he was.

Dimaggio was certainly no saint, despite his best efforts to keep his too human flaws hidden from the rest of us. Joe Dimaggio, in his own mind, had an image to maintain, one of utter professionalism and perfection in every way, and he did his very best to live up to that image. It took people like Dr. Rock Positano to help Joe maintain that image, and the three or four people whom Joe took into his complete confidence and trust were completely loyal to helping Joe maintain that image. They would, and did, do anything for the man.

Fans of Joe Dimaggio will be treated to a side of the man that they could only wonder about in the past because "Dinner with Dimaggio" is a true revelation, a book that I will long remember, a book about a man I never saw play the game but have admired for my entire life. Joe was human after all, and I love him for it.… (mehr)