Posted By:
SteveFrank, The fellows over at the NYY Fans history board have done a bit of digging into this photo and the #18 jersey issue. Interesting stuff;
'Another theory on the DiMaggio/Erickson photo:
Hank Erickson played only one season (1935) with the Cincinnati Reds. He had at least two catchers ahead of him in that organization (Ernie Lombardi and Gilly Campbell). He was only 28 years old in 1935, so there is no reason that he could not have been in Cincinnati Reds spring camp in 1936, but failed to survive the cut.
DiMaggio started the 1936 season wearing uniform #9. Baseball Almanac shows that Catcher Art Jorgens wore uniform #9 in 1935 and returned to the Yankees in 1936. His uniform number in 1936, however, was #18.
It is therefore quite possible that the photo is from Spring Training 1936, and DiMaggio swapped numbers with Jorgens sometime before Opening Day.'