On December 12, 1998, former Yankees outfielder Joe DiMaggio was given last rites of the Catholic church, and his family was called to his bedside when his doctors believed the end was near. However, the Hall of Famer would then go on to make what appeared to be a miraculous recovery, and in January 1999, he was permitted to go home after a 99-day hospital stay. But DiMaggio would die at his home in Florida on March 8th, after a long battle with lung cancer.
Joe DiMaggio’s plague at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York (public domain)