If not for a knee injury, Joe DiMaggio may have been a Hall of Famer for the White Sox

It's always risky to look back at history and wonder "what if," but I think it's fair to say that had the Yankees' trade of Nov. 21, 1934, not happened, the entire future of the Yankees team would be completely different. Sure, the biggest team in America's biggest market would have won a lot of World Series, but it certainly wouldn't have the 27 World Series championships that the team has today.

For on that date, the Yankees acquired the three-time MVP, Hall of Famer, and future Mr. Coffee spokesperson, Joe DiMaggio. 

One year after he set the Pacific Coast League record with a 61-game hitting streak, an awfully portentous accomplishment, and coming off a season in which the outfielder hit .341 with 12 homers as a 19-year-old for the San Francisco Seals, the Yankees came calling. 

Of course, it was only because of a knee injury that DiMaggio even ended up in New York's lap. Abe Kemp, the White Sox scout, desperately wanted the team to sign the outfielder, telling GM Harry Grabiner to "go the limit." Only problem: Grabiner was worried about the health of DiMaggio's knee and they had no access to his health records. 

Fortunately for the Yankees, scout Bill Essick lived across the street from DiMaggio. With the help of the team's West Coast scouting chief, Joe Devine, Essick was able to sneak him to their own orthopedist, who said the knee would heal fine. Naturally, they kept this a secret to themselves until the year was over. 

With the Seals keeping DiMaggio in the lineup despite the injury, knowing that he was their ticket to a likely $50,000 payday, he struggled down the stretch. Eventually, after his knee buckled and he collapsed in the outfield, the Seals finally ended his season in August. And that large fee soon turned into $5,000 (nearly $89,000 in today's dollars) along with Doc Farrell, Floyd Newkirk, Jimmy Densmore and Ted Norbert. After Farrell refused the assignment, only Norbert would go on to become a cog for the Seals, hitting over 20 home runs in four of his six seasons in San Francisco. 

As for the Yankees, DiMaggio's knee certainly healed.

The outfielder played one more year with the Seals before coming to New York, hitting .398 with 34 home runs for the Seals in 1935. He'd then make his debut for the Yankees in 1936, leading the league with 15 triples along the way. The next year, DiMaggio hit .346 with a league-leading 46 home runs and that was it. DiMaggio would go on to be an All-Star in every year of his career, winning nine World Series with the Yankees along the way.

In that alternate reality, where DiMaggio is on the White Sox, does he win any? After all, even Joltin' Joe probably couldn't singlehandedly elevate a team that never finished closer than eight games out of third place. Of course, you never know.