Dizzy was probably remembered more for his voice than his baseball talent. What a personality-just a good ole country boy who played that shtick to perfection.
He was a great pitcher until he got hit in the foott with a batted ball. It somehow changed his deliovery and make him less effective. His brother, Paul, known as Daffy, also was a pretty good pitcher, but not as good as Ole Diz.
While I'm reminiscing, my paternal grandfather died in Marshall, Texas, where he was living. He lived in half of a double. When we arrived so that Dad could take care of the arrangements, we immediately started throwing the baseball in the front yard. The neighbor, an elderly man, came out and sat on the front porch and was interested in us throwing the ball.
It wasn't long before we were up on the porch listening to baseball stories from the old man, whose name I never knew, because he had played in the big leagues with the Philadelphia Athletics, Cleveland Indians and one more team that I can no longer remember, but it may have been the Red Sox. It was an American League team. We listened to him telling stories for two hours non-stop, until Mom came out and broke it up, thinking that we were imposing on him.
He mesmerized three boys ages 9-11 for that long, which is some feat, because he was a great story teller. He was an outfielder for most of his career, but he said that he played some first base later in his career. I don't remember what he said about the length of his career, but he said that he continued to play for several years in the minor leagues after the end of his big league career. He said that the minors were full of talent and that some players preferred to play in the minors because salary wasn't much different and the travel was easier because every town had a club, which stunned me because I always thought that the goal was to play in the Show, but I was wrong at least for back then.
God, how I wish that I had taped that session. I have forgotten most of the stories, sadly lost to the sands of time, but I remember two comments vividly. He played for Connie Mack, who he called a cheap bastard (his words, for which he quickly apologized and asked that we not mention it to my parents, which we didn't because we thought it cool that an adult cussed and wasn't cussing us!) and lousy manager. He also had many at-bats against Babe Ruth, who he said was the best left-handed pitcher in the Junior Circuit. He told us stories about essentially living on the trains and how tough it was. He also said that he always had a job in the off-season, primarily selling things.
I wish that I remembered more, but I'm grateful for the memories that I have, including listening to a a guy who played against Babe Ruth.
