The Yankee Clipper, Joe DiMaggio Played Baseball In Atlantic City

Every major sport that you can think of has been played over nearly 100 years at Atlantic City, New Jersey’s Boardwalk Hall.

That is, except for baseball. There is no official record of a baseball game ever being played inside Boardwalk Hall.

Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall has been set as:

• indoor football field.
• ice hockey rink.
• basketball court.
• race track.
• bowling alley.

But, never as a baseball field. That’s a big miss.

However, there is an unofficial report of New York Yankee legend, Joe DiMaggio and fellow soldiers playing a pick-up baseball game inside Boardwalk Hall during World War II.

Wouldn’t have been amazing to be there to watch that?

During World War II, the Atlantic City Convention Center was converted to a training facility for members of the United States Army.

News of this informal game comes by way of AtlanticCityExperience.org, which was curated by The Atlantic City Public Library and Vicki Gold Levi.

Boardwalk Hall, then called the Atlantic City Convention Hall was dedicated in 1929.

At the time it was the largest auditorium in the world without columns or supports … all because of Thomas Edison’s invention of fortified concrete.

Before then, there had never been a material that string. As not to need support columns to hold the weight of large spans.

This meant for the first time ever, there were no obstructed seats in a hall of this size.

the 1929 opening of Atlantic City Conventiin Hall was such a big deal that the The Vice President of The United States, Charles H. Curtis attended the dedication.

It was the largest building of its kind in the entire world at the time.

It filled an entire city block. It could seat 40,000 people at a time when there was 65,000 residents in Atlantic City.

Today, there are approximately 38,000 full-time residents, meeting that the Atlantic City Convention Center had one seat for every city resident, with an additional 2,000 seats to spare.

After his playing career, DiMaggio spent a lot of time in Atlantic City, becoming good friends with Irish Pub owner Kathy Burke.

Here is a photo inside Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall that I took of DiMaggio and my twin Brother Don Hurley.

Ted Williams and so many other Hall of Fame greats were there that day.

Now you know the story that Joe DiMaggio played an informal, pick-up baseball game inside the Atlantic City Convention Center during World War II.

INCREDIBLE FUN FACT:

Mike Trout has more career Major League Baseball home runs than Hall of Fame great Joe DiMaggio.

DiMaggio hit 361 career home runs.

Trout currently has 368 career home runs for 85th on the all-time list.

SOURCE: AtlanticCityExperience.org