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Sometimes the origin of a nickname is disappointing, because you expected that there would have been a more colorful story behind it.

Back in 1929, a ballclub made up of Army soldiers, representing the Fort Sam Houston army base in San Antonio, TX was playing an exhibition game against the MLB team Chicago Red Sox.

On the mound was a 19-year-old Army soldier named Jay Dean. He was apparently pitching quite well and frustrating the professional ballplayers as he kept getting them out.

Finally, in exasperation, one of the White Sox managers shouted from the dugout for his players to "knock that dizzy kid out of the box" and proceeded to call him that "dizzy kid" for the remainder of the game.

Somehow the impromptu moniker stuck and that kid became known as Dizzy Dean for the rest of his life.

I was hoping for a better story, but there you go.

“Sometimes the origin of a nickname is disappointing, because you expected that there would have been a more colorful story behind it.”

You can say that again. I once saw the name Dickshooter, Idaho. I expected a really colorful story about a Clymer gunfighter. Instead I find that a man named Dick Shooter had a homestead there. Nothing more.

Dean was known for antics which inspired his nickname. In time, perception became reality. In Game 4 of the 1934 World Series against Detroit, Dean was sent to first base as a pinch runner. The next batter hit a potential double play ground ball. Intent on avoiding the double play, Dean threw himself in front of the throw to first. The ball struck him on the head, and Dean was knocked unconscious and taken to a hospital. The storied (and possibly apocryphal) sports-section headline the next day said, "X-ray of Dean's head reveals nothing."

LOL!