A ball player has to be kept hungry to become a big leaguer. That’s why no boy from a rich family has ever made the big leagues.

DiMaggio frames elite athletic success as rooted in “hunger”—a mix of ambition, discipline, and the pressure of limited options. The claim that wealth prevents reaching the majors is less a literal sociological rule than a moral argument: comfort can dull urgency, while hardship can sharpen focus and resilience. Read this way, the quote participates in a long American sports tradition that romanticizes the underdog and treats deprivation as a crucible for character. It also reflects a clubhouse ethos in which motivation is expected to be constant and externally reinforced—players must feel they still have something to prove.