Dean was the backbone of the 1934 World Champion St. Louis Cardinals, known as the "Gashouse Gang." He had a 30-7 record that year, along with a 2.66 ERA and was the NL MVP. That year Dean predicted that he and his brother Paul "Daffy" Dean would win 45 games between the two of them. Sure enough, on September 21, just 30 years to the day before yours truly was born, Diz won game one of a double header against Brooklyn with a one hitter for his 27th win, and Daffy won the nite cap with a no-hitter to win his 18th! While Dean's playing career was a relatively short one (1930-1941), he was best known to many as an outstanding announcer, able to spin tales of lore with his down home folksy commentary. My favorite story from when I was growing up was a second hand story relayed by announcer Joe Garagiola. Joe and Diz were doing a game, and both were keeping score. Joe looked down and saw that one one particular play, Diz wrote "WL." Joe asked, "Diz, what is 'WL'? I have never seen that before in a scorecard." To which diz replied, "Wasn't Looking." Another favorite quote, which also appears on his wikipedia bio, is while doing a game on CBS Dean once said, over the open mike, "I don't know why they're calling this the Game of the Week. There's a much better game, Dodgers and Giants, over on NBC."Dean was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1953. My short writeup cannot begin to do justice to Dizzy Dean.
You should check out his wikipedia bio for an even better understanding of the great Dizzy Dean!
No comments:
Post a Comment