The Immortal Dizzy Dean

Jay Hanna "Dizzy" Dean is a baseball Hall-of-Famer, St. Louis legend, and the inspiration behind this blog's title.  Born and raised in Arkansas and Oklahoma in the early 20th Century, Dean dropped out of school and joined the Army at 16 after convincing his recruiter that he was 18.  As legend's are told, Dean earned the nickname "Dizzy" from an Army sergeant who caught Dean throwing peeled potatoes at garbage can lids during KP duty.  The sergeant yelled "You dizzy son-of-a-bitch!" and the nickname stuck.

Dean once claimed a fourth-grade education, but he never let that hold him back, claiming later:

"The dumber a pitcher is, the better. When he gets smart and begins to experiment with a lot of different pitches, he's in trouble.  All I ever had was a fastball, a curve, and a changeup, and I did pretty good." 

What Dean lacked in formal education, he more than made up for in personality and pitching talent.  After his Army "career" Dean caught the attention of the St. Louis Cardinals and from 1932 - 1937, he was a four time all-star player, led the league in strikeouts four straight years, led the legendary Cardinals "Gas House Gang" to the 1934 World Series Championship and was named the National League Most Valuable Player after going 30-7; the last NL pitcher to win 30 games in a season...still.  Dean won two of three games in that 1934 World Series but made headlines as a pinch-runner during Game 4 of the series when he was beaned in the head by an errant relay while running the bases.  Dean was knocked out cold and taken to the hospital to get checked out.  After the game, Dizzy was quoted as saying:

"The doctors X-rayed my head but found nothin'."

Dean returned to pitch Game 5, which he lost 3-1, and then he won the deciding Game 7.

It was Dean's rare combination of self-deprecating humor and brash self-confidence, along with his humorous mangling of the English language, that endeared him to fans during the depression era.  To wit:

"The good Lord was good to me.  He gave me a strong body, a strong right arm, and a weak mind."

"Heck if anyone had told me I was setting a record (for strikeouts in a game) I'd have gotten me some more strikeouts."

"He (Cardinals GM Branch Rickey) must think I went to the Massachesetts Constitution of Technology."

(To a hitter) "Son, what kind of pitch do you want to miss?"

"It ain't bragging if you can back it up."

Baseball was still mired under the cloud of segregation at the time Dizzy Dean played but that didn't stop him from going on barnstorming tours in the off-season in which his all-white team would take on Negro League all-stars.  As most things with Dizzy, his pitching duels with Satchel Paige became legendary.

"I know who's the best pitcher I ever see and it's old Satchel Paige, that big lanky colored boy.    My fastball looks like a change-of-pace alongside that little pistol bullet ole' Satchel shoots up to the plate."

"If Satch and I were pitching on the same team, we would clinch the pennant by July fourth and go fishing until World Series time." 

Dizzy Dean's career was cut short by a freak accident in the 1937 All-Star game. Pitching for the NL against Earl Averill from the Cleveland Indians, Dean was hit on the foot by a line drive off of Averill's bat, which fractured Dean's toe.  Told that his toe was fractured, Dean responded in typical Dizzy fashion:

"Fractured, hell, the damn thing's broken!"

Dean being Dean he tried to return too soon from the injury but altered his throwing mechanics which led to an arm injury.  He played for a few more years, but was never the same pitcher he had been before the injury.  Dean was elected to baseball's Hall of Fame in 1953.

But my favorite quotes from Dizzy Dean are the ones I picked from to choose for the title of this blog.  They come from his time after he retired and was a broadcaster of the games...classic in every way:

"Well what's wrong with ain't?  And as for me saying Rizzuto 'slud into second' it ain't natural.  Sounds silly to me.  Slud is something more than slid.  It means sliding with great effort.  He slud into third."

"The pitcher wound up and flang the ball at the batter.  The batter swang and missed. The pitcher flang the ball again and this time the batter connected.  He hit a high fly right to the center fielder.  The center fielder was all set to catch the ball, but at the last minute his eyes were blound by the sun and he dropped it!"

 Dixie

Civil War and Base Ball

Believe it or not, the event that nearly ended the Union may have had a large impact on the expansion of what became "The Great American Pastime."  As legend has it, and newspaper reports from the time seem to corroborate, the game of base ball that first began to gain popularity in the mid-1800's was assisted in its spread throughout the nation by soldiers that moved through regions and states as a result of the Civil War. Northern troops taught it to their southern captives who took the game to the south after the war, or the northern troops would play it in confederate prison camps, as depicted in the undated painting below.  Troops would also spread it throughout New England and the Midwest and teach it to the people of the region.  Soon, clubs would form and leagues would be held.

The first organized base ball game held in St. Louis occurred on the afternoon of July 9, 1860, between the Cyclone and Morning Star clubs, as announced by the St. Louis Republican newspaper.  It is widely believed that Merritt Griswold, Jeremiah Fruin, and Joseph Hollenbeck brought the game to St. Louis from New York when they were stationed in St. Louis with the Federal Army shortly before the Civil War broke out.  The St. Louis vintage base ball teams of today honor these men by playing tournaments and festivals in their names every year.

The following blurb was taken from the St. Louis Daily Bulletin on July 11, 1860:

"The Great Match of Base Ball-Victory By The Morning Star Club.-The announcement that the first match of base ball ever played in St. Louis would take place on Monday afternoon on the field west of the Fair Grounds, between the Cyclones and Morning Star Clubs, was sufficient to call out a large number of spectators, among whom were several ladies.  A very great interest was manifested by all present, who expressed their delight at the many instances of fine play displayed by both clubs.  The match resulted in the victory of the Morning Star by twenty-six runs..."

It is fascinating to me to see how the history of the nation and the history of base ball are so intertwined.

Dixie

Goodwill match...or, "Hey, what are the rules again?"

This past weekend I played my first "Goodwill" match with the Perfectos.  Each season begins and ends with a Goodwill match -- basically a scrimmage in which no score is kept.  The point is to knock a little rust off and give greenhorns like me, a first taste of the game.

We traveled across the mighty Mississippi into Belleville, Illinois, where about 40 "ballists" representing at least six different clubs gathered together to toss the ball around and, in honor of Saint Paddy's day, imbibe a little Jameson whiskey.  I'm not familiar yet with all of the teams in the surrounding area, but I do know the following teams had ballists present: St. Louis Perfectos, St. Louis Unions, St. Louis Brown Stockings, Lafayette Square Cyclones, Belleville Stags, and Murphysboro Clarkes.  There was also quite a large contingent of fans, or "cranks" as they're known, despite temperatures hovering in the low-40's.

The vintage game, while no doubt a cousin of the game we all grew up playing, is also starkly different.  It's much more offensive minded and designed to have high scores.  The hurler, despite standing closer to home plate by 15 feet, also is not allowed to throw the ball overhand.  Then there's the issue of not using gloves.  Not to catch grounders, line drives, fly balls -- nor to catch throws to the bases.  So figuring out how to knock the ball down, and then to determine how hard to throw it to your teammate and when to skip it off the ground so that he can handle it easier, are all things to take into consideration.

The advantages to the defense are that picking the ball up on the first hop is still an out, runners are not allowed to overrun any bag (not even first base), and runners have to get back to their bag on foul balls before the ball is returned to the pitcher, or they can be called out by the arbiter.

The "one hop" rule can be challenging as even drives into the power alleys can become outs with speedy outfielders (known as "scouts").

All in all, it was a lot of fun and I can't wait for our first real match in two weeks.  Just enough time for these bruises to heal...did I mention the "no gloves" part?

Dixie

Take Me Out To The Ball Game...

Many years ago, while rummaging through boxes at my mother's house, I found an old paperback novel mixed in with some of the things my father had left behind when he and my mother divorced.  The book had a photo of a baseball and an old sandlot on the cover, and was entitled "If I Never Get Back," a lyrical reference to the old time anthem, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game."  I put the book in with my things, deciding that I would read it later.  When I finally did decide to read it, I was so enthralled with the story by Darryl Brock that I could not put it down.

The story is about a modern day man, down on his luck, who finds himself transported back in time to 1869 where he manages to get himself mixed in with the Cincinnati Red Stockings - the first all professional baseball team.  The parts of the story that were so enchanting to me were the descriptions of the game as it was played back then: no gloves, catching the ball on one hop for an out, the pitcher (or hurler) standing just 45 feet from home plate.  I immediately wanted to know more, and more...and forever that book has been one of my favorite reads.

Fast forward about 20 years or so...I find myself moving to St. Louis, Missouri (of all places); somewhere I have never been but quickly fell in love with.  One day I was perusing the website of the neighborhood where I live and, low and behold, I stumble upon photographs from a vintage baseball team (or base ball -- two words) that plays a regular weekend schedule in the park down the street from my house.  I couldn't believe it.  At first I thought, "How great it will be to go watch some games during the summer."  And then I thought, "Wait.  I wonder if I can play?"

So here I am, as winter turns to spring, the newest member of the Saint Louis Perfectos.  We (if I can be so bold as to refer to the team as "we" already) play the game according to the rules of baseball in 1860.  I started this blog then, to both document my first year of playing vintage base ball, and to document my new adventures in "The Diamond of the Midwest," Saint Louis.

Hope you enjoy!

Dixie