Show WHO W HO have been the best come deans baseball has known knowlin nin in the Is last a t 40 or 50 years this thought came bounding along after reading al merry and interesting te tome known as G I 1 had fun al schacht Is certainly one of the members odthe of the king pin ro row wOne one of the first of these was crazy schmidt an unconscious humorist who p pitched it c hed I 1 for cincinnati several decades back others include atlie athe latham rube ruba waddell tacks par rott ping bodle bodie germany schaefer nick ju altrock sherry j magee oneil omell ol of dizzy dean the cardinals and dizzy dean there thera have been many others but these these are the ones who still remain longer in memory crazy schmidt went out to pitch with a glow glove a baseball and a notebook he carried in hia hip pocket the contents content of this book noted the weakness of every man he be had pitched again sta high one or a low one a curve or a fast one As the batter came to the plate schmidt would take out the notebook containing some names to check on his weakness what have you got written against hans wagners magners Wag ners name ane one of his teammates once asked A base on bal balls a schmidt said germany schaefer was one of the stars in this field he was then playing second base tor for detroit I 1 recall a game years ago where schaefer was playing in cleveland around the third inning it began to rain during the fourth inning it poured tommy connolly was umpiring and germany kept squawking to have the game called connolly refused when the fifth inning opened connolly looked around and found schaefer playing second base with high rubber boots a raincoat a gloucester fis hermans hat and holding a big umbrella over his head connolly charged schaefer with a roar and told him to remove his deep sea makeup make up schaefer refused 1 I 1 have a very bad cold he told Connol connolly lyo which Is now bor dering define on pneumonia if I 1 got get rill rid of f my rubber boots my raincoat and my umbrella I 1 will be in the hospital in less than two hours and I 1 will certainly sue sac you and the league connolly colly called the game schaefer had a keen quick wit and could always draw a laugh waddell had the athletics I 1 goofy by buying a mockingbird 0 owned by the proprietor of a popcorn popcorn aind peanut stand that ha had d a whistle attached all ali the mockingbird could do was wake up the entire floor shortly after daybreak by singing his only song the song of the peanut whistle with an added screech ping bodie and dizzy dean it was the immortal ping bodle bodie with the yankees who bought a parrot and spent weeks teaching said parrot to keep saying over and over ping made good ping made good but after all dizzy dean in many different ways was the top of them outside of schacht dizzy was loaded with pranks as well as pretty homely wit there w was as the time in florida when dean had reported as a rookie from the texas league jimmy wll wil son the veteran catcher began missing his silk shirts finally jimmy caught dean be decked in one of these garments and the idea of a raw rookie wearing his silk shirts was too much jostand to stand he started in to bawl out dizzy when the rookie stopped him cold with this comeback now wait lust just a minute jimmy dizzy said you want the greatest pitcher baseball has ever known to go around a month wearing a single shirt would you jimmy let lim him have the s shirt hirt I 1 was walking with dizzy by a hotel in bradenton Bra denton one day when he said he be had a phone call to mike make he was gone some time he finally came out wearing a wide grin well he said 1 I just called up sam breadon in st louis I 1 told him I 1 had changed my mind abou about signing for any we had a lo 10 long g hot argument ile he threatened to have me thrown out of baseball we lye argued 20 minutes then I 1 finally told sam I 1 had already signed and sent my contract in what was the idea in doing that I 1 asked dizzy grinned 1 I had the charges reversed and it cost sam 13 43 11 there was also alio the time on a blistering day in st louis temperature the crowd melting when suddenly a wisp of smoke came up in front of the cardinal bench there sat dizzy decked out in a heavy overcoat warming his hands in front of a fire he had just built and d I 1 still recall his classic remark after aft e r his arm was about gone gon e when he was warming up tor for the cubs to pitch a world series game against the yankees yanke es how you feeling diz 11 I 1 asked well he be said eald 1 I aint what I 1 used alto to be but who in hell bell isa Is |