Cocky Dizzy Dean
 

Much like later sports legends Joe Namath and Muhammad Ali, Dizzy liked to brag about his prowess and make public predictions.

Example; On May 5, 1937, he bet he could strike out Vince DiMaggio four times in the game. He struck him out his first three at-bats, but when DiMaggio hit a popup behind the plate at his fourth, Dean screamed at his catcher, "Drop it!, Drop it!" The catcher did and Dean fanned DiMaggio, winning the bet. Few in the press doubted Diz's boast, as he was also fond of saying, "If ya done it, it ain't braggin'."

Dean made a one-game comeback on September 28, 1947. After retiring as a player, the still-popular Dean was hired as a broadcaster by the perennially cash-poor Browns to drum up some badly needed publicity. After broadcasting several poor pitching performances in a row, he grew frustrated, saying on the air, "Doggone it, I can pitch better than nine out of the ten guys on this staff!" The wives of the Browns pitchers complained, and management, needing to sell tickets somehow, took him up on his offer. Dean pitched four innings, allowing no runs, and rapped a single in his only at-bat.


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Just In Case....
 

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..Just in case this becomes a "Show Your Dizzy Dean" thread I want to get in early....

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Can anyone explain why Dizzy's name is sometimes reported as "Jerome Herman Dean" and sometimes as "Jay Hanna Dean"?

'ol Diz

Scoops
 

Dizzy also gave different birth dates and States of birth besides different names because he wanted to give subsequent reporters "scoops". Fake news in the 1930s !

Will be forever the last NL pitcher with 30 wins. No one is doing that.

Dizzy truly was one of a kind. I grew up watching Mark “The Bird” Fydrich and used to get kick out of his antics...talking to the ball on the mound, getting on hands and knees to sculpt the mound to his liking between batters, etc. They just don’t make ‘em like they used to.

Jerome Herman
 

In western Arkansas dialect "Jerome Herman" sounds like "Jay Hanna".....Jerry

according to his SABR Bio he officially changed his name as a teen to honor a friend who died as a gesture to the mother. His birth name is Jay, he changed it to Jeorme. Had to get his dad's permission to do so.

My dad collected cards and some memorabilia when he was a kid, but most of it got thrown away shortly after he moved out of the house. That's something he still talks about to this day, mostly because his stuff was on a small shelf in the corner of a finished basement that was never used for anything else before or afterwards.

Anyway, one of the few things that survived was a Mickey Mantle Day program from 1965 that he had signed by Dizzy Dean and a few other announcers. Beautiful signature on it.

What a great story! Growing up in St. Louis, I remember my grandmother talking about Dizzy Dean. Thank you for sharing!

My only matchbook cover. And I love it!!