You wouldn't think a Chicago boy whose father played for the Chicago White Sox organization would be the slightest bit interested in writing a book about the St. Louis Cardinals. But you might say Doug Feldmann is a little bit "Dizzy" over St. Louis' 1934 World Champs.

Feldmann is assistant professor of Curriculum and Instruction at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

His book, Dizzy and the Gas House Gang, chronicles one of the great seasons in baseball lore, bringing to light the role the '34 Cards played in giving the nation a respite from the Great Depression. "The players in that era were not overly concerned with stardom," Feldmann said. "They were just happy to have jobs," he pointed out.

"When the Depression hit most everyone had to take a (pay) cut. The players that played in the 1934 World Series needed that winner 's share of the playoff money. It made for a particularly hard-fought series." Led by Dizzy and Paul Dean, and player-manager Frankie Frisch, the Cardinals defeated the Detroit Tigers in seven games. At the time, the Cardinals were the southernmost and westernmost franchise in the major leagues and, according to Feldmann, their success made baseball less of an "eastern" game.

In researching the book, Feldmann, who does some scouting for the San Diego Padres baseball organization, used old newspaper accounts of the season and trips to the players' hometowns and other places where they lived. He also relied on Mickey Owen, who, even though he did not play for the 1934 team, spent time as a Cardinals players in the late 1930s and was Dizzy Dean's catcher.

Feldmann says there was at least one major difference between the game of the 1930s and today's play. "The players for the '34 Cardinals-and for most teams around the league-were from out-of-the-way small towns," he said. "With little opportunity on the farms that were drying up in the Dust Bowl, young men tried their luck in professional baseball.

"One writer of the era wrote, 'The players are going on the notion that it's better to be a well-fed ballplayer than a hungry bond salesman.'"