Although the general public is now fully aware (you're welcome!) to the bizarre behavior of one Tom Cruise, the late baseball great Joe DiMaggio may have been one of the first to know.

A recent report says that in the mid-1990s, the actor followed Joltin' Joe all over the place, spooking him and nearly prompting him to call the cops.

According to TMZ.com and Rush & Molloy, the insane one would show up uninvited at baseball-signing shows and wait for DiMaggio to appear, and even waited outside a restaurant for him once for three hours. But the Yankee Clipper wasn't impressed, and instead referred to Cruise as "a short little guy" who "scared him a little."

"This guy is following me around everywhere I go. Next time, I'm going to call the cops," DiMaggio is quoted as saying.

Cruise's representatives didn't respond to the story (nor have they offered any proof that baby daughter Suri Cruise is real -- vote in our official poll). It's perfectly possible, in his defense, that Tom was trying to get DiMaggio's life story made into a film, as the actor has been known to go to extreme lengths to get projects underway.

Reportedly, he showed up motorcycle in the middle of the night at director JJ Abrams' house to convince him to direct Mission: Impossible 3.