Trading for Joe DiMaggio

Joe DiMaggio with the San Francisco Seals

In what turns out to be one of the most lopsided deals in baseball history, the New York Yankees 90 years ago today send backup infielder Doc Farrell along with $5,000 to the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League for a 19-year-old outfielder named Joe DiMaggio.

After Farrell refuses to report to San Francisco, the Yankees sweeten the deal by giving the Seals three minor leaguers in pitchers Jimmy Densmore and Floyd Newkirk, and outfielder Ted Norbert.

The Yankees tell the Seals to go ahead and keep that $5,000, too.

DiMaggio remains with the Seals for the 1935 season – and hits .398 for them – before joining the Yankees in 1936 and starting a Hall of Fame career that includes 13 All-Star selections in 13 seasons, nine World Series titles in those 13 seasons and a post-career marriage, albeit briefly, to Marilyn Monroe.

“Baseball isn’t statistics,” the great Jimmy Breslin once writes, “it’s Joe DiMaggio rounding second base.”