Bill Dickey
Image Source: Unknown, but believed to be in the Public Domain
Photo Subject: New York Yankee and Hall of Fame catcher, Bill Dickey posing at Yankee Stadium.
Fun Fact: Bill Dickey was known for his modesty, dignity, and calmness. Although quiet and reserved off the field, he was fiercely competitive once the game started and said, “If you haven’t got that competitive fire, you may stay in the big leagues for a few years, but you’re not going too far. The competitive spirit means the difference between great and mediocre.”
Only once did Dickey display explosive anger on the field. During a close game on July 4, 1932, the Washington Senators outfielder Carl Reynolds came barreling with spikes high into Dickey, who was blocking home plate. Dickey picked himself up off the ground and with one punch broke Reynolds’s jaw. The American League fined him $1,000 (his salary was only $14,000), and he was suspended for one month.
Dickey’s even temperament was much like that of his roommate and closest friend Lou Gehrig. He was the only teammate invited to Gehrig’s wedding in 1933 and was the first on the ball club to learn of Gehrig’s terminal illness.
In 1939 after Lou Gehrig’s illness was made public, Dickey insisted on rooming the entire year with his best friend despite the growing hysteria fueled by ignorant newspaper accounts that claimed Gehrig’s rare disease was contagious. Dickey was also the only active player to play himself in the 1942 film biography of Gehrig, Pride of the Yankees, starring Gary Cooper.
Painting Detail: Printed on 13” x 19” canvas and painted using Schmincke Mussini and Marshall’s oil paints. Finer details, like pinstripes, were made using Prismacolor pencils.
Acknowledgement: Paraphrased from Bill Dickey, Encyclopedia.com