L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2017 www.italoamericano.org 34 L'Italo-Americano I magine being invited to din- ner by a famous person.  The inconceivable idea occurred to Dr. Rock Positano. He was invited numerous times to dinner by arguably the last true American hero, Joe DiMaggio.  Few have ever had a close friendship with the Yankees legend than Dr. Positano.  The two were intro- duced in 1990 by New York Daily News sports cartoonist Bill Gallo.  One day Gallo recom- mended Joe to make an appoint- ment to see his friend, Rock, for his troubling Achilles heel that continued to ache long after the injury shortened his baseball career.  Little did the Yankee Clipper realize his visit to the podiatrist's office would lead to a mutual bond that lasted until DiMaggio's death in 1999. Now imagine one evening having the opportunity to relive some of those special moments at dinner with Mr. DiMaggio's confidant.  When I read Dr. Rock Positano's Dinner with DiMaggio: Memories of an American Hero, co-authored by his brother John, I immediately contacted the two for an inter- view about their personal moments with the sports legend.    I arranged to have dinner at Campagnola Restaurant.  The Upper East Side restaurant, where Dr. Rock frequents, is within walking distance from his office, the Joe DiMaggio Sports Medicine Foot and Ankle Center.  The Italian eatery is where Dr. Positano sat in 2014 with DiMaggio's granddaughters to celebrate what would have been his one-hundredth birthday. On the same night he explained his idea of writing a book about their famous grandfa- ther.  My intention for meeting at the restaurant was self-fulfilling for I wanted to understand the man and what made him a hero to so many. At sixteen, I waited in-line at a sports memorabilia show to get Joe DiMaggio's autograph. He inspired me to be proud of my heritage. For an adolescent growing up in the 1980's, I was in awe of this larger-than-life fig- ure during a time when Italian- Americans were portrayed most- ly as members or associates of organized crime. As an adult I wanted to personally chat with the one person who could give me more insight about DiMaggio the person, rather than the over- dramatized image that we inevitably give our superstar ath- letes without realizing their strengths and shortcomings off the playing field. Before getting together, I made sure to wear my Sunday best.  Joe DiMaggio demanded his small entourage was always dressed in a jacket and tie, espe- cially when eating in restaurants with a lady.  My formal attire was strongly influenced by a passage in Dinner with DiMaggio.  Mr. DiMaggio, who always dressed for dinner fol- lowing his Bella Figura philoso- phy, was annoyed that one-night Rock appeared at a restaurant without a tie in front of his granddaughters. DiMaggio, not pleased with the doctor's outfit, declared, "Didn't anyone ever teach you about how to dress in the compa- ny of ladies? Women—especial- ly my granddaughters deserve more respect." The doctor, humiliated, went home and returned to the restaurant with a tie.   The scene was typical of DiMaggio. His true personality, both good and bad, surfaced when he dined at restaurants with a select group that Dr. Positano labeled the Bat Pack.  As doctor Rock averred, "Frank Sinatra had the Rat Pack, DiMaggio had the Bat Pack." The book published a few months ago has been highly acclaimed for it humanizes the Yankee legend instead of glori- fying his life.  For many baseball fans, Joe DiMaggio is immortal- ized in American pop culture through songs, art, literature and a Seinfeld episode. ALFONSO GUERRIERO JR. Remembering Joe DiMaggio at dinner (Part I) We sat at the same table where Rock met with DiMaggio's granddaughters a few years earlier. Directly above the table, hangs a picture frame of the Yankee Clipper's photo from the book jacket.  Dr. Positano mentions the restaurant in his manuscript and presented it to the owners as a memento for patrons to see among the other celebrity photos. The evening we met inside the rustic establish- ment, the city's Who's Who list were also dining there. At the next table from us sat NY Post gossip columnist Cindy Adams with high profile attorney Barry Slotnick, who defended Mob boss Joe Colombo and, in another criminal, trial John Gotti. Singer Tony Bennett is known to occasionally stop by for a meal. DiMaggio, on the other hand, never ate at Campagnola, he preferred restaurants that he was more familiar with and accommodated his privacy. When the baseball legend was in New York City, which was fre- quently, Dr. Positano's responsi- bility for nearly a decade was to protect his privacy from others. "DiMaggio loved New York and he knew whenever he arrived here I would protect him from others who were interested in only exploiting his fame," the doctor emphasized.   One of Joltin Joe's enjoy- ments throughout his life was to have dinner with close friends. The baseball great strongly believed, like most Italian fami- lies, that the dinner table is the center of valuable discussions with family and friends.  "Since the dinner table was sacred to Joe, Dinner with DiMaggio seemed to be the per- fect title for his memoir" said Dr. Positano.  Whether you were an acquaintance, teammate, close friend or his granddaughters, each agreed the Yankee legend was a very complex man.  "Joe's life was a jigsaw puzzle, and only he had all the pieces" said the podiatrist from Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.    DiMaggio compartmentalized his life. He had a life in San Francisco, Florida and New York and he made sure all three were separate.   "He never allowed anyone to have the complete pic- ture" Rock said. When DiMaggio died, so many of Rock's personal friends had asked when he was going to write about his special connection to DiMaggio.  His answer was always the same: he either was unable to dedicate the time or was unable to find the right per- son to collaborate. That all changed when he approached his brother John.  "I thought my brother was the perfect person to help me tell DiMaggio's story because he was there for the ride." John Positano is a few years older than his brother Rock. He is a lawyer who has argued cases in front of federal judges for sev- eral decades and stressed he is not a baseball fan. In fact he wrote a book about surfing. His love for surfing did not deter him from understanding, however, the significance of being involved in writing a book about Joe Di. John's role was to examine DiMaggio's diary, where the dates coincided with his brother's notes. "After our patient-doctor relationship ended with the eradi- cation of his foot pain, our meet- ings became social. I kept notes every time I saw DiMaggio. To me, he was part of history like Julius Caesar, Napoleon, or George Washington and I became the de facto NY histori- an." Why a book about DiMaggio eighteen-years after his death? "It's time to introduce DiMaggio to a whole new generation of mil- lennials." said Dr. Positano. "People who never heard of him should know what a true American icon he really was." In Part II, the Positano brothers talk more about their Italian- American heritage and what was the turning point that led DiMaggio to trust Dr. Rock. Sport's legend Joe DiMaggio Table in Campagnola restaurant where Positano and DiMaggio had dinner Dr. Rock Positano LIFE PEOPLE MOVIES MUSIC BOOKS

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