u/DayGlo2030

I believe this was in the late 1970's or early 1980's.

It's been quite a while, so my memory may be off, but here it goes:

I grew up the Bronx, of course a hardcore Yankee fan.

My aunt was visiting, Out of nowhere she says:

"The view from the Yankee Stadium dugout is really nice"

Holy crap! I swear I almost fell out of my chair!

Turns out she was a secretary, and was retired, but worked at a temp.

Steinbrenner (the real one) would fire his secretaries or they would just quit all the time. Between that and vacations and sick days, she would get a call to work for the Yankees at least three days a week. She lived off the grand concourse, so it was an easy commute for her.

She told me "Mr Steinbrenner can be really mean but he's always nice to me. He keeps asking me if I want a job there permanently"

I said, "he's nice to you because you know his routine, and you keep saving his bacon when his office is short-staffed, and your old enough to be his mother"

Anyway, it turns out when the yankees were on the road, all the ladies in the secretarial pool (back then they were called secrataries and not administrative assistants) would eat lunch in the third base dugout...

I kept asking her to invite ME there, that *I* wanted to eat lunch in the Yankee Stadium dugout, but she never did....

Another part to this story ....

I also asked her if she knew any Yankees, and she said no. I kept asking, saying you MUST know someone!

She said, "there is one older gentleman who visits occasionally. He keeps asking me out for lunch or dinner,"

I said "who is he?"

She said "he's in the Mr Coffee Commercials. His name is Joe"

After I fell out of my chair the second time, said "Joe DiMaggio?"

She said "Yes, that's his name"'

Turns out they were the same age, and she had no idea who he was... Which I believe reading about DiMaggio it was something he probably liked.

I said "Joe Dimaggio's hitting in you??? You HAVE to go out with him!"

Despite my urging, she never took him up on his offer for coffee or lunch.

What could have been, Uncle Joe...