Family time with the DiMaggios

Vince, Joe and Dom at another exhibition game after their retirements

For the first time in their pro careers, the DiMaggio brothers – Vince, Joe and Dom – play together in the outfield and represent the Pacific Coast League’s San Francisco Seals during a charity game 85 years ago today in California.

At the time, Vince is 26, Joe 23 and Dom 21 with Vince already playing two years in the majors with the Boston Braves and Joe finishing up his third straight World Series appearance with the New York Yankees.

As for Dom, he still is 16-plus months away from reaching the majors with the Boston Red Sox in 1940.

The three never play together in the majors, even though their careers overlap during the 1940s before Vince retires after the 1946 season with Joe following in 1951 and Dom in 1953.

Of course, they constantly play together while growing up in Northern California, first in Martinez and then San Francisco.

“If anyone wants to know why three kids in one family made it to the big leagues,” Joe DiMaggio later says, “they just had to know how we helped each other and how much we practiced back then. We did it every minute we could.”