William "Dizzy" Dismukes (March 15, 1890 – June 30, 1961) was an Americanpitcher and manager in Negro league baseball and during the pre-Negro league years. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama, where his father Isaac Lee Dismukes was a deacon in a Baptist church, and his mother Sallie taught Sunday School.[9] He knew from the time he was a youth that baseball was his first love, and he dropped out of school to follow his dream of becoming a baseball player.[10]
Career
Dismukes was a right-handed submariner,[11] who is considered by many historians to be one of the best pitchers in the Negro leagues.
Among his achievements as a pitcher, he defeated the then-major league champion Pittsburgh Pirates 2–1,[13] in an exhibition game in 1911.[14]
While a player, he periodically wrote about baseball for such black newspapers as the Pittsburgh Courier, beginning in the 1920s.[15]
Among the teams he played for were the Brooklyn (NY) Royal Giants,[16] Indianapolis ABCs and the St. Louis Stars.[17]
During his managing years, Dismukes became known for his wonderful memory during his playing and managing, and became known as a strategist. He is credited with teaching Webster McDonald and Carl Mays the tricks of submarine-style pitching.
He spent a number of years with the Kansas City Monarchs, in such roles as traveling secretary and business manager.[18] Later in his career, after major league baseball was integrated, he was a scout for the Chicago Cubs and then the New York Yankees.[19]
He joined the Yankees as a scout in 1953, having resigned his position as secretary of the Kansas City Monarchs.[20]
He died in 1961, at age 71, at the home of his sister in Campbell, Ohio; the cause of death was hardening of the arteries.[21]
At age 62, Dismukes received votes listing him on the 1952 Pittsburgh Courier player-voted poll of the Negro leagues' best players ever.[22]
Notes
^On December 16, 2020, Major League Baseball declared certain Negro leagues, from the span of 1920–1948, to be "Major League".[1] Dismukes' statistics reflect his time in the Negro leagues from 1920–1927, 1932–1933, and 1937–1938.
