Santiago constantly refers to the Great DiMaggio throughout the novella, using him to bind him to the Earth and to try to provide him with strength to go on with his journey no matter the obstacles.
The Great DiMaggio is also an impeccable case of a model human being, in which Santiago bases his actions and life upon. "Have faith in the Yankees my son. Think of the great Joe DiMaggio" (17). Santiago is speaking to Manolin about the Great DiMaggio and about how he will never cease to be great at baseball, even due to his bone spur. He is saying have faith in the one that deserves it. Have faith in one that in times of great trouble and peril, go through it and come out the other side stronger. Santiago sees what DiMaggio has gone through and sees the ideal man, the man in which Santiago was to model. "This is the second day now that I do not know the result of the juegos, he thought. But I must have confidence and I must be worthy of the great DiMaggio who does all things perfectly even with the pain of the bone spur in his heel" (68). .
Santiago again sees DiMaggio almost in an infallible light, one that believes that he is all knowing and all great, and therefore should be followed. He again sees the ideal human in the image of DiMaggio, and in a way, Jesus could be compared to DiMaggio, infallible, and an ideal human, and well for perseverance. Santiago realizes this and uses it to his benefit. Since the essence of God is faith, anything that you truly believe to be God, may be God, and is, in fact, God since he is inside each of us. Santiago sees this and lives his life in the manner of 'What Would the Great DiMaggio Do?' "But I must think, he thought. Because it is all I have left. That and baseball. I wonder how the great DiMaggio would have liked the way I hit him in the brain? It was no great thing, he thought. Any man could do it. But do you think my hands were as great a handicap as the bone spurs? I cannot know.
