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
A humble, quotable Arkansan? You don't say... ;)
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