Dizzy Dean, a great pitcher for the Cardinals in the glory days, was known for his southern drawl and his poor grammar. Branch Rickey was the opposite and after hearing Branch wax eloquent, the ole Diz said this: “He must think I went to the Massachusetts Constitution of Technology.”
But his language was colorful. “He runs too long in one place,” he observed. “He’s gotta lot of up ‘n’ down, but not much forward.”
And he often fed the sportswriters stories, some of them fiction: “I was helpin’ the writers out,” he said. “Them ain’t lies, them’s scoops.”