Diz : The Story of Dizzy Dean and Baseball During the Great Depression

by Robert Gregory

Dizzy Dean was baseball's greatest star of the 1930s, a hard-throwing pitcher from Arkansas with a fourth-grade education, an easygoing, confident style, and a genial disrespect for authority. Now comes a superb portrait of the man who led the "Gas House Gang" Cardinals to a World Series victory in 1934 and went on to become baseball's first celebrity announcer.

Genres: Sports, Baseball, Biography

402 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Madison Inselmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the luster is lost when reading about Diz's antics as opposed to hearing your grandfather recount his tale. For how mouthy he was, however, his antics and charm and engagement with the fans seems to be what the country, especially the Dust Bowl area of the nation, needed at that time. The author does a pretty good job of painting that perspective though this point seemed almost lost due to the style of writing the author employs. By recounting newspaper box scores, the pace of a daily report nearly rushes past what was probably the most meaningful takeaway from this story: how baseball helped America through the Depression. Grandpa's stories of Dizzy Dean were better but the depth with which is professional baseball was woven into the fabric of America back then should not be undersold. Though truth rarely lives up to legend, the connection to Dizzy feels more authentic after reading this book and longtime baseball fans will find it a worthy read.

[Ken Heard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dizzy Dean was pretty much a pompous butthole when he played for the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs in the mid 1930s. He backed up his boasts with great pitching at times, but then when he failed on the mound, it was always someone else's fault.

He also flip-flopped on quitting and going to his farm in Oklahoma, blaming Branch Rickey for low pay and threatening to holdout each spring.

Robert Gregory presents an unbiased view of Dean in "Diz" and shows how he was the heir-apparent to Babe Ruth. The difference, though, is that everyone loved Ruth. Fans in St. Louis took to booing Dean for his actions. Once, Gregory wrote, Dean, miffed at umpires decision to enforce the quirky balk rule, stopped his motions for so long it took 11 minutes for him to throw three pitches. He also sat on the mound in protest as well.

Dean often referred to himself in third-person as in "Well, ol' Diz says.." Stuff like that had to annoy fans and management.

But Gregory doesn't focus only on the negatives. He adds some great game recounts, especially during the 1934 World Series, and adds some colorful information about Dean, his brother, Paul, and his family. He also added info on Dean's wife, Pat, and how controlling she was with his career and money.

Gregory gives a great feel for the times, adding historical background and clips from newspapers about the games and Dean's antics.

This is a great book for baseball fans and it really does show what baseball was like some 90 years ago.

[Kev Willoughby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easily the most enjoyable and hilarious of any biography I've ever read. I laughed out loud more times that I can count. I'd put Dizzy Dean on my list of Top 10 baseball personalities of all-time, and I wish I'd been old enough to remember his run on the Game of the Week as a broadcaster, if not the glory days of his playing career. He picked up where Babe Ruth left off as the ultimate larger-than-life personality in the game. He'd be an all-time great dinner guest as well.

If he was viewed by some as arrogant during his playing days, it didn't come across that way in these pages, although he certainly ruffled some feathers along the way. Overall, I think Dean would be as happy with this work as he seemed to be with the movie that was made about his life while he was still alive. Some of his antics both on the field, with the in-game banter and the barnstorming tours, and off the field, with his salary disputes and short-lived sit-outs, were not mean-spirited, and because of that, he remains an endearing personality over 40 years after his death.

Born in Arkansas in 1910, he only had a fourth-grade education, but he never allowed that to limit his opportunities to live life to the fullest. He was just the life that the country needed during the prime of his baseball career, which took place during the Great Depression. During his Hall of Fame induction speech, he summed it up by saying, “The good Lord was good to me. He gave me a strong body, a good right arm, and a weak mind.”

[Trae Mitten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Surprising that a player known as "Dizzy" could be revealed as such a complex character. In comparison to modern pitchers, Dizzy Dean is a marvel. Critics often cite Dean's relatively short career when arguing against his greatness, yet the book exposes Dizzy as a pitching workhorse far beyond the capability of either his contemporaries or successors. Gregory provides a revealing look into the amazing career of this Gashouse Gangster.

[Kirk Weikart · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned a lot about Dizzy Dean. However, the book is so well researched that it becomes a tedious over-analyzed read. At times it reads more like a research paper.

Much of the book is focused on Dean's best season, 1934. I would have been more interested in the story of Dizzy Dean as opposed to all of the details.

[Monte Lamb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I laughed on almost every page reading about the colorful life of Dizzy Dean. The complete story of the man is here in this book. It was a colorful time, a colorful team, and a most colorful character. It's a fun book and if you are a baseball fan, it's a great read on the man, his team, and the times.

[Garry · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/18/2017

[Sean Lubin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A spellbinding, meticulously-researched book that largely focuses on Dean's 1934 MVP season.

[carl theaker · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Diz' is indeed an enjoyable and often hilarious read.
I'm not sure how much credit the author should get as
'all' he has to do is write about one of baseball's most
entertaining characters. Diz was one of those folks that
you meet that is just 'out there' with his personality on
his sleeve and whatever is in his head comes out of his mouth.
Combine that with a great pitching talent and you have,
well, as they called him back then, 'the Babe Ruth of pitchers'.

Not forgetting the whole title - '.. Baseball during the
Great Depression', Gregory does a great job of mixing
in the conditions of the era; how little people were making,
if anything, and still wanting to go to the ballpark, but they
still needed a draw, something to make them want to spend
what they had, and Dizzy was always doing or saying something
to keep people interested.

As I live in Central Texas I found the stories of the Dean
family as they got their start in life and baseball playing
in the Texas League of the 1920s & 30s. Hearing of the old
towns that once had teams, and some that still do.

Gregory intertwines the important games and history of the time
so there's not too many ball and strikes, and there are
various rule differences I found interesting such as only a
21 man roster back then and, at least in the Texas League,
you could fight all you wanted.

It is difficult to imagine how a Dizzy Dean personality
would make it with today's 'love to hate you' sports media.
One thing about Dizzy (and his pitching brother Paul), he
may offend you or fight with you, but he was genuinely
friendly and most everyone ended up liking him again after
all was said and done, "How can you stay mad at those fellas?"

[Scott Breslove · Rating 3 out of 5]

Diz was a very interesting book about an era in baseball that I really don't know that much about. Diz was a heck of a character, who I think would be slayed in today's media. He led a very interesting life and if you enjoy baseball and real life characters this is a great book, especially if you don't know much about baseball's early years. This book makes me want to read up more about the Cardinals Gas House Gang years, and maybe one day, when I get through all the books I still have in my queue, I eventually will.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is one of the best baseball biographies I have ever read. Gregory beautifully captures the tenor of the times and renders Dizzy Dean, in all his outlandishness and brashness, as the flawed folk legend he was.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid bio of Diz and Depression Era baseball.

[Kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book on Dizzy Dean and the era of baseball in which he played. I rated it a 3 as I found it a tedious read.

[Vincent · Rating 3 out of 5]

A terrific biography. Well-paced and engaging. Diz was a bit of a prima donna, but he could pitch and sure seemed to love the game.