Dizzy Dean “It ain’t braggin’ if you can back it up.” –Dizzy Dean. Dizzy Dean lived up to his famous quote throughout his baseball career. He had a daring character, and never backed down from a challenge. He was known as nonchalant, and boastful man. He did whatever he wanted and did not care about the consequences. Dean was not the most intelligent man, although he was very witty and always had sly remarks. He was an interesting character, and Robert Gregory defines him in great detail in his biography, Diz: The Story of Dizzy Dean and Baseball During the Great Depression. Dizzy Dean was born Jay Hannah Dean in Lucas, Arkansas. His father was a farmer, and his mother died when he was young. Dean was the middle child. He had an
He enlisted in the U.S. Army after convincing them that he was 18. The Army life was good to Dean. He received clothes and food, he got paid, and he got his first pair of shoes. Dean, however, was a terrible soldier at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. The only place he stood excelled was becoming a pitcher for the base's baseball team. It was during his Army years that Dean really learned how to pitch effectively, and it’s where he earned the nickname "Dizzy." A sergeant had called him dizzy after throwing potatoes at garbage cans. The nickname stuck since his fastball also seemed to make batters look dizzy. Dean loved baseball so much that he was playing baseball everyday and pitching for two different teams at one point in the army. One sergeant explained how Dean loved the game, “That’s all he lived for. When I’d make him quit pitching in practice he’d get a catcher’s mitt and warm up one of our other boys and I’d have to take the glove away from him. He never got enough”
Louis Cardinals thanks to Branch Rickey. He spent the year of 1930 in their farm system. He pitched a one run complete game in his Major League debut and received his first win. Despite his win and impressive performance, Dean was sent back to the Minor Leagues due to his reckless behavior. Dean was sent to the Cardinal’s team hotel in Florida in the winter after his Major League debut. Dean did whatever he wanted there and put everything on the “Cardinal’s tab.” Whenever he didn’t have a check to sign Branch Rickey’s name, he would tell people to just charge it to the team. After three weeks, Rickey found out that Dean had accumulated a $2,700 debt all charged to the Cardinals (p.55). Rickey responded by eventually sending him back to the minors for two years. Finally, in 1932, Dean experienced his first full major league season. He had a remarkable rookie season leading the league in strikeouts (191) and innings pitched (286). He ended the season with 20 wins. In 1933, he won 20 games and set a new major league record with 17 strikeouts in one
Babe Ruth is still a very well-known person in history today, even almost one-hundred years later. He did not only change the way people viewed negro baseball leagues, but he also gained a large reputation for his ability to play baseball, obviously due to his amazing abilities. Ruth’s ability to play was almost impossibly good, in fact, he was even titled “athlete of the century” for his ability. With that ability and power that he had once he won, he would become a
of the greatest knuckleball pitchers in the MLB. His story to never give up, no matter what life throws at
As the decade opened up with the year 1950, the Yankees were celebrating an American League Pennant and a World Series victory from the previous year. It was apparent in 1950 that the team had not taken too much time off as the team posted a 98-56 regular season record, winning their second straight Pennant and a trip to the World Series where they would match up against the Philadelphia Phillies. In 1950, the Phillies were known as the Whiz kids because of their youth and amazing talent, but in the series against the Yankees they were swept in 4 games thanks to Joe DiMaggio- a legend in Major League baseball- and Phil Rizzuto- a shortstop who would enjoy one of his most productive seasons as well as the honor of earning American League MVP. Whitey Ford, a rookie pitcher for the Yanks, also enjoyed a stand out career, winning all 9 of his starts and losing only one game in relief. (Baseball History)
But a sports writer named Tris Speaker thought that maybe he should have stayed as a pitcher when he joined the Yankees when he said this, “Ruth made a grave mistake when he gave up pitching. Working once a week, he might have lasted a long time and become a great star. After Babe’s first year with the Yankees, he already looked like he was going to be a once-in-a-lifetime talent. He brought so much power to the plate and so much excitement to the game, it was unreal. In his first year with the Yankees, he had a .376 batting average with a insane 54 homeruns, the most ever in a season by a player. That wasn’t the only year he set the homerun record. The next year he hit 59 homeruns, and then he hit 60 homeruns in 1927. In Nine years with the Yankees so far, Ruth as a .355 batting average and an enormous amount of homeruns with 467. Teammates have loved playing with Ruth, including one teammate Lefty Gomez, as he said this, ”No one hit homeruns the way Babe did. They were something special. They were like homing pigeons. The ball would leave the bat, pause briefly, suddenly gain its bearings then take off for the
Jay-Z was born Shawn Corey Carter on December 4, 1969. He grew up in the infamous Marcy projects in Brooklyn with a sister and a brother. You would think that just growing up on the Marcy projects would be hard enough on a kid, but at the age of twelve, Shawn’s parents got a divorce. Shawn then attended the Brooklyn High school with two of today’s better known rappers, Biggie Smalls and Busta Rhymes.
Flood was fully aware of the social relevance of his rebellion against the baseball establishment. Years later, he explained, "I guess you really have to understand who that person, who that Curt Flood was. I’m a child of the sixties, I’m a man of the sixties. During that period of time this country was coming apart at the seams. We were in Southeast Asia. Good men were dying for America and for the Constitution. In the southern part of the United States we were marching for civil rights and Dr. King had been assassinated, and we lost the Kennedys. And to think that merely because I was a professional baseball player, I could ignore what was going on outside the walls of Busch Stadium was truly hypocrisy and now I found that all of those rights that these great Americans were dying for, I didn’t have in my own profession."
Albert Pujols said, “Baseball was an outlet for him to be able to do that, and he had some special talent to go through what he did and still set an example for others. You cannot replace it.”
After leaving UCLA his senior year, Robinson enlisted in the US Army during World War II. He trained with the segregated U.S. 761st Tank Battalion. Initially refused entry to Officer Candidate School, he fought for it and eventually was accepted, graduating as a first lieutenant. While training at Fort Hood, Texas, Robinson refused to go to the back of a bus. He was court-martialed for insubordination, and therefore never shipped out to Europe with his unit. He received an honorable discharge in 1944, after being acquitted of all charges at the court-martial.
For this rhetorical analysis paper I chose one of my favorite, and most famous, sports speeches of all time, Lou Gehrig’s farewell to baseball address. Lou Gehrig was a famous baseball player in the 1920’s and 30’s. Lou didn’t really need to use a attention getting introduction, he was well known and loved by so many that people piled into Yankee Stadium to watch and listen to him give this speech. Although he didn’t need an attention getter, he began his speech with one of the greatest baseball quotes of all time, “Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.” (Gehrig, 1939) Every single time I hear or read that opening line it sends chills down my spine and stops me for a moment to reflect on everything that is going on in my own life.
Even as a child Derek loved baseball. He and his dad would often throw in the baseball field behind his house almost everyday. Although his dad sounds like a great role model for him, his Grandma Dot and Grandpa Bill were the most important people in his childhood. They were his moms parents. He would go visit them in New Jersey for weeks at a time. His Grandma would tell him stories about the best Yankee players and basically plant dreams in his head. At night he would watch the Yankee’s play with his Grandpa Bill and fall asleep in his lap. As soon as he woke up in the morning(which was ussualy pretty early) he would go into to his Grandma and say “Come on Gram! Lets go throw!”. They went through this routine every morning.
The greatness cannot begin to be quantified in statistics and numbers. Ty Cobb redefined the words hard work and determination by stretching his limited God-given ability to the maximum, and making himself into a baseball legend. Cobb throughout his lifetime insisted that he was "not a super athlete, rather he had a great desire to win." Thus, Ty Cobb’s motivation and determination to excel created a pathway to his success.
should know Babe Ruth is for the most important reason, that being the way he
Jackie (Robinson), we’ve got no army. There’s virtually nobody on our side. No owners, no umpires, very few newspapermen. And I’m afraid that many fans will be hostile. We’ll be in a tough position. We can win only if we can convince the world that I’m doing this because you are a great ballplayer, a fine gentleman. (Quoted in Giants of Baseball, Gutman, Rickey)
Hank Aaron was a famous baseball player who was respectful to his teammates and his fans. His nickname was “Hammerin’ Hank”. At one time he led the league in the most home runs. He was born in a poor family and then grew up to be a great professional baseball player. He became one of the most admired baseball players in Major League history.
Before the Dodger manager scouted Jackie, he had to ask Jackie to endure racism during the game and in his team. And he decided to just ignore the insult. And last, he became the players for the Dodgers. He was the only African American baseball player in Major League. Because he was black, most of the teammates were not supportive. After the spring training, Jackie advances to the Dodgers. Because of the racism, most of the team member signs that refuse to play baseball with Jackie, but Leo Durocher, manager, insist Jackie will play in the main team. But when manager suspended, New manager(Burt Shotton) came. During the game of Philadelphia phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers, Ben Chapman jeered Jackie, caused him to break his bat(because of anger). But with Rickey’s encouragement, he played well during that game. When the game was ended, the action of Chapman created the bad press to the team, causing him to pose with him (for newspaper and magazine). After his teammates Pee Wee Reese, understood the pressure that Jackie’s facing, they had match with Pittsburgh pirates. Rickey hit a homerun against the pitcher(Fritz Ostermueller), who hit him in the head. This Home run boost their team to the world series. However, they lost to New