ESPN MLB

NEW YORK -- The diary entry is obscure. It befits the famously guarded personality of Joltin' Joe DiMaggio, and bears only tantalizing hints about his life as a baseball hero and husband of Marilyn Monroe.

April 28, 1989: "Up at 5 a.m. ... Book people felt me out with questions pertaining to baseball. Some part of my private life but not too strong on that. Will not reveal anything in a negative way towards Marilyn -- only books that have come out on her might have not been truthful."

Neyer: Sign Of Joe's Times

Fulfilling autograph requests was a great source of stress for Joe DiMaggio. That particular note in DiMaggio's diaries, now up for sale, got Rob Neyer thinking, and blogging. Blog

The entry is part of a 2,000-page, 29-volume collection of the New York Yankees icon's diaries, meticulously handwritten between 1982 and 1993, which are now being offered for sale. The pages, in plastic protective sheets, are contained in thick, black loose-leaf binders that were kept stacked in the closet of DiMaggio's lawyer.

Other diary entries are also clipped and businesslike. DiMaggio was known for keeping his emotions to himself.

"I really liked Joe. I know he was shy. But I got to know him better after we got out of baseball," said Hall of Famer Whitey Ford, who was on hand Monday for the launch of the online auction.

Ford was just 11 when his parents took him to the Yankee Stadium bleacher seats in the 1930s. "I saw Joe DiMaggio for the first time and from then on he was my hero."

In the 1950s, Ford was brought up from the farm league to pitch for the Yankees. He had his first game on July 1, 1950, at Boston's Fenway Park.

"I got on the mound and I looked out at center field and I couldn't get over that this man I idolized was the center fielder," said Ford, adding that Boston got seven runs off him in the first few innings.

"Mickey [Mantle] and I were scared to death to speak to him," said Ford. "Marilyn was a nice lady."

Ford recalled that once, when they were playing in St. Petersburg, Fla., DiMaggio brought the actress onto the field. "I went over and shook hands with her. Mickey was too shy. He didn't shake hands with her."

That season the players and their families had beach bungalows together. One day word got out that Monroe was on the beach, and crowds appeared within minutes, surrounding the sunbathing couple.

"I never felt so sorry for anyone in my life. They had to leave the beach immediately," recalled Ford.

Later, Ford and DiMaggio both lived in Florida and frequently golfed together.

"He had a lot of class. He hung out with good people, was a great dresser and a little cheap," said Ford. And if you ever won money off DiMaggio, "It was pretty tough to collect it."

The diaries reflect the demands on the Yankee Clipper and some of the pressures of his 56-game hitting streak.

"If I thought this would be taking place," Joe DiMaggio laments in a diary entry about the public relations frenzy, "I would have stopped the hitting streak at 40."

On July 16, 1941, DiMaggio extended his hitting streak to 56 games as the Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians 10-3.

"Traveling getting to be damn much," he wrote in 1987. Noted another entry: "Plane food should be fed to pigs."

But there was plenty of pomp and circumstance, including a White House dinner hosted by President Reagan for Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

"After dinner, proceeded to another room to hear Van Cliburn play. Mrs. Gorbachev requested a song that Cliburn played and Mrs. Gorbachev sang along," wrote DiMaggio.

"Had to buy a new shirt because neck size down to 15½."

The Hall of Famer, who played for the Yankees from 1936 to 1951, died in 1999.

The bidding on the diaries is to begin at $1.5 million; the auction, by Steiner Sports Marketing, closes July 25.

How does Ford think DiMaggio would feel about his diaries being made public? "I don't think he would be too tickled about it."

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press