Posted on 03/17/2005 1:13:52 PM PST by toddlintown
This time of year, all the indications point to a new beginning. I'm not talking about the crocuses warily emerging from their winter snooze nor the swelling buds of the pussy willow. I'm talking about the opening of Major League Baseball's spring training camps.
In this atmosphere of hope and anticipation, however, lies the stink of steroids, corked bats, and drug abuse. Almost makes me long for the colorful players of days gone by, when players like Jay Hanna Dizzy Dean jumped on the nation's stage. Dizzy was a brash fireballer for the St. Louis Cardinals who picked up his nickname while serving in the Army in the late 1920s. The history books are a bit vague on why he was considered dizzy, but his malapropisms and blatant avoidance of the rules of grammar were legendary and might have something to do with his handle. He was also considered a bit of a braggart, prone to running off at the mouth when he should have kept quiet.
Sorry if I telegraphed where I'm going with this story, but you can't help but make comparisons between pitcher Jay Hanna Dean and Howard Dizzy Dean.
(Excerpt) Read more at youngnationalist.com ...
No, THIS Dizzy Dean:
Branch Rickey used to say that if he had to deal with one more like Dean, he would have been out of the game.
"Let the teachers learn the kids English. Ol' Diz will learn the kids baseball."
"The doctors X-rayed my head and found nothing."
"The good Lord was good to me. He gave me a strong body, a good right arm, and a weak mind."
"Practice, work hard, and give it everything you have."
"It ain't bragging if you really done it."
Didn't they do live commercials between innings for Falstaff beer?
He just loved Dizzy Dean!
Yes DD is from Wiggins
http://www.msfame.com/hof.html
Dizzy Dean and Pee Wee Reese
Saturday afternoon baseball.
You're dating yourself again.
Unless you just "barely" remember. :>)
Good Ole Boy Mississippi Ping
He could slaughter "The Wabash Cannonball" to a fare-thee-well. I'd rather have screeched my fingernails on the blackboard than listen to that.
He said "A line drive that went through the pitcher's legs that the centerfielder caught."
"Saturday afternoon baseball."
I loved Pee Wee and Dizzy!
I used to watch it with my Grandaddy.
He taught me baseball's finer points.
Daddy taught me about football.
"You're dating yourself again.
Unless you just "barely" remember. :>)"
Don't go there. ;o)
Padnuh!
When Daddy was younger, he and some other guys at Hercules formed a softball team and he played a lot. That was before I was born, I think. I don't have any memories of him playing.
Friday night fights were also a popular thing in our house. I can hum the theme song right now. They were sponsored by Gillette!
Wow! I didn't realize he only died in 1974!! That was the year I graduated college. When I was little, Daddy used to say, as we drove through Wiggins on the way to our Fish Camp, that Dizzy Dean lived there, but somehow I always thought that he had died, and he USED to live there.
Do you live near Wiggins?
His brother did, yes. Not Dizzy.
I don't think I've ever been to Bond, though I saw the sign for it every time we drove to the Coast.
Who remembers Ol' Diz brand charcoal?? I remember that stuff fondly from when I was a kid. Do they still sell that stuff?
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