My Hitting Lesson with Joe DiMaggio

An Impromptu lesson from Jolting Joe

by Corky Carroll

After years and years of toiling away at my autobiography I have, at last, just about finished it. I sort of thought I had it done, but then remembered that I forgot to put in the story about the night I got a batting lesson from the great Joe “Joltin’ Joe” DiMaggio, the Yankee Clipper. I wrote about this a zillion years back, I think I did anyway, but thought it would be fun to revisit it as people always like this little tale. And I can use this for that part in the book and kill two birds with one bazooka. OK, calm down … no birds were killed or hurt in the writing of this column — you gotta watch what you say these days.

During the years between my retirement from the pro surfing circuit in 1972 and the late 1990s, when I damaged my Achilles tendon, I spent an enormous amount of time playing tennis. I worked my way up in classifications and eventually became a teaching pro. One of my favorite things in my tennis career was that I was invited to play in many celebrity tournaments for charities all around the country. It was at one of these events, in the friendly town of Billings, Mont., that this little interaction took place.

In this April 10, 1998 photo New York Yankees great Joe DiMaggio waves to the crowd before the start of New York’s first home game of the season between the Yankees and the Oakland Athletics at Yankee Stadium in New York. (Photo by Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images)This particular event involved both a tennis and golf tournament and included a huge list of celebrities. On the Friday night before the tennis and golf events started they held a big softball game between the Hollywood All-Stars and the local softball team.

I thought it was gonna just be a little fun event, but no. Turns out they sold out a 10,000-seat Minor League Baseball stadium for this, and it was on local television. I see this and am thinking, seeing as how there are dozens of bigger names here for this than me, I doubt I will have to play.

So, I am sitting in the dugout, trying to look invisible, when Rod Dedeaux comes rolling in. Rod was the baseball coach at USC for years and was also my neighbor when I was growing up in Surfside. He is coaching the Hollywood All-Stars. He sees me and goes, “Coorrrky, I heard you were here. Great. You will be my lead-off hitter.”

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Paradise guest, Smiling Tony Carlo, finding some peace with the inside section.

Oh no, this is not good. I am watching this dude warming up on the mound tossing up these 14- to 16-foot-high pitches that are twisting and doing all this stuff and landing right on the plate every time, it was that kind of softball. I go into semi panic mode and am thinking of how bad it would look if I boogied on outta there right then.

But, as fate would have it, in strolls Joe DiMaggio. Mr. Coffee himself, right there in front of me. So, I seized the opportunity and innocently said, “Hey Joe, I need your help. I am just a dumb surfer/tennis player and I have never seen, nor tried to hit, a pitch like that. How do you hit that?”

On that note the entire dugout stops dead. Everybody is waiting to hear what Joe has to say. And there were some huge sports guys in there such as Ahmad Rashad, Kenny Anderson and Rick Barry. Joe pauses and looks down at me sitting there, considering his words carefully.  And very direct and sincerely he says, “Corky, I am gonna tell you how to hit that pitch.  But I am going to tell you this one time and one time only, so listen carefully.”

I am listening super carefully and so is everybody else in there. I can’t believe I am actually getting a batting tip from Joe DiMaggio. This would be like some novice surfer from Pasadena getting a surf tip from Duke Kahanamoku. After a short pause, for effect I think, he slowly and firmly tells me, “KEEP…YOUR EYE … ON … THE BALL!”

In this April 10, 1998 photo New York Yankees great Joe DiMaggio waves to the crowd before the start of New York’s first home game of the season between the Yankees and the Oakland Athletics at Yankee Stadium in New York. (Photo by Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images)

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