August 7, 1948 - Dizzy Dean interviews former teammate Frankie Frisch

Dizzy Dean interviews former teammate Frankie Frisch Following his playing career, Dean became a well-known radio and television sportscaster, calling baseball for the Cardinals (1941–1946), Browns (1941–1948), Yankees (1950–1951), and Atlanta Braves (1966–1968) and nationally with Mutual (1952), ABC (1953–1954), and CBS (1955–1965), where he teamed first with Buddy Blattner then with Pee Wee Reese. As a broadcaster, Dean was famous for his wit and his often-colorful butchering of the English language. Much like football star-turned-sportscaster Terry Bradshaw years later, he chose to build on, rather than counter, his image as a not-too-bright country boy, as a way of entertaining fans: "The Good Lord was good to me. He gave me a strong right arm, a good body, and a weak mind." He once saw Browns outfielder Al Zarilla slide into a base, and said, "Zarilla slud into third!" "Slud" instead of "slid" became a frequently-used Dean expression. Thanks to baseball fan Charles Schulz, another Dean expression found its way into a Peanuts strip, as Lucy commented on a batter who swung at a pitch outside the strike zone: "He shouldn't hadn't ought-a swang!" While doing a game on CBS, Dean once said, over the open mic, "I don't know why they're calling this the Game of the Week. There's a much better game, Dodgers and Giants, over on NBC." Every so often, he would sign off by saying, "Don't fail to miss tomorrow's game!" During rain delays, he was famous for off-key renditions of the "Wabash Cannonball". These manglings of the language only endeared Dean to fans, being a precursor of such beloved tongue-tangled ballplayers-turned-broadcasters as Ralph Kiner, Herb Score, and Jerry Coleman. An English teacher once wrote to him, complaining that he shouldn't use the word "ain't" on the air, as it was a bad example to children. On the air, Dean said, "A lot of folks who ain't sayin' 'ain't,' ain't eatin'. So, Teach, you learn 'em English, and I'll learn 'em baseball." Classic Broadcasts are old-time broadcasts that have been put together from various sources. Many are found on the Internet Archives in a raw form. If you wish to take a deeper dive, that includes: Scorecards, Rosters, Newspaper Clippings. All members can jump over to : www.vintagebaseballreflections.com and join the membership platform