Opening Day Tidbits

Dizzy Dean

Satchel Paige and Dizzy Dean (1937)

Ol' Diz knew how to pitch and how to market wackiness. "The good Lord was good to me. He gave me a strong body, a good right arm, and a weak mind" ~ Dizzy Dean. There is the classic story of the time he was hit in the head by a line drive and he later told reporters, " The doctors x-rayed my head and found nothing."


Casey Stengel

Stengel, pitcher Ralph Terry, and Yogi Berra

The "Old Perfessor" was the perfect manager for a team with the nightclubbing prowess of the New York Yankees. "Being with a woman all night never hurt no professional baseball player. It's staying up all night looking for a woman that does him in" ~ Stengel. In 1915, he bet his then manager, Wilbert Robinson that he couldn't catch a ball tossed from a low flying plane. Casey substituted a grapefruit for the baseball and when it went splat in Wilbert's face the manager thought his skull had cracked open.

Hack Wilson

I never played drunk. Hungover, yes, but never drunk.

There is a story that in 1934 Hack Wilson was playing centerfield for Casey Stengel's Brooklyn Dodgers and he was seriously hungover. Between pitches Hack would close his eyes and hang his head. When Casey came out of the dugout to change pitchers the man on the mound, Walt Beck, angrily heaved the ball into centerfield. The sound of the ball bouncing off the fence roused Hack who frantically chased down the ball and fired it into the infield to prevent a fantasy triple.

Ty Cobb

By far the worst person ever to play baseball. He was a renown racist. There was the time a fan was heckling him and Cobb jumped into the stands to beat the shit out of him. The fan was defenseless because both his hands had been amputated. Cobb murdered a man in Detroit in 1912. As Cobb told the story he was a hero and the police never bothered to investigate. Cobb was also involved in a gambling scandal in 1926 but weaseled out of it.


Clyde Kluttz

By far the most unfortunate name in the history of baseball.