Show am 10 af apice C HE breaks in baseball can have two sides just about the same as a plank they can be good and they can be much worse it all 11 II a matter of milk and honey there Is the somewhat melancholy case of my old golf bridge and fishing partner known as dizzy dean diz was as I 1 goofy as a coot in many ways espe claley when it came to lo popping off but he be was a great pitcher and a grand fellow with whom to fish or play golf which is no bad test and he brought am ills R I 1 AO 10 1 more color to the grantland nd game through a rice hice comparatively brief span than anyone since babe ruth thinking of his bis recent somersaults to in the box I 1 turned back to his better days from 1933 through 1936 III a matter master of four major league years ears ole oie diz won ball games an average better than 25 a year through four consecutive seasons that was far away and long ago for ole oie diz the glory that was IT as deans in 1936 he was only 25 years old tut six feet three inches in height and weighed pounds with that free easy motion of his an almost perfect pitching motion dean apparently had at least 10 good years left he miss in addition to blazing speed a sharp breake breaking na curve and a change of pace diz had a cool smart pitching head head and his full share of heart ile he had about everything a great pitcher needs he miss then the tragedy of 1937 came along when he first picked up an injured toe A short while later lacking his full follow through he blew a fuse in his pitching shoulder uncle charlie moran was ump umpiring irin the game that day when diz developed the kink that has been called many names from bursitis on down through the list of ailments and ills bought by chicago ole oie diz won only seven games in 1938 and only six games in 1939 pitching almost exclusively with the old bean his fast ball break the cuticle of a custard pie the wonder is is that he could win any games at all from the cotton fields being naturally lazy diz then began to put on weight and this was no great help he moved from to in two years diz came up the hard way maybe too hard a way he told me once that he and paul and ills his father after picking cotton from sun to sun sunup to sundown had only a can or two of sar dizzy dean dines and crackers for their daily and only meal the odd part is that paul dean collapsed about the same time as diz they ey came up toge together an ins inseparable pable pair and they blew the heights together there was an unusual una tina a I 1 family hookup between these two brothers that carried along through big years and bad years ive been with both when dizzy argued that paul had more stuff than I 1 ever had and paul would come back 1 I never was in dirzys class dizzy never minded being called dizzy but paul a quiet shy retiring fellow never liked to be known as s daffy that was a nickname paul resented bitterly the average fan likes dizzy dean the average fan likes color dizzy gave him a whirl of excitement and tun fun tor for several years ive been asked many hundreds of times whether or not dizzy had anything left how much he had saved will happen I 1 dont know his wife pat dean has been smart enough but dizzy was never any too careful with his money ive seen babe ruth take him tor for a day on the golf ourse course giving dizzy all the handicap ole diz asked for I 1 know oth have taken him tor for much more dizzy has much more confidence in his 1 golf swing than the dean swing ever justified in fact p his golf game depended far more on cool nerve and vast determination than it ever depended on a bad swing which started from a flat footed stance and usually ended in a terrific slice but he could pitch mich chip and putt and he never suit quit or gave up hope d dizzy the four year headliner tow now has a nice home and a small farm outside of dallas unless some ome form of miracle takes place hia big main pitching days seem to be over ver three years is a long time 0 rest an arm that shows no signs of coming back once in a while the kink disappears as it did in the case of lefty grove no one can make me believe that dizzy giving all he has at ev try start for I 1 never saw a competitor who drew a bigger thrill out fw of winning and who was quite as tow low after a defeat |