Dizzy Dean had a heckuva hard fastball...

[kentuck]

And he was not bashful about throwing it high and tight if you got too close to the plate. Press him and he would back you up. Then he would fire a fastball across the plate. Strike three! I kinda like the "Dizzy" Dean analogy... :)

[The Magistrate]

1. He Was Indeed, Sir, One Of The Greats....

Hit pretty good for a pitcher, too....

[ewagner]

2. How appropriate

Dr, Dean throwing 'em "high and tight" and also using the baseball bat for his fund raising on the web.....Dizzy Dean indeed!

[RBHam]

3. Dizzy Dean also was an advocate for busting the color line.

In the late 1930's, after someone asked whether Negroes could play at the Major League level, Dizzy once commented :

"If Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson were on the Cardinals we'd have the pennant wrapped up by July 4th and we could go hunting and fishing until the World Series!"

[misanthrope]

4. Buck O'Neil...

...once said:
"I heard Ruth hit the ball. I'd never heard that sound before, and I was outside the fence but it was the sound of the bat that I had never heard before in my life. And the next time I heard that sound, I'm in Washington, D.C., in the dressing room and I heard that sound of a bat hitting the ball — sounded just like when Ruth hit the ball. I rushed out, got on nothing but a jockstrap, I rushed out — we were playing the Homestead Grays and it was Josh Gibson hitting the ball. And so I heard this sound again.

"Now I didn't hear it anymore. I'm in Kansas City. I'm working for the Cubs at the time, and I was upstairs and I was coming down for the batting practice. And before I could get out there I heard this sound one more time that I had heard only twice in my life. Now, you know who this is? Bo Jackson. Bo Jackson swinging that bat. And now I heard this sound... And it was just a thrill for me. I said, here it is again. I heard it again. I only heard it three times in my life."

[Straight Shooter]

5. OTOH, Tweety's namesake's claim to fame is a big silly puddy-cat. n/t