DiMaggio Feeling Better After Scare

HOLLYWOOD, Fla.-Joe DiMaggio will be hospitalized for three more weeks with pneumonia and a lung infection even though his lawyer said yesterday he had improved from earlier this month when "we were fearful for his life."

DiMaggio's lawyer and friend, Morris Engelberg, said he has been with him every day since the Hall of Famer was admitted to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Fla., on Oct. 12.

DiMaggio had been in intensive care with severe breathing problems, and had his lungs drained at least twice, Engelberg told the Associated Press.

"Look, he will be 84 next month and he has pneumonia," he said. "It was very, very serious. We were fearful for his life."

It was the first time Engelberg acknowledged that the life of the Yankees' great had been in danger.

He said he got the first good sign in more than two weeks when he visited DiMaggio at 5 a.m. yesterday.

"He was sitting in a chair watching the news on television when I walked in," Engelberg said. "And I don't mind telling you that I was relieved because when I walked into his room in intensive care, and he wasn't there, I thought he had died."

"But they had moved him to another room, and there he was, watching television. I hugged him."

DiMaggio "was breathing much better this morning, he was out of bed and his eyes were open," Engelberg said.