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Well, here he is again, folks. Dizzy Dean, brought to you by the makers of Johnson's wax for Carnu.
The wax fortified auto polish that cleans and polishes your car in one easy application.
Howdy, everybody. Get around, you young baseball players, especially you city boys.
I've got a story about kids in the baseball dam, and I believe it's something that all you young fellows can learn a lesson from.
Coach Dizzy Dean is going into action early today. I can see that.
This is Frank Eschen to remind you that every Saturday at this time, Dizzy Dean gives advice to baseball-minded young Americans,
answers letters, that's the mailbag department, spins a few of his inimitable yarns about the great and the near great of the diamond,
and looks at the big league pennant races.
And as a starter today, let's have your story for the youngsters, Coach Dean.
I got this idea just one week ago, Frank. I've been thinking about it a lot.
Last Saturday after our program for Johnson's car in who I said the path, that's my wife.
Mrs. Dean, let's take a nice ride somewhere out in the country. I'd like to see a lot of trees and some hills.
Ah, the great Dean had an urge to commune with nature, to visit pastoral scenes, eh?
Maybe what you're saying is true, Frank, but I wanted to, all I wanted was to get away from crowds
and the hot city streets. Well, Pat said it would be all right for us to take a ride.
The car was just as slick and shiny as any I hear you talking about.
You see, I feel a responsibility now, and I guess you feel it too, Frank.
We just got to have shiny cars. Anyhow, we set out for a ride, and I says, let's go out Highway 30.
That's about as pretty a drive as I know in these here parts. So out Highway 30 we went.
We left the concrete slab about 30 miles out and took a gravel road in Jefferson County,
out through the little town of Cedar Hill. It reminded me of the village in Switzerland.
Why, I didn't know you were such a man of travel, Diz. When were you in Switzerland?
I never said nothing about being in Switzerland, Frank, but ain't you never heard of moving pictures?
Go to the movies, I say, and see the world.
Okay, you win. Go on.
Well, it was just outside of Cedar Hill, Frank, that I got the idea for something to tell the young ball players about.
They climbed a hill, rounded a curve, and went down in the kind of a valley,
and there on the side of the road was a big open field.
It was the Cedar Hill baseball field, Frank. Some young fellows had a farm tractor on the infield,
and they were pulling a big drag. They had that infield smooth as a billiard table.
And out in the outfield there was another farm tractor pulling a mower.
They had the weeds down slick as could be.
You know, Frank, them country kids can learn a thing or two.
In the big cities they got park baseball diamonds, and they're all ready when the kids show up for a ball game.
But those country boys really love baseball.
Here they was Saturday evening when most city kids would be getting ready to go sky-locking
and manicuring their baseball diamond and mowing the outfield so they have a nice smooth field to play their weekly ball games on.
I couldn't help thinking what a grip this here game of baseball has on us, Frank.
Those boys in the small towns really have something, Diz.
Don't most of the big league ball players come from the little towns, the farms, and the mining country?
I guess that's because them country kids ain't afraid to work, Frank.
You see, you can play baseball so much better on a slick field like that.
The bounces are more truer for the infielders, and the outfielders really got a lot of territory to roam in.
And that Cedar Hill business gave me another thought, Frank.
You know, there was a cornfield just beyond the baseball field.
It wasn't crowding the ball field on, but what I mean is it was good fertile land right there close to the big river.
But somebody who owned that land thought enough of kids and the kids' right to play baseball to pass up that much of this corn crop
so them kids could have their baseball diamond and their baseball.
Frank, there's a lot of big cities that could take a lesson from what I've seen at Cedar Hill.
Why don't the cities provide more baseball diamonds for the youngsters, Frank?
You're a good cause, Jerome. More power to that movement for more baseball diamonds for the youngsters.
But you've lapsed into another very serious mood.
How about a quick change of pace, Diz, right now, and an anecdote in the manner of Dizzy Dean the Storyteller?
Okay, Frank, and while we started out about kids, let's go along with that same general idea.
You remember Babe Herman, don't you?
Yes, indeed, and that sounds good. Babe Herman was good copy.
The Babe had traveled around quite a bit, but he was the same old Babe.
He was playing in Cincinnati and the Cardinals was playing the Reds, and before the game,
Babe's two children was outside the clubhouse.
Babe was sure proud of them kids. He always was telling us how bright they was.
So after shaking hands with the children and giving them freely up my autographs, I said to Babe,
Babe, you always been bragging about how smart these kids are.
How about a little demonstration for Pepper Martin and me, right here and now?
Well, the Babe didn't know nothing he'd rather do than show off them kids.
So he said to the younger one, Honey, how many is six times two?
And the youngster spoke real quick and said, Daddy, fourteen.
And the Babe says, Not bad, eh, Dizzy? He's only one off.
Well, Pepper Martin got a big laugh out of that, and he says, Babe,
them really are smart, intelligent children, but that old one seems to be old enough now,
why don't you get him in a sickle, in solipetica?
We all agreed that it would be fine out here, but Babe Herman thinks it's over for a while,
and then he says, No, Pepper, I don't want to spoil either of them kids.
Let them walk to school like I did.
A real colorful character, that Babe Herman.
He sure was, Frank. I heard one story about him that made my eyes pop out.
That was back in the lean days of the Dean family, before I hit the jackpot.
Babe Herman showed up in training camp one spring, and while he was unpacking his trunk,
he found a paycheck from the summer before that had been in the trunk all winter.
Frank, it was hard for old Diz with them lean early days to figure how a man could be so rich
that he'd just throw a paycheck into his trunk and forget all about it, cashing it.
Then you hit the jackpot, Diz, and I guess as you pitched those masterpieces against Carl Hubbell,
you too forgot about those checks occasionally.
Those games were the giants for something, Frank.
This is just a short story, and it's about that old favorite of mine, Pepper Martin.
You know, we did have some great games with the giants,
and I guess one of the toughest hitters I ever faced was the manager of the ball club.
I'm talking about Bill Terry.
I always liked to pitch against Bill, even if he did make it kind of rough for me.
One day I had him two strikes and nothing real quick.
I tried to sneak the next one through there, and Terry hit it right back through the box.
A mollum in it. Brother, he liked to took a leg off old Diz's.
And Pepper Martin was playing third base for us then,
and while I was getting ready to pitch to the next hitter,
Pepper walks over to the mound and he was really a grinning.
He put up his hands so nobody else could hear it, and he says,
Real serious, Jerome, I don't believe you're playing Terry deep enough.
Say that Pepper Martin was really something, Diz,
and here's something else that is really something.
You don't mean Johnson's car in who, do you?
That's just what I mean.
Tell them about it, Frankie boy.
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Now it's mailbag time, dears, and here's a letter from Colonel Harry Taylor of Dublin, Georgia,
who remembers you as a great pitcher who occasionally ran into unusual excitement on the baseball field.
He says that as he remembers it, you had a fistfight once with Al Todd in the Texas League,
and later with the entire New York Giant Ball Club at Sportsman's Park here in St. Louis.
Glad to hear from Colonel Taylor, Frank.
I played an exhibition game in Dublin one time.
They got a real Southern hospitality down there in Georgia.
About them two fights, Frank, I guess I was overmatching both of them.
Sounds good. Let's have the story of an overmatched Dizzy Dean.
Well, that Todd story won't take long.
Al got the idea one day that I was throwing at him,
just because he got a base hit.
I didn't throw at him, Frank. Honest, I didn't.
Or maybe I was trying to move him back from the plate, just a little.
Anyhow, Al got the idea I was throwing at him, and the next time up,
and he charges out to the mound.
I figured I could out-talk him, but he didn't say a word.
I was waiting, and I had a good wise crack to let him have.
But he popped me without a word, and I kept picking myself up, and he kept knocking me down.
Yes, I guess I was overmatched, Frank.
And honest confession is good for the soldier, Rome.
And now that rumpus with the Giants.
I guess Colonel Taylor must be referring to the famous row with the day George Barr called a balk on old ears.
Well, Frank, a lot of funny things happened that afternoon, but I didn't have no fight with nobody.
I came in out fat without swinging a fist and without getting a scratch.
But both teams were on the field swinging, and it looked like a long time to get order restored.
In the center of all the fussing and the feuding,
two catchers, Gus Mancuso and Mickey Owen, had a little harmless wrestling match.
Mickey figured everybody ought to take a man.
He was a catcher, so he chose Mancuso, the Giants' catcher, and said,
Gus, let's wrestle.
Well, when they got everybody quiet, it looked up that Mancuso and Owen was the only ones caught doing anything for sure.
So they was ordered out of the game.
The only man hurt that day was the most peaceful guy on the field, little Don Guthridge.
He didn't hit nobody, but somebody sure hit him.
He came out the scrap with the most beautiful black eye I ever seen.
What a shiner that was.
Frankie Frisch, our dandy little manager, was furious.
When they put out Owen, Frisch said to umph, Barr,
How about bouncing Mel Oht, too?
What far, Barr wanted to know?
For hitting little Guthridge, Frisch told him.
Barr said he hadn't seen nobody hit Guthridge and started to walk away.
But Leo DeRosha tells Barr,
Ain't you gonna put Luke out of the game? What far, says Barr, for hitting Guthridge, says DeRosha.
Just then Barr ran into Jess Haynes, and old Pop says,
George, you aren't going to let Chaoza stay in the game, are you?
And Barr says, Mr. Haynes, you're not gonna tell me that Chaoza hit Guthridge.
He sure did hit him, George, Haynes insisted.
Just look at that eye.
Barr did look at Guthridge's eye, and he said afterward that the way it looked,
Maybe everybody on the giant club had teed off on poor little Don.
Yeah, but Diz, isn't that one of those rare cases where anybody actually got hurt in a baseball, Donnybrook?
I mean, usually it's largely a matter of exchanging words at any given number of paces,
But seldom a blow landed.
That's right, Frank. In the excitement of a ball game, players will pop off and say things they really don't mean.
Sometimes they'll even scrap among themselves on the bench or in the clubhouse,
Especially in a tight-pinnant race, with everybody pulling hard and so,
And the dough hanging on every play.
Like the time we lost a tough ball game in New York,
An outfielder and an infielder on the old Gas House gang got to join at each other when we got into the clubhouse.
But the race was hot and in the stretch, and everybody was pretty well keyed up right then.
They started swinging at each other as soon as they got into the clubhouse.
We all started to break it up, but Manager Frank Ifrish had his own idea.
He says, Stand back, fellas. Give them room. Don't nobody interfere.
So the outfielder and the infielder swung at each other.
They couldn't hit their weight fighting, though, and ball players ain't trained for boxing.
They soon got out of wind, and you could see both was wanting to hear the bell.
Then Ifrish stepped in and asked real fancy, if each one felt now that he had defended his honor satisfactorily,
They both agreed as they had, so Ifrish made them put their arms around each other and then shake hands.
You're both on the same team, see? Frankie told them.
So fight the other fellows from here on. Don't fight amongst yourselves.
Ah, better than average psychologists, that Ifrish.
Now, Mr. Dean, we come to the right and wrong part of the program.
That is, how right and how wrong have you been in your prognostications?
Let's look at that big league picture as it is today. Mr. Dean, the reporter.
Frank, I'm satisfied right now if I can be just half right the way those ball clubs are scrambling around.
But let's forget the top of the pennant races for a while.
I want to say something about a club down into the second division of the American League.
I'm talking about the St. Louis Browns.
And what about the Browns make you select them for your spotlight, Professor Dean?
A couple of young ball players, Frank. Their names is Dick Kokos and Hank Arp.
And they're giving the Browns a big lift. And they're going to help the Browns in more ways than one, Frank.
Elucidate, Diz, elucidate.
It's this way, Frank. When a couple of young fellows get a chance in it, it attracts a lot of attention.
The Browns brought Arp and Kokos up from Toledo. That's a great break for them kids.
And it's good advertising for the Browns. Here's the way it works.
Kids all over the country wanting to get ahead as fast as possible will hear about this.
And they'll say, them Browns are the club that is giving young fellows a chance right now.
And so the young ball players will be looking for some Brownish scout to show up.
And folks, we hope you'll show up again at this same time next week to listen to Dizzy Dean.
He's brought to you by Johnson's Carnu, a wax fortified auto polish that cleans and polishes your car in one easy application.
Rub it on and Carnu cleans your car. Cuts through and carries away road film that water won't touch.
Wipe it off and Carnu polishes your car. Remember to give your car a Sunday shine, rub it on, wipe it off.
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And this is Old Dez. Hope all you folks understand this time next Saturday I'll be pitching a cross again for Johnson's Carnu.
This is Frank Eschen saying goodbye until next Saturday for the makers of Johnson's wax fortified auto polish Carnu.
This program came to you from KSD St. Louis.
This is NBC, the national broadcasting company.
Thank you for watching.