Dizzy and Paul once pitched a doubleheader. Dizzy threw a two-hitter in the first game. Paul threw a no hitter in the second game. Afterwards, Dizzy said, If I would have known Paul was going to pitch a no hitter, I would have pitched one, too.”
Some of the greatest moments for baseball fans were simply having the good fortune to have watched Dizzy and Pee Wee Reese do the "Game of the Week" back in the day. Diz loved the sponsor's product (Falstaff beer) and the tales are legendary. When things got slow late in the game, Dizzy would start singing "Wabash Cannonball". Things didn't get any better than that! Too bad that there are few if any videos around of those broadcasts. They were done live and NBC didn't bother to record them.
LesbianVampireLover I saw one broadcast in which Diz leaned out of the booth and shouted pleasantries to Jim Gentile of the Orioles. Gentile looked up from first base with a goofy smile. And Dizzy was a whole show unto himself in a rain delay.
My father went to the seventh game of the 34' world series with his father ( Grandfather ), he was 12, super cool. He grew up in Detroit. He was a excellent athlete himself, playing fullback for the University of Florida, in the early 40's..
When I was a kid growing up in Hamlin, Texas, I had a good friend that lived down the street from whose uncle used to be a catcher in the Major Leagues years earlier. He told us that he had played for the St. Louis Cardinals and had on occasion caught behind the plate for Dizzy Dean.
every Saturday my dad and I would watch the "game of the week" where Dizzy and Pee Wee would commentate. This was in the late 50's. I believe it was referred to as "the Falstaff Game of the week". I'll never forget the first time I heard Dizzy say "he slud into home" I had to have my dad explain that one to me.....thanks for all the great moments Diz and you too Pee Wee
Question. - My mother claimed both Dizzy and Daffy helped coach her high school basketball team in Mt. Airy, NC. They ended up state champions in North Carolina. Do you know about this?
I've always been a baseball fan. Only recently though I've become fascinated with baseball from the 1950s and earlier. I think there's a feeling that maybe I could have played in this era had I wanted to. I was a really good shortstop/3rd baseman in HS but joined the Air Force and haven't played since. Not todays game though, it's just changed too much lol.
I must be missing something. The caption above says this is 2010. Dean died in '74, two weeks after autographing a ⚾ for mevand my best friend at a minor league ballpark in Charjeston SC. He was traveling around doing color comnentary st minor league parks and selling Purina Dig Chow during the commercials. He died two weeks later in Reno. I was very sad. I have no family and sold the ball a couple yrs ago to a very appreciative guy for $1,150. Time moves on.
How could players even catch with them goofy gloves? The Great Walter Johnson who is supposedly the greatest pitcher ever went to an ammunition factory with Smokey Joe Wood to settle who threw the fastest. back at that time they had a method of gauging how fast their ammunition traveled out of guns, So Walter and Joe went to see how fast they threw, Walter's fastest pitch was 80.6 MPH Joe's was 79.9 I guess back in those days 80 mph was considered gas, but if they played today I doubt they could compete at AA level. sadly.That is what I have read anyway.Dizzy probably threw a little harder but not much.
Actually when Johnson's fastball was measured at the Bridgeport, Connecticut munitions factory, it was estimated at 91.36 mph. However, that was a year before radar was invented and most experts believe that he could throw a fastball at 100 mph.
