Dizzy Dean was quite the tough guy - when he had over a dozen players to back him up when he swung at a reporter. Dizzy received quite a bit of bad press during the spring of 1937 as he held out for more money. He and his wife went to spring training in Florida. His wife laid down the law - hit an offending writer or don't come home. Strong stuff from a wife, especially when the man is weak. Dizzy meekly said yes dear, and went out on a search and destroy mission for one particular sportswriter.
Bob Greene retold the story about the famed pitcher in today's Wall Street Journal:
In 1937 the St. Louis Cardinals—the famed Gashouse Gang—were returning to their Florida hotel, the Tampa Terrace, after a game against the Cincinnati Reds. They were still in uniform.
Dizzy Dean, the Cardinals’ ace pitcher, was accompanied by his wife. She had been heard complaining about a sportswriter named Jack Miley of the New York Daily News. Mrs. Dean had disapproved of something Miley had written about her husband. According to the Tampa Tribune, she said: “I’ll scratch his eyes out.”
Uh-oh, anytime a man lets a woman goad him into a fight, it rarely ends well. The Retrosimba website reported the actual exchange:When the Cardinals entered the hotel lobby, Mrs. Dean spotted Miley—uncharitably described by the Tampa paper as “a fat man”—and instructed her husband: “If you don’t hit him, don’t come back to me.”
Dizzy: “Is your name Miley?”Show him he did.... or he tried to do. The Clarion-Ledger published a watered-down version of what next took place.
Miley: “Yes.”
Dizzy: “I wish you would not write those things about me. You said some terrible things about me.”
As the conversation continued, about 10 of Dizzy’s teammates gathered around him.
Dizzy: “You $125-a-month writers make me sick. Don’t you never mention me and my wife in one of them damned columns of yours again.”
Miley: “That’s a pleasure. I hate to write about bush leaguers anyway.”
Dizzy: “Just remember what I told you. I warned you. That’s from the horse’s mouth.”
Miley: “I say it’s from a hillbilly horse’s ass. What are you going to do about it?”
Dizzy: “I’ll show you…”
Other newspapers told what really happened.
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| St. Louis Post-Dispatch |
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| St. Louis Post-Dispatch |
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| New York Daily News |
10 comments:
Was that his wife or his mother?
$8.75 for new leather Forshein Shoes. Not Bad.
Dizzy Dean: It ain't braggin' if you can do it.
1:01
Better be glad ole Diz is not around to hear that.
You’re about to cross a line Kingfish. Leave Dizzy Dean alone
Dizzy made that glass of Falstaff look good even though he couldn't take even a sip on camera. "The choicest product of the brewer's are."
I grew up in WIggins and my family was close friends with Dizzy and Pat! She was a strong lady and Dizzy did listen to her. They were a wonderful couple and people!
When I remember they stayed with us for a few days while their house was being remodeled. My Dad and Mom let them sleep in their Master Bedroom. My younger brother got up in the middle of the night and climb in bed with thinking it was mom and dad. As luck would have it he wet the bed soaking Dizzy. My Dad for years would say son you’re the only person that ever peed on Dizzy Dean and got away with it.
I can still hear his laughing and Him saying ”pawdner” = partner!
I like Dizzy and he lived in Mississippi and is buried in Mississippi and he had the museum next to Smith-Wills Stadium for years, but he has no right to be in the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. Just living in the State makes you eligible is a damn shame.
What an old battle-ax she must have been. She probably needed a good clop in the chops herself.
Say what you want about 'Ol Diz' but I will always remember him with fondness and respect. Back when he and Peewee Reese hosted the Falstaff Game of the Week he sent a shout out over the airwaves to my older brother who was dying of cancer. He also sent my brother an autographed baseball which I still have. Some time later, after my brother had passed away, my dad and I bumped into him at a grocery store in Jackson. We introduced ourselves and he took time to visit with us. Dizzy remembered my brother, asked about him, and expressed his condolences when we told him my brother had passed away. He was a colorful character to be sure but in my book he had a heart bigger than most.
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