Baseball in "The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway

The motif of baseball and Joe DiMaggio in Ernest Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea" implements the current events of the time, as well as providing Santiago a comparison between DiMaggio and himself. Hemingway incorporates the current events of the time. In Cuba, as well as in America, baseball was the most popular sport in the fifties. All of the names mentioned in the novella related to baseball would have been instantly recognized in 1952, …

…he would and more since he is young and strong. Also his father was a fisherman" (68). Whether placing himself on the same plane as DiMaggio or underneath, Santiago continually compares himself with the baseball legend. Ernest Hemingway incorporated the motif of baseball and Joe DiMaggio in his novella "The Old Man and the Sea" to provide a link to current events of the time as well as a comparison for Santiago between DiMaggio and himself.