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Like the other books described here, Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life, by Richard Ben Kramer documents a past era of baseball. DiMaggio broke into pro baseball in the 1930's, when a ballplayer's status could quickly change from earning a living to extreme poverty as a result of an injury or being replaced by a hot young prospect. In later years, it became conventional to regard Ty Cobb as a person that nobody liked, but Cramer points out that Cobb's "every man for himself" attitude was more the norm than the exception.

DiMaggio's life is documented in great detail here, and there's a lot of territory to cover; his school-dropout childhood in San Francisco, his not-very-good relationship with his brother Dom (a star with the Red Sox) and his son, his marriage and long-term relationship with Marilyn Monroe (he believed that the Kennedys killed her), and his later career as a TV salesman and money-grubbing bat autographer.